The International Journal of Management Education 18 (2020) 100330

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The International Journal of

Management Education
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijme

Artificial intelligence and sustainable development

T
Margaret A. Goralskia,∗, Tay Keong Tanb
a
Quinnipiac University, 275 Mount Carmel Avenue, Hamden, CT, 06518-1908, USA
b
Department of Political Science, Radford University, 5310 College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences Building, Radford, VA, 24142, USA

A R T IC LE I N F O ABS TRA CT

Keywords: Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly opening up a new frontier in the fields of business, corporate
Artificial intelligence practices, and governmental policy. The intelligence of machines and robotics with deep learning
Robotics capabilities have created profound disrupting and enabling impacts on business, governments,
Deep learning and society. They are also influencing the larger trends in global sustainability. As the AI re-
Sustainable development
volution transforms our world, it could herald a utopian future where humanity co-exists har-
Sustainable development goals
Management education
moniously with machines, or portend a dystopian world filled with conflict, poverty and suf-
fering. More immediately, would AI accelerate our progress on the United Nations (UN)
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or bring us further down the path toward greater eco-
nomic uncertainty, environmental collapse, and social upheaval? What are some of the im-
plications for business leadership and the education of future business leaders? This article aims
to address these questions by analyzing the impacts of AI in three case studies. It draws some
preliminary inferences for management education and the business of leading corporations in the
midst of rapid technological and social change. This study combines the perspectives of business
strategy and public policy to analyze the impacts of AI on sustainable development with a specific
focus on the advancement of the SDGs. It also draws some lessons on managerial learning and
leadership development for global sustainability.

1. Introduction

Previously consigned to futuristic societies created in the imagination of science fiction writers and motion picture producers,
artificial intelligence (AI) is now a fact of everyday life in our modern high-tech societies. There are many definitions of AI and each
of those definitions have been revised over time. Presently, most definitions state that AI solves complex cognitive problems asso-
ciated with human intelligence, or that AI helps as many people as possible through smartphones or healthcare, or even that AI
recognizes problems and creates solutions for the benefit of technology, people, and society. However, the core concept of AI has
continuously been to create machines that were capable of thinking like humans (Marr, 2018).
AI is now increasingly ubiquitous in business and industry. It has the potential to revolutionize the way we discover, learn, live,
communicate, and work. It has tremendous potential for the economy and society (National Artificial Intelligence …, 2016). As we
enter the Age of Sustainable Development (Sachs, 2015), in which the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are defining the
development agenda for the nations of the world, AI is also rapidly opening up a new frontier in the fields of business, corporate
practices, and governmental policy. The intelligence of machines and robotics with deep learning capabilities is already solving
cognitive problems commonly associated with human intelligence.
“It took approximately 200,000 years for humankind's intelligence to evolve from natural to artificial, and 10 years to cut the ties

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: Margaret.Goralski@Quinnipiac.edu (M.A. Goralski), ttan2@radford.edu (T.K. Tan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100330
Received 10 January 2019; Received in revised form 17 June 2019; Accepted 21 October 2019
1472-8117/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M.A. Goralski and T.K. Tan The International Journal of Management Education 18 (2020) 100330

with ‘earth’ to move to the ‘cloud’” (Garimella & Fingar, 2018, p. 7). During the creation of AI, humankind has learned a lot of what it
means to be human, how human intellect is structured, and how humans learn and gain expertise. The idea that 10,000 h of de-
liberate and structured practice with the right quality is essential for achieving expert status was first discovered by Anders Ericsson,
Swedish psychologist and researcher on the psychological nature of expertise and human performance and popularized by Canadian
journalist Malcolm Gladwell (Garimella & Fingar, 2018). AI is rapidly moving into this world of expertise step by step, by replacing
humans with higher predictive power, higher efficiency, and better results. However, homo sapiens will not be replaced all at once,
but gradually over time as we become more absorbed in the systems of knowledge and as robotics become an essential part of our
human body and existence (Harari, 2017).
The growth of AI will give intellectual and financial advantages to some cities and countries, while others will be left behind. The
rapid expansion of AI is already outpacing the development and deployment of legal and regulatory frameworks and the mechanisms
that are designed to govern it (Munoz & Naqvi, 2018). Most experts who develop these frameworks and mechanisms think in the
short timeframe of academic research and/or political cycles, where a very long time may be as little as 20 years (Harari, 2017).
With technological advances (such as those in the realms of computer vision, robotics, and speech recognition), scientists,
business people, governmental officials, and policymakers are becoming increasingly concerned that AI will replace human workers,
automate warfare, and supersede the intelligence of humans (Markoff, 2014). According to Stephen Hawking, physicist and cos-
mologist, humans with their slow biological systems could not compete with intelligent machines and could easily be replaced by
them (Goralski & Górniak-Kocikowska, 2017, 2018; Goralski & O'Connor, 2018; Penn, 2017).
Dr. Eric Horvitz, President of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (2007–2009) and Technical Fellow,
and Director of Microsoft Research Labs that include research centers in Washington, Massachusetts, New York, Canada, the United
Kingdom, and India, together with his wife Mary, decided to fund the “One Hundred Year Study of Artificial Intelligence” (Markoff,
2014). Together with Stanford, Harvard, and Carnegie Mellon Universities, the University of British Colombia, and other partner
institutions, this study of AI will investigate whether the veracity of the fears and anxieties about AI and its threat to humans are valid
(Markoff, 2014, para. 4–5). Horvitz remains unconvinced by warnings of our foremost thinkers and opinion leaders that super
intelligent machines are poised to outstrip human control and abilities. He believes that these technologies will have both positive
and negative effects on society (Markoff, 2014).
While people in advanced countries may fear job loss due to AI, in low-income countries people may see AI as offering new
opportunities to break the cycle of poverty (Lohr, 2018). “The growth of AI is rapid, selective, and impromptu …. No one will be able
to escape the ominous rise of AI” (Munoz & Naqvi, 2018, p. 1). The academic community will have an important role to play in
preparing future generations of business leaders and national and international policymakers. AI and its positive and negative im-
pacts must be taught now so that students will be cognizant of the world as it is currently and the world as it will rapidly unfold.

2. The emergence of AI in the Age of Sustainable Development

Jeffrey Sachs, professor of health policy and management at Columbia University, postulated that the world is entering a new Age
of Sustainable Development, an epoch in which the nations of the world must collaborate and contribute to address the most
intractable problems of persistent extreme poverty, social exclusion, economic injustice, poor governance, and environmental de-
gradation (Sachs, 2015). Sachs was also a senior advisor to the UN on the SDGs and the Millennium Development Goals and is
currently the director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN). At the 2002 UN World Summit on Sus-
tainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, he proposed a framework for analyzing sustainable development through the four
pillars of economic development, social development, environmental protection, and good governance. Each of these four compo-
nents are independent and mutually reinforcing pillars, but they are all essential to sustainable development in the world (World
Summit of Sustainable Development [WSSD], 2002, p. 2). Through the UNSDSN, Sachs defined problems on sustainable development
proposed solutions, and provided reams of data on phenomena related to global sustainability. However, AI is such a novel, dynamic
and rapidly evolving phenomenon that its impacts on the work of advancing the SDGs are just emerging and have yet to be ex-
tensively studied.
Much research has been published about the emergence of artificial intelligence from its inception until the current era. Industry
trade magazines and academic journal articles have added to the body of research as innovators in various fields incorporate AI
experimentally into theory, thought processes, and practical solutions to problems. At first, there was an abrupt rise in AI investment,
and then, after narrow returns investments declined, increased, and declined, in a somewhat consistent pattern over AIs history
(Munoz & Naqvi, 2018). AI has been on a roller coaster ride of success and failure.
While some people herald the increase in utilization of AI as a vision of increased economic prosperity, improved leisure and free
time, others such as Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates, caution that increases in AI utilization will exacerbate global
economic inequity and herald an existential crisis for humanity (Sainato, 2015). It could herald a new long wave of 40–60 years in
length (called the Kondratiev Wave), which portends a new cycle of sustained industrial innovation and economic growth. Russian
economist Nikolai Kondratiev first observed this phenomenon of business cycles of booms followed by busts in his 1925 book, The
Major Economic Cycles, and Joseph Schumpeter named these economic cycles Kondratieff waves in his honor (Barnett, 2002). Un-
doubtedly, AI could be a powerful force that can spark decades of economic growth, which is one of the four tenets of sustainable
development (Sachs, 2015).
AI can currently be divided into two types: narrow artificial intelligence (NAI) and artificial general intelligence (AGI). NAI, which
includes all current AI, is considered to be a weaker form of AI. To date, AGI remains theoretical but is rapidly becoming feasible as its
application proliferates. A subset of AGI is human-level machine intelligence (HLMI), which is idealized as being able to perform as

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effectively as an extremely gifted human in all intellectual tasks (Artificial Intelligence, 2018). This is the specific genre of AI that
causes fear in some people, since it would not just take jobs in the short term but could also supplant humankind as the apex species
on the planet in the long-term.
AGI is closer to becoming reality as bio-humanoid roboticists, such as the life-like robots created by David Hanson, Ben Goertzel,
and other pioneers in the field become more commonplace and acceptable (Goralski & Górniak-Kocikowska, 2017, 2018; Goralski &
O'Connor, 2018). These trail-blazing inventors seek to create a database that would collect the knowledge of all bio-humanoid robots
into one receptacle, OpenCog, that could be instantaneously distributed to all bio-humanoid robots. AI knowledge would be cu-
mulative and evenly distributed (Goralski & O'Connor, 2018).
While AGI could cause widespread displacement of jobs through improved efficiencies in production and distribution, NAI is
already causing gross displacement of jobs and disruptions in established professions. One example highlighted in an article titled
Artificial Intelligence states that “Goldman Sachs employed six hundred traders in 2000, the corporation was able to reduce their
number of human traders to two by 2017 because of advances in narrow AI” (2018, para. 11). These are powerful forces that would
directly impact SDG #9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG #8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and more in-
directly, SDG #10 (Reduced Inequalities) and SDG #1 (No Poverty), particularly in the developing countries where there is less social
protection against unemployment and laborers’ rights.
On the other end of the spectrum, people believe that the results of heightened utilization of AI could solve the problems of
income inequality, which is related to SDG #10 (Reduced Inequalities). However, since the results of superior production and
efficiency gains have not been distributed equally in the past, it is unrealistic to believe that those who develop and own the next
generation of AI technology, would distribute the rewards widely instead of narrowly by increasing their own wealth. This could
create a concentration of wealth and increase the gap between the haves and have-nots.
This unequal distribution of wealth, knowledge, and power would not just exist on an individual level but would also be con-
centrated in specific countries and cities creating even deeper worldwide disparity, once again impeding the achievement of SDG #10
(Reduced Inequalities). Work that has previously been exclusive to human experience can already be performed better and faster by
AI, which not only creates a calamitous situation for employment, but also added stress for the human psyche (Goralski & Górniak-
Kocikowska, 2017, 2018). A majority of workers could be displaced when AGI exceeds the capabilities of the average human in
various economic roles. In January 2015, Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and dozens of artificial intelligence experts published an
open letter calling for research on the societal impacts and unintended consequences of AI. The letter acknowledged the potential
benefits of AI, but also raised the specter of automated weapons and uncontrollable machines escalating armed conflicts that may
lead to human extinction (Sainato, 2015). Recently, Stanford University launched an institute for Human-Centered Artificial In-
telligence (HAI) that will bring together experts from various fields like economics, philosophy, ethics, psychology et al. (Marconi,
2019).

3. Artificial intelligence and the SDGs

Artificial intelligence has been incorporated in various forms into the SDGs first through experimentation, and later in sustainable
management and leadership programs. This paper will discuss three of those projects:
AI and the Water Crisis: Smart water management systems powered by AI replicate the way that humans learn in an ever-
changing environment that maximizes decisions and investments in the water management infrastructure (Hill, 2018).
AI and Agriculture: PlantVillage, a research and development project based at Penn State University brings the power of AI to
small farmers of 2 ha or less that produce most of the developing world's food (Lohr, 2018).
AI, Sanitation and Health: Peter Ma's innovative use of AI to evaluate the purity of water systems will allow municipalities and
eventually individuals to inexpensively identify waterborne disease infested waters and map bacteria and eventually viruses in those
waters (AI-Driven Test …, 2018; Lant, 2018).

4. AI and the Water Crisis: the case of smart water management

“Water is essential for life. For thousands of years, human settlement and advancement has been dictated by a reliable supply of
clean, safe water. In the face of a fickle supply system, people flourished, moved or perished” (Hill, 2018, para. 1). Water and
sanitation are at the center of the SDG resource triad. It touches on, and impacts, women's empowerment and gender equality, food
and agriculture, energy and climate, and infrastructure & technology.
Water is widely used in agriculture, industry, and also in the domestic household. Each day, cities and communities around the
world work on millions of tons of raw water, processed water and waste water to service the needs of human civilization. Water must
be adequately treated and transported in accordance to hygiene and health standards to ensure its quality and properties will meet
the specifications demanded by the end users. In recent years, there is movement to leverage on the emerging technologies to offer
sustainable solutions for treatment, transportation and the recycling and reuse of water.
While the world's supply of water is more than adequate to meet all current needs and demands, the treatment and distribution
facilities and networks are not (Cosgrove & Loucks, 2015, pp. 2823–2839). There are still many communities in the developing world
in which the water resources are inadequate to meet household, economic development and environmental needs. In such regions,
the shortage of potable, clean water to meet human drinking water and sanitation needs continues to affect human health and
productivity and hence economic development, as well as the protection of the environment and natural ecosystems. Hence, several
of the SDGs are aimed at addressing these issues relating to the use of water for consumption and production, and the sustenance of

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life in the water ecosystems (SDG #6 on Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG #12 on Responsible Consumption and Production, and SDG
#14 on Life under Water).
The choices that communities, cities, and nations make regarding the management of water resources have great implications on
our future welfare. Some have compromised their future security or sustainability by disrupting and overusing freshwater supplies,
overdrawn groundwater aquifers; polluted natural water bodies such as estuaries, coasts and oceans; and degraded ecosystems that
sustain the food chain (Cosgrove & Loucks, 2015, pp. 2823–2839). Humanity must leverage the advances in technology and AI
innovation to enable it to satisfy short-term economic demand and at the same time safeguard the long-term environmental sus-
tainability of natural ecosystems and bioregions.
While water sources and water supplies may not have changed substantially over time, the management tools available in the
field have evolved. Water utilities are assisted by smart water management that is powered by AI (Hill, 2018; O'Connor, 2017).
“Progress on new artificial intelligence (AI) technology could make monitoring at water treatment plants cheaper and easier and help
safeguard public health” (Artificial intelligence technology …, 2018, para. 1). While the first AI-driven software utilized expert
systems or rule-based algorithms to decide on outputs or to analyze alternatives in a field of choices, the newer AI tools replicate the
way that humans learn in its just-in-time applications.
In the learning phase, the input data is correlated to known outputs to allow the algorithms to learn over time. Then, in the
“operational phase,” the program begins to make sense of patterns as new data is introduced. Because of AIs ability to constantly
adapt and process large amounts of data in real-time, it is an ideal tool for managing water resources in an ever-changing en-
vironment, and the business of water, allowing water utility managers to maximize current revenue and effectively plan for the years
ahead (Hill, 2018, para. 3).
By utilizing these new software-as-service platforms, new dynamic strategic financial operations can be created and managed for
water utilities to significantly improve productivity and cost-savings. The system also incorporates low-cost sensors and commu-
nication networks to track real-time water loss and manage distribution networks. “The power of AI unleashes the imagination of our
water professionals” (Hill, 2018, para. 5). This is an interesting turn of phrase since at this time in the water utility industry, the
ability of AI to combine growth projections with future water availability and infrastructure condition assessment allows managers to
maximize decisions and investment in the infrastructure.
However, as with all narrow AI, the system is only as good at the data that is being supplied to it and the managerial under-
standing of the output that is being produced by the data. And, as with all AI, as AI asks the questions and supplies the responses,
humans are deprived of some of the insight that they previously had access to from finding solutions to the problems themselves. For
now, human interpretation is still needed, but as AI becomes more astute and the responses and solutions become more prevalent,
then human interaction will become less important and the tipping point will become more obvious. Ultimately, the goal of AI is not
to be perfect, AI simply needs to do better than humans (Kaufman, 2018). Despite the transition that may present some difficulty and
risks, the use of AI in water management has the potential to increase productivity, improve water conservation of this precious
resource and thereby advance the achievement of a number of Global Goals, including SDG #3 on Good Health and Well-Being, SDG
#6 on Water and Sanitation, and SDG #14 on Life below Water.

5. AI and agriculture: the case of PlantVillage

PlantVillage is a unique project founded by Penn State University entomologist David Hughes in conjunction with digital epi-
demiologist Marcel Salathé of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. The project attempts to
diagnose plant diseases by using an app on a common inexpensive smart phone by a farmer in the field. At the same time, the team is
building a database that can recognize and identify plant diseases by using a mobile phone image. “Behind the app … is a database of
150,000 photographs of diseased plants – a number the team intends to grow to three million” (Brewster, 2016, para. 2). With AI
being a technology of low-cost prediction and discovery, vast amounts of data can be utilized to identify patterns and make pre-
dictions (Lohr, 2018). This is the premise on which PlantVillage was founded.
There are approximately 550 million small farms of 2 ha or less that produce most of the developing world's food with little or no
access to knowledge on increasing productivity (Agrawal, Gans, & Goldfarb, 2018; PlantVillage, n.d.). PlantVillage, in conjunction
with international organizations, extension programs (on which PlantVillage is based), and engineers at Google, is tailoring AI
research for farmers based in Tanzania, who utilize inexpensive smartphones for diagnoses of diseases in crops. Plant disease and
local pests can reduce a farmer's cassava crop by 40 percent or more, even though cassava is considered to be a hardy crop that
survives drought and even barren soil. According to Hughes, cassava feeds approximately 600 million people. In Nigeria alone,
cassava is a two-billion-dollar crop (PlantVillage, n.d.).
The database began with what the team identified as the ten most important diseases that affect the 30 crops that they deem to be
most significant. Although the algorithm could identify both the plant and disease in high-quality images at a rate of close to 99
percent, lower quality photos taken in the field were accurate at a much lower rate – closer to 32 percent (Brewster, 2016). Currently,
the database of photos is free of charge to anyone worldwide who would like to use it. Salathé states that the team would be open to
having another team or company develop a better algorithm (Brewster, 2016). For now, the idea is to distribute the information in
the best way possible to as many people as possible. Salathé and Hughes decided to create PlantVillage after realizing that the
information about plants that was most necessary to the end user was not reaching the people who were seeking the advice. They also
discovered that although there were images of infected plants elsewhere, the images were divided into various databases which
would make it difficult to access by a farmer who discovered a disease in the field.
The database created by Salathé and Hughes contains the largest available set of images of diseased plants in a public domain.

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With the addition of Zhiwen Liu, Penn State electrical engineer to the team, a tiny spectrometer has been added to the phones
currently used in the field in Tanzania, which can look into the structure of the leaf to find a disease before it is visible to the naked
eye (Digging Deeper: Plant Village, 2018). The chemical signature of a virus can be detected much earlier allowing the global
community to learn about diseases before they become problematic. This finding itself can create global food security, hence con-
tributing to the Global Goals of ending endemic hunger (SDG 2) and reducing the spread of crop diseases that have spread due to
climate change (SDG 13).
Amanda Gevens, plant pathology researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is not involved in PlantVillage, states a
concern that “similar symptoms among multiple plant diseases could lead to misdiagnoses, which could lead to human, economic,
and environmental impacts of great consequence. She recommends using trained observation and testing in combination with the
app” (Brewster, 2016, para. 8). Gevens believes that the PlantVillage app might work for a home gardener but thinks that a more
thorough system needs to be in place to confirm a disease based on more than just photo symptoms for commercial farmers who make
their living on the land.
However, for a farmer in Tanzania, who utilizes the services of a simple AI assistant by the name of Nuru (Swahili for “light”), by
waving a phone over a plant leaf, he/she can receive a software diagnoses of the disease or pest and suggestions for low-technology
treatments (Agrawal et al., 2018). For farmers in rural villages, once the app has been downloaded, it no longer requires wireless
access to cellular data or remote computing power, which is a huge advantage. Hughes stated, “In low-income countries that lack
human capital in fields like agricultural science, there is an opportunity to use AI to help break the cycle of poverty” (Lohr, 2018,
para. 17). This new application of AI that uses locally-appropriate and low-cost cell phone technology has the potential to increase
productivity of farm systems, improve agricultural output, and enhance food production. It provides a form of development aid that
helps to bridge the digital divide between the rich and poor nations, diffuse innovative technological solutions in agriculture at a time
when the fast-growing world population portends food shortages in many developing countries with a huge population base, par-
ticularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Hence, it has the potential to advance the achievement of a number of SDGs, including
SDG #2 on Zero Hunger, SDG #9 on Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, and SDG #10 on Reduced Inequalities.

6. AI, Sanitation and Health: the case of clean water

We have the ability to provide clean water for every man, woman and child on the Earth. What has been lacking is the collective
will to accomplish this. What are we waiting for? This is the commitment we need to make to the world, now.
Jean-Michel Cousteau (n.d.)
Obtaining clean water in a world where billions of people are affected by waterborne disease is a critical problem for many of the
world's population. It is a perennial challenge that is difficult to control since it needs financial backing and time to learn how to best
use a new clean water system (Lant, 2018). Peter Ma, Intel software innovator and developer, participates in ‘hackathons’ and has
won awards in many of them. A hackathon is any event, typically lasting over several days, in which a large number of people meet to
engage in collaborative computer programming to solve problems.
Ma's specific interest utilizes technology to improve human lives. He began working on the Clean Water AI project in December of
2017 for the World Virtual GovHack contest. One of the challenges of this particular contest was Clean Water and Food Scarcity. The
total prize money offered was $450,000. Ma received first place and was “presented with USD 200,000 by His Highness Mansoor of
Dubai at the awards ceremony in February 2018” (AI-Driven …, 2018, para. 7). Ma stated: “I think I do well in most hackathons
because I focus mostly on how technologies can better people's lives – rather than just what technologies can do” (AI-Driven …, 2018,
para. 8).
The beauty of the Clean Water AI test system is that it can perform a real-time analysis and identify contaminants without an
internet link. The testing is self-controlled and consists of simple and inexpensive components that can be bought off-the-shelf: a
digital microscope, an inexpensive computer that runs the Ubuntu operating system, and an Intel Movidius Neural Compute Stick that
activates the machine learning and AI in real time (AI-Driven …, 2018). The test in its entirety can be constructed for under US $500,
which makes it within the reach of many organizations that could not afford an expensive traditional system.
Acknowledging that clean water problems exist everywhere – even in the U.S., Ma wanted to put his expertise in AI to use. He and
his team wanted specifically to build a system that uses AI to detect water contamination. The clean water system detects the shape of
molecules under the microscope. Each convolutional neural network has a specific shape, color, density, and edge that identifies
bacteria in the water. The team limited their initial points of identification to Escherichia coli (E. coli) and the bacterium that causes
cholera in their proof of concept (Lant, 2018). However, because different types of bacteria have distinctive shapes and character-
istics, identification can be extended to other types of bacterium.
In the near future, Ma and his team want to distinguish between good microbes and harmful bacteria and extend their research
into viruses that are ten to 100 times smaller than bacteria (AI-Driven …, 2018; Lant, 2018). Ma's AI testing system can detect
harmful bacteria and flag the contamination on a map in real time and is easy to use, hence requiring minimal training. He envisions
the system first being used by municipalities implementing monitoring devices in water sources, then developing specialized geo-
graphic versions and fitting the devices into water pipes, and finally producing a consumer version so that people worldwide can
monitor the water flowing into their own households.
The implications of Ma's innovation for significant improvements in the safety and efficiency of water and sanitation systems and
practices around the world are profound. Clean Water AI can have far-reaching benefits for communities and cities around the world,
especially those that are able to make the adjustments and initial investments to take advantage of this low-cost innovation. Perhaps

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the greater hurdles involve incentivizing and enhancing partnerships between governments, local officials, and corporate water
sources in order to adopt and manage this new and transformative technology. It has the potential to advance the achievement of a
number of Global Goals, especially SDG #3 on Good Health and Well-Being, SDG #6 on Water and Sanitation, and SDG #11 on
Sustainable Cities and Communities.

7. Implications for management education

While AI can have powerful applications for advancing the various Global Goals, what are the implications for management
education? Tomorrow's managers and business leaders need to be prepared to understand, and intelligently embrace the opportu-
nities and challenges presented by the new waves of technologies as effective vehicles of growth. There are already very significant
disparities among countries in their readiness for the AI revolution, and hence their capacity to capture the potential benefits.
Students and future business leaders and policymakers must be educated on the costs and benefits of individual, micro-level ap-
plications, but also the larger macro-level issues within the hi-tech AI infrastructure. Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) education will become ever more important in many parts of the world, otherwise a huge and increasing digital
divide between nations will be exacerbated (Galperin, 2010; Ogunsola & Okusaga, 2006; Schwab, 2018).
As the three case studies in this paper reveal, great benefits can be reaped from the introduction of AI applications. The decision-
making capabilities of researchers and students in this new world, based on AI technologies, is changing the way that higher edu-
cation can study a problem, implement and then evaluate a solution. If we reflect back on the example of PlantVillage, to test their
hypothesis of disease diagnosis based on automated image recognition and whether it would be feasible to make this knowledge
available on a worldwide scale, the researchers built a neural network. Students worked with researchers on this phase of the project
giving students, as well as researchers, hands-on knowledge of how deep learning – machine learning – takes place. Then, using this
deep-learning approach, images of diseased and healthy plants are fed into the network and are ‘taught’ how to recognize patterns in
the data. The network can learn, store, compare, and recommend at a much faster rate than humans, even a team of humans
worldwide could find a solution in the same timeframe. Students learn to utilize this information to better humanity and solve some
of the problems identified in the SDGs, or they can try to thwart this new evolution of knowledge, but it is almost impossible to thwart
innovation. This new model of remote data collection allows smartphone assisted crop-disease diagnosis at the level of an individual
farmer in a remote region of the world where he would otherwise not have access to this type of assistance. Without the technological
capability supplied by a smartphone, this type of research would not be possible. Education is a combination of experiential learning
based on input from farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, which is implemented and studied by students and researchers in the United
States and Switzerland. Information is fed into a neural network to create a deep learning experience for all involved in the project,
which can also then be evaluated and revised if necessary. PlantVillage is an open source project, so others can add to this knowledge
base and expand the already existing base of knowledge to additional students, researchers, and farmers. The research itself becomes
a learning opportunity, which is constantly being modified and evolving into better educational opportunities. It will have a large
impact on agriculture, but also on education – how we teach, how students learn, and how knowledge can be shared worldwide for
the benefit of all. This knowledge exchange is vastly different than the silos that have existed in higher education in the past.
As highlighted in the case of smart water management, education must train students to work together in teams with artificial
intelligence and the new tools that are available in various industries. Smart water management is powered by AI. It is the re-
sponsibility of academics to teach students to work with AI and to understand the role that AI plays in managerial decision-making
now and in their future, then students will have this experience when they enter the workplace. Professors must also teach students
how to accurately input data into these AI decision-making neural networks as the output is only as accurate as the input of that data.
And, finally, students must be taught about deep learning since many of the future opportunities available to students will be input of
deep knowledge into managerial decision-making AI.
In the case of Peter Ma, we highlight the fact that in order for students to be successful in their future, they must take advantage of
the opportunities that are presented to them, even if that opportunity is through a hackathon, or collaborative computer pro-
gramming, to solve world problems. One take-away from this case for education is that like Ma, students should think not about the
money available from these competitions or opportunities. Students should think about the people that their new innovative product
or service can help. Education must teach students to question, to confront problems – even big problems worldwide, and to think
critically about solutions to those problems.
Students currently are some of the most brilliant minds in the universe. They are our future. We, as educators, need to stimulate
their thinking in order for them to find solutions. We are no longer able to give students ‘the answers’ to navigate this ubiquitously
evolving new world. We, like explorers of the past, can only lead the way and guide students to find their own path.
New technologies and AI present risks and raise scenarios where there are “winners and losers”. For instance, workers engaged in
repetitive, non-digital tasks will be displaced or face stagnant or declining incomes. Inequality among different types of workers could
be aggravated due to shifts in demand for different skillsets. Students, as well as future business managers and leaders, will need to
have the attitude and skills to confront the adaptive challenges that come from introduction and adoption of AI, especially when the
risks are hard to foretell, and success will only come after a period of experimentation and difficult adjustment. If handled well, AI
could lead to a virtuous cycle of higher productivity, income growth, and more socially inclusive and environmentally responsible
practices. When dealt with badly, even the best intended AI applications can result in unintended consequences and a backlash
against the new technology (Kaneshige & Hong, 2018).
Each of these three cases, PlantVillage, Smart Water Management, and Clean Water AI, require human decisions and some effort
to adopt the AI applications, including adapting existing practices and familiar routines to a new way of doing things. All of the

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applications have the potential to create a major substitute for existing work - replacing jobs, shifting demand for skills, and the
resulting losses to important stakeholders who rely on the current status quo as their only source of income. In another instance, AI,
such as those that rely on big data, machine learning, and cloud computing, are available to stakeholders in developing countries only
when there are partners or sponsors in the developed world with extensive infrastructure, digital platforms, and advanced tech-
nologies. These create dependency relationships that make entrepreneurs in the developing world rely on benefactors and partners in
the advanced industrialized countries for the leap-frogging technologies that they have adopted. One could point to PlantVillage and
Clear Water AI as two of those dependency inducing relationships, however, each of these projects also bring vast improvements to
the lives of people worldwide.
The AI revolution does not affect all people equally (Goralski & Górniak-Kocikowska, 2014). In the midst of a huge and growing
digital divide between the technologically advanced countries and technologically lagging economies, the simple transfer of in-
novative applications alone may benefit some enterprises at the micro-level but may obscure the endemic problem in the bigger
picture. Developing countries need systematic assistance and sustained development aid to strengthen their education systems,
business enterprises and governance to be able to leapfrog into the green technologies and new energy future promised by AI.
Companies need to work with governments and civil society to realize the benefits of technological adoption. These are long-term
processes that go beyond the piece-meal technological transfers from rich to poor countries. These entrenched global problems are
what the Global Goals are ultimately geared to solving through the promotion of Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure in SDG #9,
Sustainable Cities and Communities in SDG #11 and Partnerships for the Goals in SDG #17.
As we can deduce from the three case studies, there is growth potential and large efficiency gains that are connected to AI. The
productivity boosting applications can have a greater impact than existing general-purpose technologies. This potential for economic
growth and financial gains will grow exponentially for those who embrace AI and have the means to do so. An emerging new “AI
divide” that would dwarf the current digital divide cannot be ruled out. Like the other digital technologies, there can be strong
“winner-takes-all” competitive dynamics in AI adoption by corporations and countries. AI may also create issues like privacy and
security concerns, and these can have profound implications for global sustainable development, particularly in terms of SDG #10
(Reduced Inequalities) and SDG #12 (Responsible Consumption and Productions). Management education that helps students and
future business leaders to understand and embrace this new world of AI intervention into their lives will be key to their individual
success as well as their nation's future growth trajectory.

8. Conclusion

AI presents a wide array of applications that can serve as game-changers for the pursuit of sustainable development, which will
involve multiple actors from different countries, cultures and sectors. Through the UN Global Compact, businesses around the world
have been called to play a role in achieving the SDGs. As we can see in the three case studies highlighted above, AI can be a powerful
enabler of the global effort to promote economic development and at the same time sustainably address the impact of our production
and consumption on our societies, governance systems, and the environment. The advances made by the innovators, activists, and
global champions of development using AI-enabled applications put them at the frontier of the sustainable development work. Their
innovations have enhanced efficiency of industries and sectors, helped to conserve precious, non-renewable resources, diffuse
knowledge and expertise, bridge the global gaps in resources and technology, and helped to forge effective multi-sector partnerships
(governments, private sector, civil society, and citizens) that contribute to global sustainability.
The pursuit of the Global Goals and the implementation of the ambitious vision for a sustainable future embodied in the SDGs are
up against powerful and entrenched forces. They range from apathy, inertia, and the ignorance of people and the lack of resources
and political will of governments, to the pursuit of short-term profit by corporations and the short-sighted focus of narrow national
interests by the nation-states to the neglect of the global common good. The fight for global sustainability and the future of humanity
on the planet will require a commitment from a range of public and private sector organizations, national governments and civil
society, and all the resources they can muster. But they would also do well to leverage on a whole new set of capabilities and
technologies made available by artificial intelligence.
The advent of SDGs constitutes a very significant business opportunity for the nascent AI industry. AI can generate data for more
intelligent targeting of intervention (as in the case of PlantVillage), reduce waste and losses in production and consumption (such as
in Smart Water Management), create new applications that will transform entire industries and professions, and provide the ne-
cessary improvements in connectivity and cost reductions (Clean Water AI) that brings the benefits of the rapid pace of technological
development to many people worldwide.
These SDG-advancing innovations and initiatives, however, may have to be adopted and institutionalized at a cost and bear some
potential risks. AI is a double-edged sword. It can come with multifaceted pitfalls and complex problems that must be rigorously
studied and managed to contain its negative and unintended consequences. Its life-affirming and sustainability-promoting applica-
tions may also be used for evil, in activities that will exacerbate the worst impacts of global warming, pollution, unbridled con-
sumption, and irresponsible production methods to feed the culture of perpetual growth endemic to the capitalist global economic
order of today. As we see in the three cases above, even some of the most straight-forward and low-cost innovations would need
incentives and partnerships between governments, corporations, communities, workers, employers, and academia to adopt, manage
and sustain these transformative applications.
Education is already changing due to AI. Students are not utilizing libraries to find information when they have that capability at
their fingertips through Google, Amazon, etc. Even young children interact with AI through educational software like Leapfrog, use of
smartphones, and reactive products like Google's Alexis and Amazon's Siri. Many children in the western world learn to read and

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M.A. Goralski and T.K. Tan The International Journal of Management Education 18 (2020) 100330

solve simple math problems prior to beginning kindergarten. So, for students, use of AI in the classroom is not something unexpected
but rather something that is embraced as an integral part of the learning process.
In the near future, AI will play a very serious role in educational processes and can be used to transform the entire structure of
formal and information education. Changes in this direction have already begun with educational information and exercises that
place AI in the role of the teacher on the Internet. There are more and more attempts to use AI in the teaching process. Even
differences in language are no longer a barrier since one can easily access translations by utilizing Google, Microsoft, et al.
AI also plays an ever-increasing role in the scientific assistance that students use as either a helper or as a teaching partner. It
cannot be ruled out that in the future a human teacher could be replaced by an AI teacher. Akihiro Teramachi, President and CEO of
the Japanese firm THK Co. Ltd. claims that the problem with education today is that “the global education system is still based on the
assumption that people are indispensable …. It is essential to be able to adapt to changes in society and the environment, and that we
must develop an education that supports that” (Teramachi, 2018, para. 7). C. G. P Gray (2014) in the You Tube video “Humans Need
Not Apply” points out that AI does not have to be perfect, it only has to be equal to or better than humans. Given the degree to which
children are already interacting with AI, and the ease with which they do so, it is not difficult to conclude that it will not be
‘unnatural’ for them to assimilate the idea of AI in teaching programs.
AI, when wisely harnessed for sustainability-inducing projects and applications, will present massive and geographically wide-
ranging business opportunities, enable more effective and efficient public policy for sustainability, and more specifically improve
access, connectivity and efficiency in sectors ranging from healthcare, sanitation, and education, to farming and transportation. To be
ready for this AI-powered future, the academic community has an important role to play in preparing the future generations of
business leaders and national and international policymakers in addressing the opportunities and the challenges presented by AI and
the imperative to advance the Global Goals. Without astute management education, individuals, corporations, and governments may
falter and fail in their strife for economic growth with sustainability.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100330.

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