Essay Example on AI and Big Corps Collaborate to Achieve Sustainability Goals

Introduction

Big corporations are collaborating with innovative green new enterprises to assist one another in attaining their sustainability objectives (Kongoli, 2016). Companies are utilizing technology to continue innovating strategies that are essential for ensuring business continuity and also developing ways of optimizing the available resources to meet the global demand for goods and services. In this paper, we shall review the literature on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the implementation of corporate sustainability strategy focusing on the role of new technologies in innovation, artificial intelligence, and the current state of AI in corporate sustainability (Kazi & Faisal, 2020).

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In 1943, William McCulloch, tech scientists developed an artificial neuron together with Walter Pitts a logician. Since then there has been a tremendous understanding and development of models that are capable to predict, analyze, and comprehend events (Kongoli, 2016). Artificial intelligence has become a part of our everyday life and it is continuing to shape a wide range of sectors of the economy (Kazi & Faisal, 2020). The launch of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 challenges governments, international community and companies to collaborate in ensuring process without neglecting the social, environmental and governmental matters.

Adopting approaches for sustainable development would imply that companies would shift their business strategies as well as the way of doing business with special consideration on society, environment and governance (Matos, 2020). Achievement of long-term social and environmental sustainability meant that governments had to adopt sustainable business models. According to Matos (2020), one approach for many businesses has been the application of artificial intelligence to drive the business and corporate agenda to meet their sustainability targets.

AI is becoming highly ubiquitous in industry and business and has proven to have the ability to revolutionize our thinking, learning, the way we live, work and communicate. It has proven to have great potential in the economy and society (Constantinescu & Frone, 2014). With the continuous implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, AI is opening new frontiers in the fields of corporate practices, business, and governmental policies at a rapid rate. Machine intelligence and robotics with deep learning capabilities are already solving complex cognitive problems that are commonly associated with human intelligence.

It took us over 200 millenniums to evolve our intelligence from natural to artificial and only ten years to expand our knowledge from the earth and into deep space. The process of AI creation allows humans to learn about themselves, the structure of their intellect, and the process oflearning and gaining expertise in a given field (Kazi & Faisal, 2020). AI is quickly moving into the world of expertise and it is slowly replacing humans, because of their higher predictive power, higher efficiency, and better results (Kongoli, 2016). AI intelligence may not replace our species at once but gradually, we shall become more absorbed into the knowledge systems and robotics would become an essential part of our existence.

AI intelligence will provide financial and intellectual advantages to some countries and cities, but unfortunately, others would be left behind. The rapid AI expansion is already outpacing development as well as the deployment of the legal and regulatory frameworks as well as the mechanics that are designed to govern them (Constantinescu & Frone, 2014). Many people have seen AI as a threat as it may create job loss especially in advanced countries, but in developing nations, to break poverty cycles. AI growth is rapid, impromptu and selective and no one may be able to escape its ominous rise. The academic communities play a significant role in preparing future generations as well as policy makers for its impact in the future, as it is highly unpredictable as discussed by Goralskiand Tan, (2020).

The Role of New Technologies in Sustainable Innovation

Technological innovation is driven by rules that guide companies on how to utilize the available technology to meet economic demands as well as social needs. Researches that illustrate changes in technological regimes that are based on social and historical studies emphasize the role of innovative technologies in transforming the paths of economic development and the technical parameters (Constantinescu & Frone, 2014). The connections have raised conditions in which technological innovation can promote and facilitate sustainable development.

Technological innovation constitutes itself in a privileged response to economic, social, and environmental challenges, and it has become a key factor in the new modes of production, which are compatible with sustainable development. The research, therefore, plays a crucial role in boosting policymakers to promote development based on the requirements of sustainable development according to Constantinescu and Frone (2014).

Two innovational dimensions are focused on when developing technologies for sustainable development. One is incremental innovation and the other is radical innovation. The former focuses on improves to products and production techniques to upgrade product quality, productivity as well as diversity without disturbing it Constantinescu and Frone (2014). The latter implies the interruptions of the known products by replacing their original modes of production and marketing. According to a review by Constantinescu and Frone (2014), sustainable innovation can be achieved by taking both routes. A combination of both dimensions results in an innovation matrix that promotes innovation based on technological features, which explain the relationship between technologies as applied in sustainable economic development as well as innovation.

The concept of eco-innovation is crucial to sustainability, as it combines the concepts of economic efficiency with technologies that save energy and resources to ensure efficient growth while benefiting the communities. Technological innovation according to Constantinescu and Frone (2014), allows companies to utilize efficient processes, and utilize resources while reducing environmental impacts through waste minimization and controlling adverse effects. Eco-innovation, on the other hand, enrolls such technological processes in a development model to drive behavioral change.

New technologies incorporate the use of big data to either solve complex problems and it has a wide application in innovation. They have been used to create develop and measure as well as monitoring the effectiveness of development programs and progress towards sustainability. Simple models such as telephone/mobile activity as well as airtime credit purchases have shown to estimate poverty at a multidimensional level with great accuracy according to review by Kongoli (2016). Recent studies have also validated the potential application of satellite imagery as well as machine learning to estimate household consumption together with assets using data that is publicly available (Economic & Social Council, 2019).

It is still under investigation on whether big data will continue to derive accurate indicators for research and pilot studies (Economic & Social Council, 2019). Big data, internet, drones, remote sensing as well as artificial intelligence have shown to be useful in simulating information that is required for catalyzing precision farming, the use of harmful chemicals among other data that contribute to environmental pollution. These data, according to a report by the Economic and Social Council (2019), are crucial for developing strategies that can be applied in improving the sustainability of natural resources.

Automation is one of the technological innovations that have been widely applied in many industries across the globe. While examining automation in a big picture Kongoli (2016), identifies one of the principles of automation as increasing output with fewer resources. Human behavior is replaced with machine application thus increasing productivity and the quality of products beyond human capability, and it also creates more space, time, and energy for a human being to deal with the upcoming complex challenges, and develop innovative ways to deal with them with advanced technologies.

The automation of established development and the achievement of free resources to develop new technologies have been successful in the attainment of sustainability. Kongoli (2016) also acknowledges that economic growth is driven is achieved through the industrial revolution and new technologies enable the creation of products with the ultimate goal of fostering performance, however, it outbalances as the environment was degraded and society suffered. The scientific role in technological development in innovation has shown to be diagnostic and remedial, and its application has significantly improved production and sustainability.

According to Lee et al. (2019), companies are changing their innovation strategies, fostering economic, social, and environmental value creation, thus enhancing system transformation that is more sustainable by adopting new models for business. The concept of business model innovation has been debated on how it can preserve the market position of a company. The current literature has focused mainly on the external antecedents that pressure companies to engage in the innovation of its business models (Lee et al., 2019).

The pressure could arise from disruptions as a result of technology, and research argues that the company environment has a huge impact on such business models. A case study research by Tongur and Engwall (2014), investigating the technological shifts on business models reveals the dilemma the existing technology poses on businesses developing a business model. The study illustrates that technological shifts are difficult to master and theory suggests that managing technological shifts may not require service innovation or technology to create a viable model; however, it is a compound of both.

Bocken et al. (2019) acknowledge that sustainable business models are crucial in orienting the market and value creation. Shared value creation mainly focuses on the interconnection between the societal challenges and economic progress through the re-conception of products and markets and redefining value chain productivity as well as enabling cluster developments locally. The social aspects place innovation as a key tool for solving urgent challenges.

Conclusion

According to Bocken et al. (2019), the selected technological approach should be able to emphasize the application of responsible innovation that anticipates the outcomes as well as the negative impacts. Operations that are developed through innovation should transform processes to more eco-efficient procedures. Optimization of operations aims to change systems of production and integrate new process-oriented tools and knowledge. The...