The National Lottery Community Fund has launched a £3m programme to monitor how AI is affecting local communities and to support voluntary organisations in shaping the technology’s development.
The NLCF is working with UK Community Foundations and the Centre for the Acceleration of Social Technology for the programme, which will support the development of a new UK-wide “AI Pulse Network” pilot.
The pilot will comprise 50 community organisations and funding will support community-led development of AI tools and models focused on local needs and lived experience.
“Projects under the pilot could include, for example, a local charity that supports people with benefit claims, funded to spot when decisions made by an algorithm are going wrong, and to share those warning signs with the wider network of 50 community organisations so that early action can be taken,” the NLCF said.
The programme is a response to concerns about the emerging impact of AI use on communities in areas such as diagnostic tools, workplace monitoring and applications in education and healthcare.
“There is a lack of real-time, localised evidence from communities about the realities of these impacts and the funding announced today will help to bridge that gap,” the NLCF said.
David Knott, chief executive of the National Lottery Community Fund, said AI was advancing at an “extraordinary speed” but society’s ability to understand, interpret and shape that change was not keeping pace.
“That is the wisdom gap we now have to confront,” Knott said.
“Today’s funding announcement is about helping communities see change earlier, make sense of it together, and shape a parallel path in which AI is guided not only by technical possibility, but by social wisdom.
“If communities are to help society learn and adapt in this moment, they cannot sit at the edge of these systems – they have to help shape them.”
Zoe Amar, co-chair of the Charity AI Task Force, said: “Our interim 2026 Charity Digital Skills Report data shows that 88 per cent of charities are now using AI day to day, so the need for a joined-up, equitable approach has never been more urgent.
“We want to see more funders across the sector following this lead.”
The first grants are expected to be awarded in the autumn and more details will be made available on the UK Community Foundations’ website as the funding application opening dates, and the places the pilot projects will operate in, are confirmed, the NLCF said.