UNITED NATIONS - Human development progress is experiencing an unprecedented slowdown, making the smallest increase since 1990, according to a new report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Tuesday.

"Instead of a sustained recovery following the period of exceptional crises of 2020-2021, progress has been unexpectedly weak," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at a daily briefing, citing the 2025 Human Development Report "A matter of choice: people and possibilities in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)."

Projections for 2024 reveal stalled progress on the Human Development Index (HDI) in all regions across the world. If the sluggish progress becomes "the new normal," the world will become less secure, more divided and more vulnerable to economic and ecological shocks, said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.

The report analyses development progress across a range of indicators, including achievements in health, education, and income levels.

It shows that inequality between low HDI and very high HDI countries has continued to widen for the fourth year in a row. Development challenges for countries with the lowest HDI scores are becoming especially severe, driven by increasing trade tensions, a worsening debt crisis and the rise of jobless industrialization.

The report contains the results of a new survey that showed people are realistic yet hopeful about the change AI can bring. Six in ten expect AI to positively impact their employment, creating opportunities in jobs that may not even exist today.

The report advocates for a human-centered approach to AI, and outlines three critical areas for action: building an economy where people collaborate with AI rather than compete against it; embedding human agency across the full AI lifecycle, from design to deployment; and modernizing education and health systems to meet 21st-century demands.