Culturally Attuned Explainable AI: Developing a Research Agenda for Globally Inclusive AI Systems

As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes critical decisions worldwide— from healthcare to justice— Explainable AI (XAI) stands as avital tool for building trust, transparency, and accountability. Yet, its current form is strikingly Western-centric, sidelining the vibrantcultural diversity of global users and risking systems that disconnect rather than unite. This paper unveils a bold research agenda forCulturally Attuned XAI (CAXAI), championing explainability frameworks that weave cultural responsiveness into their core. Weidentify gaps in the literature—particularly the scarcity of empirical studies on cultural variations in explanatory preferences—andhighlight how overreliance on WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) perspectives threatens AI’s globalrelevance. Drawing on fresh insights from cross-cultural human-computer interaction (HCI) and XAI, we propose an interdisciplinary,cross-cultural path to craft AI systems that honor diverse epistemologies and lived realities. This vision bridges technical ingenuitywith ethical urgency, offering a roadmap to inclusive, equitable AI that resonates across humanity’s pluralistic tapestry—urging areimagining of explainability as a global necessity.