Sep 26, 2026J/K move · Enter open · S save
Abderaouf Bahi, Amel Ourici, Ibtissem Gasmi
Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Laboratory (LIMA), Faculty of Science and Technology, Chadli Bendjedid University, P.O. Box 73, El Tarf 36000, Algeria · Mathematical Modeling and Numerical Simulation Laboratory (LAM2SIN), Faculty of Technology, Badji Mokhtar University, P.O. Box 12, Annaba 23000, Algeria
The proliferation of generative and agentic artificial intelligence (AI) systems has introduced computational demands whose environmental consequences are substantial yet underexamined. This paper examines the environmental footprint of modern AI systems across energy consumption, carbon emissions, water usage, and electronic waste over the full lifecycle of large language models, multimodal foundation models, and agentic workflows, from hardware fabrication and training through fine-tuning and inference to end-of-life disposal. This work provides a conceptual analysis, utilizing order-of-magnitude estimations based on published data, without conducting original physical measurements. We contribute a lifecycle taxonomy that crosses lifecycle phases with five impact dimensions and emission scopes; a Sustainability Assessment Framework for AI Systems (SAFIA) comprising nine indicators; a comparative analysis of traditional, generative, and agentic AI; seven open challenges; policy recommendations for regulators, cloud providers, hardware manufacturers, and AI developers; and a research roadmap to 2035. The analysis indicates that inference can rival or exceed training energy over a deployment lifetime, that agentic workflows can multiply the energy of equivalent single-pass inference by one to several orders of magnitude depending on the number of model and tool calls, that indirect water use and embodied carbon are systematically underreported, and that measurement tools, disclosure practices, and regulation have not kept pace with agentic deployment. These findings call for agent-aware energy measurement, lifecycle-based carbon and water accounting, and mandatory disclosure for large-scale AI training and deployment.