10th U6+ Consortium of African Universities International Conference

Artificial Intelligence has become the dominant paradigm for understanding and engineering intelligent systems. Despite extraordinary advances in computation, prediction, and automation, many of today's most pressing challenges—including declining institutional trust, social fragmentation, ecological instability, and increasingly complex human–technology interactions—remain resistant to purely computational solutions. This raises a fundamental question: Are we attempting to solve fundamentally relational problems using predominantly computational models? This paper argues that progress may require not simply more powerful algorithms, but a shift in the perspective from which intelligence itself is understood. Throughout the history of science, major advances have often emerged when familiar phenomena were examined from a different point of observation, revealing patterns and organizing principles that were previously overlooked. We suggest that intelligent systems may similarly benefit from a transition from an entity-centered perspective toward a relational one. Building upon systems thinking, complexity science, ecological perspectives, and human-centered design, we introduce Relational Intelligence (RI) as a conceptual framework that understands intelligence as the capacity of a system to create, sustain, and adapt coherent relationships among people, technologies, institutions, and environments. Rather than replacing existing approaches to Artificial Intelligence, Relational Intelligence complements them by providing a higher-level framework for understanding how intelligent systems contribute to long-term resilience, cooperation, and human flourishing. The paper explores the implications of this perspective for digital transformation and intelligent environments, arguing that future systems should be evaluated not only by computational performance but also by their capacity to strengthen the quality of relationships upon which sustainable societies ultimately depend.