Artificial Intelligence: Ushering a new era in the fight for a more sustainable world

In a bustling hospital in Cairo, a doctor battles a backlog of X-rays, knowing every delayed diagnosis could mean life or death. On a parched Anatolian hillside, a Turkish farmer watches his reservoir shrink, each drop more precious as droughts intensify. In rural Nigeria, a mother lights a kerosene lamp, its fumes filling her home while heaps of waste pile up outside. Across the United States, rivers carry invisible toxins, seeping into water supplies and ecosystems. Meanwhile, in the UAE, fragile mangroves retreat under the relentless pressure of rising seas and human activity.

For decades, humanity has faced complex challenges. Today, AI serves as a game-changer, offering innovative tools and solutions that help us address global issues in ways we never thought possible.

No longer the realm of speculative fiction, AI has eased itself into our daily lives. Passing through continents, cultures, and circumstances, it has rapidly become an indispensable tool. It therefore comes as no surprise that the global AI market is projected to exceed $190 billion by 2025.

With its advent, AI has quietly championed sectors essential to human well-being and our planet’s sustainability: food, water, health, energy, and climate action. Its versatility and adaptability have made it a tool like no other, providing individuals and organisations with the real-time ability transform ingenuity into concrete action, with first local, then global, impact.

Such is the case for five unique endeavours, spread across the globe, each leveraging AI to solve issues within their reach, but that the rest of us had traditionally overlooked.

In Egypt, a shortage of radiologists once left patients waiting dangerously long for diagnoses. Unable to ignore the gap, Amr Abodriaa, along with Moaaz Hossam, Mahmound Eldefrawy, and Bassam Khallaf, founded Rology in 2017.

The image shows a person in traditional attire standing in a lush green field. They are holding a yellow container labeled "BIO," likely used for spraying or applying substances to the crops. The background features a dense forest or wooded area.

The solution is simple yet revolutionary: an AI-powered teleradiology platform that connects hospitals to a global network of radiologists, delivering diagnoses within hours. By leveraging the power of artificial intelligence, Rology not only bridges gaps in efficient healthcare access but also ensures faster, more accurate results for 150 hospitals across nine countries, processing more than 700,000 cases each year.

Similarly, on the outskirts of Lagos, lives have been positively altered by D-Olivette, a startup using AI-powered biodigesters to turn waste into clean biogas, fertilisers, and animal feed. Once smoke-filled homes and unused organic waste have been transformed into clean energy and sustainable agriculture, empowering rural communities while reducing emissions.

In Türkiye, farmers face daily battles with water scarcity. Agriculture consumes 70% of the world’s freshwater, yet inefficient irrigation wastes nearly half of it. Enter Elman Teknoloji’s ESYS system: using AI to analyse soil and weather data, and deliver water precisely where it is needed, thereby boosting crop yields and demonstrating how technology can merge sustainability and productivity.

The image shows a lush green field being irrigated with a sprinkler system. The sprinklers are evenly spaced, watering the crops under a partly cloudy sky. Tall trees line the background, and the landscape appears to be flat and expansive.

Meanwhile, in the UAE, the fight to save mangroves has gone airborne. These coastal ecosystems, which store more carbon per hectare than rainforests and act as barriers against rising seas, are shrinking. Distant Imagery, however, is using AI-powered drones to map degraded ecosystems, plant seeds with precision, and monitor growth, proving that AI can scale conservation efforts to meet the urgency of climate change.

In the United States, the challenge is invisible but no less urgent. PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals,” have infiltrated water supplies, endangering human health and ecosystems. Hyera, a tech start-up with AI-controlled technology solutions, tackles this issue by converting agricultural waste into activated carbon. This not only filters PFAS effectively from water bodies, but also sequesters over 90% carbon from agricultural waste, offering communities a cleaner and sustainable future.

The image shows a patient undergoing a CT scan, with a medical professional holding a tablet displaying a dose report. The report includes details such as the scan type, CT dose, and total exam dose. The setting suggests a focus on monitoring and managing radiation exposure during medical imaging.

Each of these stories, however different they may seem, share a common ingenuity in their work, a common denominator in tackling an issue hitting too close to home: recognising the true power of artificial intelligence, and leveraging to bring impactful, scalable, and sustainable results.

It is because of this ingenuity and dedication to positive change that these initiatives have been selected as 2025 finalists of the Zayed Sustainability Prize. Inspired by the visionary legacy of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, each year, the Prize rewards innovative solutions to global challenges across five categories - food, water, health, energy, and climate action. This year, many organisations vying for recognition feature AI-powered innovations, aiming to scale their impact and benefit communities worldwide.

The winners will be announced at the Prize’s Awards Ceremony on 14 January 2025.