AI Reduces Environmental Footprint Across Sectors

An analysis explains that AI's rapid growth has sharply increased electricity and water use but also enables efficiency gains across agriculture, data centers, energy, buildings and aviation. Examples include precision irrigation cutting farm water use up to 30% in Chile, data centers using 176 TWh in 2023 (183 TWh in 2024) with AI-driven cooling and scheduling, and Copenhagen district heating reducing energy 15–25%. These shifts lower emissions and operational costs.