On 2nd February 2025, Article 4 of the EU AI Act, focused on AI literacy, came into force (full timeline of key dates here):
“…companies that create and use AI systems must make sure their employees and anyone else who operates or uses these systems on their behalf are well-educated about AI. This includes considering their technical knowledge, experience, education, and training, as well as the context in which the AI systems will be used and the people or groups who will be using them.”
Read on to learn more about AI literacy or click here to find out how we can help your organisation get compliant.
Public sector. Private sector. Right now it feels like everyone is looking to AI.
And nowhere is that clearer than in government, with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer saying recently: “No person’s substantive time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better, quicker and to the same high quality and standard.”
But as companies and Whitehall start to go gung-ho for AI adoption, it presents a problem. Because while bringing AI into the workplace is all well and good, it’s not much use if your workforce doesn’t know how to use it effectively – or doesn’t know how to use it full stop.
Sensing this to be a potential problem, the EU have even included a section within their AI law, the EU AI Act, that focuses entirely on AI literacy.
It reads: “Providers and deployers of AI systems shall take measures to ensure, to their best extent, a sufficient level of AI literacy of their staff and other persons dealing with the operation and use of AI systems on their behalf, taking into account their technical knowledge, experience, education and training and the context the AI systems are to be used in, and considering the persons or groups of persons on whom the AI systems are to be used.”
Which begs the question – if it’s so important that it’s enshrined in EU law, what does AI literacy mean exactly?
What is AI literacy?
At its simplest, AI literacy simply means mastering the basics of using AI tools effectively; at its broadest it can encompass so much more. That might include training workers in how AI systems function, their capabilities and limitations, and the ethical dilemmas they might bring.
The act says AI literacy means “…skills, knowledge and understanding that allows providers, deployers and affected persons, taking into account their respective rights and obligations in the context of this Regulation, to make an informed deployment of AI systems, as well as to gain awareness about the opportunities and risks of AI and possible harm it can cause”.
And in the webinar the EU held on AI literacy, they stated organisations should chiefly:
- ensure a general understanding of AI within their organisations
- ensure employees understand the risk of using AI systems and how to mitigate that risk
AI literacy training needs to be based on the answers to these questions.
Webinar replay here:
Slides from the webinar can be downloaded here.
If you’ve recently started using AI in your business, or even if you’re considering it, this kind of training is essential.
At the end of it, ideally, your workforce should be able to understand basic AI concepts, know how to prompt well and be able to evaluate outputs critically. They should also know how to access different types of AI, the risks involved and have a clear sense of when AI is the right tool for a job – and crucially, when it isn’t.
All of this is AI literacy in one form or another.
Why your workforce needs to be AI literate
Of course, legality comes at the top of any priority list. If your company operates across the EU as well as the UK, you’ll need to be compliant with this part of the EU AI Act, which came into force at the end of February.
But even assuming your company is solely UK-based, AI literacy is essential, whether it says so in law or not. This is a transformative technology, and one which is quickly becoming a key part of just about every industry, so more and more of us need to know what we are doing when it comes to AI.
Otherwise we risk creating a two-tier workforce: those who can harness the potential of AI at work and those left behind. Or worse still, teams using AI tools incorrectly, inefficiently, or in ways that create compliance risks.
How we can help
At Definition we recognise that workers across a huge range of sectors need help getting to grips with AI, from the most basic usage to advanced prompting. That’s why we’ve designed training programmes, to do exactly that.
And we don’t just lecture about AI – we help your teams experience it firsthand through live exercises in our private AI environment. Because we know that learning-through-doing is the quickest and best way for making things stick – and ultimately for bringing AI literacy to your business.
We offer:
AI literacy training (90 min online session plus a follow up knowledge pack for internal distribution) – covers:
- What is AI – different types of models
- Why bother – evidence-based impact of AI
- How it works – model training and prompting
- Traps – bias, data leakage and copyright issues
- Deployment – common encounters in the workplace
- What’s coming – next 18 months and the rise of the ‘agents’
We also offer:
- Basic prompt engineering training
- Advanced prompt engineering training
- Multimedia AI training
- Bespoke sessions
So, drop us a line today to find out how we can help.
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