Artificial intelligence (AI) has broken into a dizzying gallop. While AI feats grab headlines, they privilege technology in a make-believe vacuum, obscuring what really matters: people’s choices.

The choices that people have and can realize, within ever expanding freedoms, are essential to human development, whose goal is for people to live lives they value and have reason to value. A world with AI is flush with choices the exercise of which is both a matter of human development and a means to advance it.

The report reveals real and substantial development gains during the past decade. Since 2015, the world has made notable strides in expanding access to education, improving maternal and child health, and bridging the digital divide. Effective prevention efforts have significantly reduced the burdens of infectious diseases such as HIV and malaria. Access to electricity has continued to grow, and renewable energy is now the fastest-rising source of power worldwide.

Yet progress has been fragile and unequal. Millions still face extreme poverty, hunger, inadequate housing, and a lack of basic services. Women, people with disabilities, and marginalized communities continue to face systemic disadvantages. Escalating conflicts, climate chaos, rising inequalities, and soaring debt servicing costs are holding back further advancements.