Locating, routing and deploying essential goods and equipment are proactive disaster management strategies which received attention during recent decades. Many artificial intelligence (AI) based methods have been applied to respond to disasters in the past decade. However, there lacks a systematic review on these approaches. This paper reviews such papers published over the period of 2012–2022. These publications were examined according to their goal of using AI-based methods (e.g., for disaster management or for essential goods and equipment locating and deployment). We examined the approaches adopted and their specific application areas within the broad spectrum of disaster management. Based on our review, we recommend a few areas which could benefit from AI-based methods, especially for the less explored area of locating and routing problem during disasters. This research would be helpful for academics and practitioners alike in effectively adopting AI methods to improve the resilience and response in disastrous events.