AI Vocabulary · 08 Rules & Responsibility
What is AI Literacy?
The knowledge and skills to understand, use and judge AI. In the EU, organisations must actively support it.
AI literacy is what you need to deal with AI competently: understanding roughly how it works, using it effectively, judging its outputs critically and knowing its risks and limits. It is not the same as being able to operate one tool.
International frameworks describe it in similar ways. The OECD and European Commission's AI Literacy Framework (2026) organises it into four domains: engaging with AI, creating with AI, managing AI and shaping AI.
Under Article 4 of the EU AI Act, organisations that provide or deploy AI systems must take measures to support the AI literacy of their staff and others using AI on their behalf. This has applied since 2 February 2025. A 2026 amendment clarified that no specific level has to be guaranteed for each person and that no certificate is required, but the duty remains, and it should fit people's roles and the systems they use.
Why it matters for you
If your team uses AI at work, you need a simple, documented plan: who uses which tools, what they need to know, and how you help them learn it. It protects you legally and makes the tools far more useful.
Own it
AI literacy is the foundation of owning your AI. People who understand the technology use it better, spot errors faster and can't be sold hype. That is what this dictionary is for.
Where it comes from
"Literacy" has long been extended to new skills, like media literacy and digital literacy. A widely cited definition of AI literacy comes from Duri Long and Brian Magerko at Georgia Tech, in their 2020 CHI paper What is AI Literacy?, which set out core competencies. The EU AI Act then turned it into a workplace duty in Article 4, applying since February 2025.
Related
Your AI Learning Hub
Learn the whole AI Vocabulary, step by step, and build with it. Build it. Own it.