The National Lottery Community Fund

05/14/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/14/2026 08:37

£3m to help communities shape the future of AI and confront the 'wisdom gap'

£3m to help communities shape the future of AI and confront the 'wisdom gap'

14 May 2026

  • New programme will track AI's real-world impacts at a local community level across the UK, and fund groundbreaking community-led AI tools

  • The National Lottery Community Fund CEO calls for "parallel path" for the development of AI to benefit communities

  • Pilot funding to support communities experiencing poverty, disadvantage and discrimination across the UK to shape AI development.

The National Lottery Community Fund has warned today that the rapid development of AI risks leaving some of the UK's most marginalised communities behind.

The UK's leading community funder has launched a £3m programme, in partnership with UK Community Foundations and CAST (Centre for the Acceleration of Social Technology) to help communities across the UK shape how artificial intelligence develops and impacts on their lives.

The funding investment, announced at an 'AI For Funders' conference in London led by The National Lottery Community Fund today, will support the development of a new UK-wide 'AI Pulse Network' pilot of 50 community organisations, alongside community-led development of alternative AI tools and models rooted in 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 National Lottery Community Fund and partners are acting in response to concerns about the emerging impacts of the use of AI on communities, including areas such as grading and screening algorithms, diagnostic tools, workplace monitoring, and other AI applications in education, healthcare and more. 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.

Research shows that marginalised communities face the greatest barriers to accessing the benefits of AI. The Charity Digital Skills Report 2025 found that a higher proportion of Black-led charities are avoiding AI in areas where it could cause harm (47% versus 36%), more than half (53%) of LGBTQIA+ led charities said concerns about data privacy and security concerns were a barrier to adopting AI tools; and 65% of neurodivergent led charities are concerned about the implications of AI for data privacy and service quality.

At its 'AI for Funders' conference in London today, The National Lottery Community Fund's CEO, David Knott, warned that while AI is rapidly scaling knowledge and intelligence, society's ability to make sense of it is being left behind. Speaking to over 150 civil society leaders, funders and AI experts from across the UK.

AI is advancing at extraordinary speed, but society's ability to understand, interpret and shape that change is not keeping pace. That is the wisdom gap we now have to confront. 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.

David Knott - CEO, The National Lottery Community Fund

Industry headlines focus on hype and short-term return, but the impacts of AI on communities tend to surface over time and often impact marginalised communities first -  data centre disruption, deepening digital exclusion as services shift to digital by default, and emerging harms such as vulnerable users turning to chatbots in place of qualified mental health support are all playing out in real time. Careful Industries is currently leading a global review into AI safety and, working with partners in India, Kenya and Europe, it's clear that this is not just a UK problem: there is a broader case for a "safety-first" approach that prioritises investment in small, specific AI models that are better for people and better for the planet. It's really welcome to see the National Lottery Community Fund tackle these issues head on and advocate for more equitable approaches to technology development that put communities first.

Rachel Coldicutt OBE - Founder of Careful Industries and one of the speakers at today's conference

At the Charity AI Task Force, we're pleased to see one of our members, The National Lottery Community Fund, leading the way by investing in communities to shape AI, not just use it. Our interim 2026 Charity Digital Skills Report data shows that 88% 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.

Zoe Amar - Co-chair of The Charity AI Task Force

The first grants are expected to be awarded in autumn 2026.

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 National Lottery Community Fund published this content on May 14, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on May 14, 2026 at 14:37 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]