The National Lottery Community Fund has raised concerns that the rapid development of artificial intelligence risks leaving some of the UK’s most marginalised communities behind. In response, it has launched a £3 million programme in partnership with UK Community Foundations and CAST to ensure communities can shape how AI develops and impacts their lives.
The funding will support the creation of a UK-wide ‘AI Pulse Network’ pilot involving 50 community organisations. These groups will work on community-led development of alternative AI tools and models rooted in local needs and lived experience. For example, a local charity could be funded to identify when benefit claim algorithms go wrong and share those insights across the network to enable early corrective action.
The initiative comes amid growing concerns about the impacts of AI in areas such as education, healthcare, workplace monitoring, and public services. There is currently a lack of real-time, localised evidence about these impacts, and the programme aims to bridge that gap. Research shows marginalised communities face the greatest barriers to accessing AI benefits, with many charities expressing concerns about data privacy, security, and service quality.
At the ‘AI for Funders’ conference in London, National Lottery Community Fund CEO David Knott warned of a “wisdom gap,” where society’s ability to understand and shape AI is lagging behind its rapid technical development. He stressed that communities must be active participants in shaping AI systems rather than being left at the margins.
Speakers at the event, including Rachel Coldicutt OBE of Careful Industries, highlighted that AI’s impacts on communities often surface gradually, with risks such as digital exclusion, reliance on chatbots for mental health support, and disruption from data centres already evident. Coldicutt welcomed the fund’s focus on equitable approaches to technology development that prioritize community needs.
The Charity AI Task Force also praised the initiative, noting that 88% of charities now use AI daily and stressing the urgency of a joined-up, equitable approach. The programme is seen as a significant step toward ensuring that AI development is guided not only by technical possibility but also by social wisdom and community experience.
