Digital Progress and Trends Report 2025: Strengthening AI Foundations

The Digital Progress and Trends Report (DPTR) 2025, Strengthening AI Foundations, is the second in the Digital Progress and Trends Report series, providing a comprehensive, data-driven snapshot of the global AI landscape.

The report explores how low- and middle-income countries can harness AI to drive inclusive and sustainable development—and avoid being left behind. The report explains what makes AI different from earlier general-purpose technologies and why it matters for development. It introduces the 4Cs, the foundations essential for AI adoption, adaptation, and innovation: connectivity (infrastructure), compute (processing power), context (training data, algorithms, and applications), and competency (digital skills).

The report is a call for strategic action to ensure that AI becomes a force for shared prosperity, rather than a new source of inequality, where we must work together to expand access, close skill gaps, manage risks, and shape a future where the transformative power of AI truly benefits everyone.