Designing Culturally Aligned AI Systems For Social Good in Non-Western Contexts

TL;DR

The paper investigates how AI for social good is designed and operated in high-stakes non-Western contexts by analyzing eight deployments across education, healthcare, agriculture, and law. It introduces a LISTED framework (Language, Institution, Safety, Task, End-User Demography, Domain) and three overarching sociotechnical influences (Sociocultural, Institutional, Technological) to explain design choices, adoption, and sustainability. Through 17 interviews and secondary research, the study shows that human labor and domain collaboration are critical, often outweighing purely technological advances, and it offers twelve practical guidelines for culturally aligned AI in non-Western settings. The work advances empirical understanding of context-sensitive AI and provides concrete, implementable guidance for developers and policymakers aiming to deploy equitable, locally grounded AI systems at scale.

Abstract

AI technologies are increasingly deployed in high-stakes domains such as education, healthcare, law, and agriculture to address complex challenges in non-Western contexts. This paper examines eight real-world deployments spanning seven countries and 18 languages, combining 17 interviews with AI developers and domain experts with secondary research. Our findings identify six cross-cutting factors - Language, Institution, Safety, Task, End-User Demography, and Domain - that structured how systems were designed and deployed. These factors were shaped by Sociocultural (diversity, practices), Institutional (resources, policies), and Technological (capabilities, limits) influences. We find that building effective AI systems required extensive collaboration between AI developers and domain experts, with human resources proving more critical to achieving safe and effective outcomes in high-stakes domains than technological expertise alone. Additionally, we present 12 guidelines synthesizing these dynamics for designing AI for social good systems that are culturally grounded, equitable, and responsive to the needs of non-Western contexts.

Figures (1)

• Figure 1: Factors and Influences shaping AI Systems for Social Good in non-Western Contexts