How is Technology Expanding Economic Opportunities?

Introduction

HP Inc. recently unveiled a new study with Oxford Economics revealing enthusiasm among global leaders to use technology, including AI, to advance key impact goals.

Key Findings

The study of business executives and government officials in 10 countries found 3 out of 4 leaders believe technology is key to expanding economic opportunity (76%) and that AI will help drive progress towards sustainability and social impact goals (76%).

Further, business leaders are either already using AI or plan to in the next 1-2 years for goals such as increasing access to digital education (90%), workforce development (89%), and workforce diversity (86%).

“At HP, we see immense promise for AI to accelerate our own Sustainable Impact,” said Ernest Nicolas, HP Chief Supply Chain Officer.

Accelerating Digital Equity

About one-third of the global population remains offline, costing the world billions of dollars in lost GDP each year. The digital divide has been growing since the advent of technology, and AI could exacerbate these disparities.

“Everyone deserves an opportunity to access the tools needed to thrive in the digital economy,” said Alex Tan, Managing Director of HP Malaysia.

In its latest Sustainable Impact report released today, HP announced it has accelerated digital equity for more than 45 million people since 2021, bringing the organization nearly a third of the way to its goal of reaching 150 million people by 2030.

Local Initiatives

Malaysia has been a key contributor to HP’s overall progress through targeted local initiatives. In 2023, HP:

Supported digital equity solutions developed by ten organizations in Malaysia, South Africa and Mexico with the Digital Equity Accelerator, reaching 6.4 million people in 2023.
Supported 68,380 priority groups in collaboration with the National Cancer Society of Malaysia (NCSM) by providing comprehensive cancer education, care, and support services.
Hosted 12 workshops with Junior Achievement (JA) Malaysia to educate 1,428 students on the basics of starting and running a small business.
Conducted a series of Job Shadow workshops with Junior Achievement (JA) Malaysia for underrepresented schools, benefiting over 520 secondary school students.
Partnered with Penang Science Cluster and hosted the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), involving 250 students from across Malaysia.

Building Skills Amid the Rise of AI

Both business and government officials report lack of skills as a top barrier to meeting key organizational goals, only economic volatility ranked higher.

Skills-building is a core piece of HP’s digital equity approach. As a result, HP is expanding its goal to enrol 2.75 million users in the free skills-building program HP LIFE. The program from the HP Foundation has already enrolled and enabled more than 1.2 million users to access economic opportunities or start businesses.

New Initiatives

HP is undertaking new initiatives to expand responsible access and use of AI, the top reported investment area of businesses today:

Expand on our free Digital Business Skills HP LIFE course by releasing a new course on AI skills later this year.
Kick off the HP AI in Social Impact Award, in collaboration with MIT Solve.
Debut commercial and consumer Next-Gen AI PCs to market this month.

HP aspires to be the most sustainable and just technology company. HP is committed to continually examining its progress and evaluating further actions to achieve a more equitable and sustainable future.

For more information on the study and HP’s Sustainable Impact Report, please find it here: link.

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