AI has the potential to significantly improve how NGOs utilize their limited resources for societal benefits, but evidence about how NGOs adopt AI remains scattered. In this study, we systematically investigate the types of AI adoption use cases in NGOs and identify common challenges and solutions, contextualized by organizational size and geographic context. We review the existing primary literature, including studies that investigate AI adoption in NGOs related to social impact between 2020 and 2025 in English. Following the PRISMA protocol, two independent reviewers conduct study selection, with regular cross-checking to ensure methodological rigour, resulting in a final literature body of 65 studies. Leveraging a thematic and narrative approach, we identify six AI use case categories in NGOs - Engagement, Creativity, Decision-Making, Prediction, Management, and Optimization - and extract common challenges and solutions within the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework. By integrating our findings, this review provides a novel understanding of AI adoption in NGOs, linking specific use cases and challenges to organizational and environmental factors. Our results demonstrate that while AI is promising, adoption among NGOs remains uneven and biased towards larger organizations. Nevertheless, following a roadmap grounded in literature can help NGOs overcome initial barriers to AI adoption, ultimately improving effectiveness, engagement, and social impact.

翻译：人工智能有潜力显著改善非政府组织如何利用其有限资源创造社会效益，但关于非政府组织采纳人工智能的证据仍然零散。本研究系统性地探讨了非政府组织中人工智能采纳的用例类型，并识别了常见的挑战与解决方案，同时结合组织规模和地理背景进行了情境化分析。我们回顾了现有的主要文献，包括2020年至2025年间以英文发表的、关注非政府组织在与社会影响相关领域采纳人工智能的研究。遵循PRISMA协议，由两名独立评审员进行文献筛选，并通过定期交叉核对确保方法严谨性，最终确定了包含65项研究的文献主体。通过采用主题分析与叙事性综述相结合的方法，我们识别出非政府组织中人工智能的六大用例类别——参与互动、内容创作、决策支持、预测分析、组织管理与流程优化——并在技术-组织-环境（TOE）框架内提取了常见的挑战与解决方案。通过整合研究发现，本综述提供了对非政府组织人工智能采纳的新理解，将具体用例和挑战与组织及环境因素联系起来。我们的结果表明，尽管人工智能前景广阔，但其在非政府组织中的采纳仍不均衡，且偏向于大型组织。尽管如此，遵循基于文献的路线图可以帮助非政府组织克服人工智能采纳的初期障碍，最终提升其效能、参与度与社会影响力。