At the Artificial Intelligence and its Applications Institute (AIAI), they enable computer systems to reproduce and complement human abilities, work with people, and support collaboration between humans. University of Edinburgh conducts world-leading research in the foundations of Artificial Intelligence (for example, in knowledge representation and reasoning, emergence of meaning, theory and ontology change, creativity, computer-based proof) and its applications to intelligent systems (for example, autonomous and multi-agent systems, social computation, scientific collaboration platforms, web semantics and linked data).

Edinburgh's research methods focus on the development of models of knowledge, reasoning, and interaction that can be used to understand and automate aspects of human and machine intelligence, but are also understandable and usable to the designers and users of AI systems in order to address broader issues such as fairness, accountability, transparency and safety.

To achieve this, they combine theoretical research into AI models, architectures and algorithms with a strong element of applied research. This has led to a strong track record in using their methods to address real-world problems in healthcare, scientific collaboration, social computing, emergency systems, transportation, engineering, aerospace and others.