Resilient Societies

How can AI help people, communities and institutions anticipate, respond to and recover from disruption and uncertainty? AI is increasingly being deployed in contexts involving societal resilience, from emergency response and critical infrastructure to cyber security, misinformation and decision-making under uncertainty. However, resilience is not simply a technical property of systems. It depends upon people, communities, organisations, trust and the ability to adapt.

This challenge explores how Citizen-Centred AI can contribute to more resilient communities and societies while ensuring that AI remains trustworthy, accountable and responsive to human values.

Indicative potential partners

• DSTL (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory)
• Cabinet Office
• Northumbria Police
• Trussell Trust
• Environment Agency

Illustrative research directions

• Community and societal resilience
• AI-supported crisis response and emergency management
• Misinformation and societal resilience
• Trust and decision-making under uncertainty
• AI for critical infrastructure and public services
• Human-AI collaboration in safety-critical environments

Indicative reading

• The UK Government Resilience Action Plan: 2026 Implementation Report (July 2026). Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uk-government-resilience-action-plan-2026-implementation-report

• Schäfer, S.K., Supke, M., Kausmann, C., Schaubruch, L.M., Lieb, K. and Cohrdes, C., 2024. A systematic review of individual, social, and societal resilience factors in response to societal challenges and crises. Communications Psychology, 2(1), p.92. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00138-w

• Zolkafli, A., Mansor, N. S., Omar, M., Ahmad, M., Ibrahim, H., & Yasin, A. (2024). AI for smart disaster resilience among communities. In Intelligent systems modeling and simulation III: Artificial intelligent, machine learning, intelligent functions and cyber security (pp. 369-395). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-67317-7_22

• Lee, C. C., Comes, T., Finn, M., Pak, H., Hsu, C. W., & Mostafavi, A. (2026). Roadmap Towards Responsible AI in Crisis Resilience and Management. IEEE Access. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2026.3651368