The concept of sustainability is traditionally viewed through the lens of environmental and economic concerns, often centered on resource management, waste reduction, and economic stability. As the world grapples with pressing environmental challenges and the urgent need for sustainability at all levels, development of consciousness (DC) to higher levels becomes an urgent imperative (Bansal et al., 2024). Strategy can no Longer Ignore Planetary Boundaries: A Call for Tackling Strategy’s Ecological Fallacy. Journal of Management Studies.). At the same time, rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) makes it a powerful resource providing the context for innovative sustainable development. DC and AI together raise the expectations as well as the capabilities for a sustainable world. We will apply this model to the evolution of plastics over the decades. Plastics have evolved from a clever innovation one century ago, to its rapid expansion after the world wars as enabler of many other industries. However, more recently it also presents a severe threat through microplastics. We examine how DC and AI together would help pay greater attention toward a beneficial future trajectory of plastics and enable better monitoring and management of its effects. The lessons from plastics may apply to how AI evolves over the next decade. We propose some solutions for the sustainable development and deployment of AI.