Global Implications of AI-Driven Business Models

The preceding chapters of this Part have examined, respectively, the conditions under which AI adoption spreads across national economies and the mechanisms through which artificial intelligence reshapes international business strategies. This concluding chapter of Part IV situates these analyses within a broader frame, addressing the systemic implications of AI-driven business models for global competition, the international division of labor, sustainability agendas, and the governance of a world economy increasingly organized around algorithmic intelligence. The argument advanced here is that AI-driven business models do not merely alter the strategies of individual firms or the competitive dynamics of specific industries; they reconfigure the structural parameters of the global economy in ways that raise questions of distributive justice, institutional adequacy, and long-term sustainability that exceed the analytical scope of conventional international business theory. The chapter proceeds through four analytical moves. It first examines how AI-driven business models alter the architecture of global competition, arguing that the concentration dynamics documented in domestic markets are replicated and amplified at the international level. It then addresses the implications of AI for global value chain governance, extending the analysis of Chap. 11 to examine how AI reshapes the terms of participation for firms and economies at different positions in international production networks. Third, it examines the relationship between AI-driven business models and sustainability, focusing on the tensions and complementarities between algorithmic value creation and the objectives codified in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Finally, it proposes a framework for understanding inclusive AI-driven development as both an ethical imperative and a strategic opportunity.