Abstract: The booming development of artificial intelligence has opened up new opportunities for enterprises to improve their ESG performance and achieve sustainable development goals. However, the existing researches pay insufficient attention to the internal coordination degree of ESG, which to some extent restricts the effectiveness of artificial intelligence in promoting sustainable development of enterprises. Taking A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2022 as research samples, this paper constructs a coordinated development model based on the system theory to comprehensively evaluate the high-quality ESG performance of enterprises from the two dimensions of“quantity expansion”and “quality improvement”. Then it empirically tests the impact and mechanism of AI application on the high-quality ESG performance of enterprises. The study reveals that the application of AI technology will significantly improve the high-quality ESG performance of enterprises, and this conclusion maintains its robustness following a range of tests, including altering the measurement approaches of indicators, controlling the fixed effects, and addressing the endogenous issues. The mechanism test shows that alleviating financing constraints and improving the quality of internal control are two major paths through which AI exerts its influence. The heterogeneity analysis shows that in enterprises with more academic executives, in high-tech industries and located in the regions with strong environmental regulations, the promoting effect of AI on the high-quality ESG performance of enterprises is more significant. Therefore, policymakers should strengthen the publicity of enterprise ESG coordination and development, formulate targeted policies, guide enterprises to apply AI technology reasonably, so as to help enterprises achieve sustainable development.

Key words: high-quality ESG performance, artificial intelligence, coordination development degree, financing constraints, internal control