The National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF), in partnership with UK Community Foundations (UKCF) and Centre for the Acceleration of Social Technology (CAST), has this week announced a new £3 million funding programme to help communities across the UK shape how artificial intelligence (AI) develops and impacts on their lives.

The funding investment was announced at an 'AI For Funders' conference in London led by NLCF on 14 May.

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

Further details about the funding programme will be provided on the UK Community Foundations' website once the opening and closing dates and locations where the pilot projects will operate are confirmed.

Commenting at the conference, NLCF CEO David Knotts said:

"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."

The press releases have been published on the NLCF website, and the UKCF website.