AI’s ‘opportunity divide’ could deepen global inequality, UN official warns

Doha, Qatar – Artificial intelligence (AI) risks widening the gap between rich and poor countries, potentially deepening existing social and economic inequalities, a senior United Nations official has warned.

Developing countries face significant barriers to benefitting from the AI revolution, Tomas Lamanauskas, the deputy secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency focused on information and communication technologies, told Al Jazeera.

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“There is a risk … I think the AI divide is really the big concern because it’s really not just about the digital divide,” Lamanauskas said on the sidelines of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Forum in Doha, Qatar on Sunday.

“AI has the huge potential of powering health, education, public services, industries, agriculture, trade. So a great divide could really mean an opportunity divide, and really could deepen the socioeconomic divide,” he said.

“So that’s really the worrying part.”

Lamanauskas said the disparities are already evident in digital infrastructure, citing the examples of Africa and Latin America, which together account for just 3.3 percent of global data centre capacity.

“So you clearly see still a rather big infrastructure divide,” he said, adding that 2.2 billion people worldwide remain without internet access.

In a December 2025 report, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) cautioned that AI could trigger a new era of inequality between nations, reversing decades of progress in narrowing economic disparities between nations.

The UNDP warned that countries with unreliable power, limited connectivity, and a lack of technological skills risk missing out on the economic gains of AI.