Concept and methodology

Rationale

Digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing how management decisions are made, how services are organised and how citizens interact with the state and business. They make work more efficient, allow services to scale and make forecasting possible, yet a number of unresolved problems keep digital solutions from fully serving sustainable development and humanitarian security. Digital tools are often built for a single task without shared standards, so systems fit together poorly, duplicate one another and are hard to maintain. AI applications that succeed at narrow tasks are difficult to transfer to settings where social and ethical factors matter, such as post-war reconstruction or work with vulnerable communities. And the opacity of AI outputs, together with risks to personal data, undermines public trust.

A comparison of smart city models around the world shows that they focus mainly on technology and sustainability and do not always take the humanitarian dimension into account. Barcelona, Vienna and Amsterdam have advanced digital infrastructure, open data and an environmental focus, but they have developed in stable societies, and their approaches are not designed for recovery after conflict. Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo use AI effectively in transport, healthcare and urban management, but pay less attention to citizen participation and public dialogue. Ukraine, by contrast, has to rebuild infrastructure, modernise its economy, reintegrate people into society and ensure humanitarian security all at once, so it needs a model of its own.

War and post-war reconstruction make the topic especially pressing. AI can help to run cities, rebuild infrastructure, use resources sparingly, detect threats, protect the digital space and keep education, healthcare and other services within people’s reach, while 5G networks and intelligent city management systems are speeding up digital transformation. At the same time, AI affects people and digital security in many ways, so the research combines philosophical, technical, economic and social perspectives.

Aim and objectives

The goal of the project is to create and implement an innovative model of synergy between artificial intelligence and digital humanism, aimed at ensuring humanitarian security, supporting sustainable development and forming new value orientations in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.

Objectives

1. Find out how artificial intelligence and the ideas of digital humanism are used in Ukraine and worldwide today, and where they can be combined for the sake of humanitarian security.
2. Build a conceptual model that brings AI and digital humanism together, is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and responds to the challenges of post-war reconstruction.
3. Combine artificial intelligence algorithms with humanistic principles of management decision-making.
4. Introduce mechanisms that make AI-based decisions transparent, ethical and explainable, so that society trusts digital change more.
5. Take the socio-cultural context into account, especially where affected communities are recovering and an inclusive digital environment is being built.
6. Define criteria for assessing how the synergy of AI and digital humanism affects humanitarian security and sustainable development.
7. Prepare practical recommendations on extending the model to public administration, the economy and the civic sector.

Project stages

• 2026. Theoretical and methodological grounding of the synergy between artificial intelligence and digital humanism and of its effect on humanitarian security: an analysis of current concepts of digital humanism and the philosophy of AI, the methodological principles of the synergy, and a conceptual model of humanitarian security in the age of AI.
• 2027. A conceptual framework and humanitarian security indicators, algorithms and digital tools for sustainable development: a model of cooperation between AI systems and the principles of digital humanism, an ethical and legal framework for human-centric AI in reconstruction, community participation in designing digital solutions, indicators for assessing humanitarian risks and the results of recovery, and learning materials.
• 2028. Pilot implementations in partner organisations: testing the model on real cases of post-war reconstruction, analysing its impact on social, educational and economic processes, and sharing the results.

Theoretical framework

The project brings together two fields of humanities scholarship that it treats as complementary: the philosophy of artificial intelligence and digital humanism. The researchers examine current understandings of digital humanism and posthumanism; anthropocentric, transhumanist, posthumanist and eco-humanist approaches in the philosophy of AI; and the work of leading thinkers, including L. Floridi and N. Bostrom, to see where the humanistic and technological discourses meet. They also trace how the idea of humanism has changed in the digital age.

The project develops a synergetic approach to studying how AI affects people and society. It looks for principles that reconcile technology-centred and humanistic views and sets out the values and ethical principles on which the development of AI should rest: human dignity, human rights and social justice. The key categories of this synergy are “intellectual interaction”, “cognitive symbiosis” and “ethical and technological responsibility”. Humanitarian security is considered in its intellectual, ethical, cultural and value dimensions.

The research draws on international and Ukrainian documents on digital transformation and the development of AI, including the Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism (2019), the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015), the European Commission’s Shaping Europe’s Digital Future (2020) and the Concept of Artificial Intelligence Development in Ukraine (2020).

Methodology and methods

The methodology combines concepts of artificial intelligence, digital humanism and sustainable development. Its main principles are modularity, adaptability, transparent decisions and attention to the socio-cultural context. The approach is systemic and interdisciplinary, bringing philosophy together with sociology, information technology and ethics. Because AI develops amid uncertainty and instability, it is studied with non-linear and Agile methodologies, which account for complexity, self-organisation and unpredictable interconnections. Phenomenology and critical realism are also used to analyse how people and technology interact.

The methods include systematic philosophical and comparative historical analysis; content analysis of recent research publications; analytical and systems modelling, to identify levels of integration between AI and human values and to build a structure of humanitarian security; normative and gap analysis; a Delphi panel to reach expert consensus; and surveys and expert interviews. The research also draws on open statistical data from Ukrainian and international sources.

Ethics is part of the methodology. The researchers assess the possible negative effects of AI, such as bias, discrimination and breaches of privacy, and involve stakeholders. Communities are to take part in designing digital solutions throughout their life cycle (participatory design), and the model is adapted to local conditions through expert assessment and local socio-cultural parameters. Its effectiveness will be measured with a set of technical, social, ethical and environmental indicators and tested on real cases of post-war reconstruction. Collected data is checked both for quality and for compliance with ethical standards and personal data protection requirements.

Expected results

The project is expected to produce methods, theories and hypotheses, methodological documents and analytical materials.

Theoretical results: a view of digital humanism integrated with AI technologies that makes it possible to model scenarios of sustainable development for societies after conflict; a description of the mechanisms through which the interplay of AI and humanitarian practice strengthens humanitarian security and social resilience; hypotheses on how digital technologies change the value orientations of individuals and society; and a conceptual model of humanitarian security in the age of AI.

Methodological and practical results: new ways of studying social processes with analytical AI models and digital modelling of social scenarios; algorithms that combine socio-cultural and technological data to analyse and forecast risks to humanitarian security and sustainable development; criteria for assessing the model’s impact; and methodological recommendations and learning materials for educational institutions, public authorities, communities, business and civil society organisations. The results will be published in open access.

Novelty and practical value

Existing research focuses either on the technological side of AI or on human values. The project brings both perspectives into a single model so that their impact on society can be assessed as a whole, and develops interdisciplinary methods of analysis and forecasting that consider both technological and socio-cultural factors. The approach also has the advantage of adapting AI models to local conditions, crises and post-war reconstruction, and of keeping algorithms transparent and explainable. The knowledge gained will deepen the fundamental understanding of how technology and the human sphere interact and lay the groundwork for further research in digital humanism, sociology, cultural studies and security.

The results can be applied in public administration (human-centred digital policy, monitoring of humanitarian risks, transparent and responsible use of AI), in education and research (digital humanism and AI ethics in curricula, interdisciplinary courses), in the economy (a socially responsible digital economy, more effective business management), in the social and humanitarian sphere (support for post-conflict communities, preservation of cultural heritage by digital means) and in security (risk analysis, crisis forecasting, decision support). In the longer term, they may provide a scientific basis for a national strategy on the ethical use of AI and support Ukraine’s European integration in the digital field.