From innovation to implementation: a global scoping review of artificial intelligence applications, governance, and challenges in humanitarian contexts

Background

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being explored as a tool for supporting humanitarian action through hazards and crisis prediction, real time monitoring of evolving crisis conditions and humanitarian needs, resource allocation, and decision-making. However, evidence on how AI is implemented, evaluated, and governed across humanitarian contexts remains fragmented. In this scoping review, we mapped the global evidence on the application of AI in humanitarian settings, including its distribution across the emergency management cycle, deployment maturity, and evaluation. We also identified any governance considerations, as well as enabling factors for and challenges to its implementation, with particular attention to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC), and Qatar.