AI Literacy Is No Longer Enough For Business. Here Is What Is.

AI Literacy is everywhere. That said, it is no longer enough for many (or possibly most) businesses. So, what is needed instead? In short: broad AI fluency across teams, and targeted AI mastery in a few people.This article is my perspective, based on my own experience with my teams, and my work with other companies and teams.

First, What is AI Literacy?

Definitions of AI Literacy abound, and are often context specific (for example, how one defines AI literacy for K12 students is not the same as how one would define it for a professional). For the purposes of our discussion, I draw from several public definitions and suggest that professional AI literacy requires the following:

- Ability to operate basic AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude, for daily functions.

- A general understanding of the roles these tools can play in everyday professional workflows, and the rules of an organization with respect to their use. Examples can include using such tools for background research, brainstorming, creating slide decks etc.

- A general understanding of the privacy and other business risk implications of these and similar tools.

As AI proliferated, skills such as Prompt Engineering became common terms. The ability to create a prompt to use an AI for the above tasks is a classic AI Literacy Skill.

Why is this not enough?

There are several reasons why AI Literacy, defined as above, is increasingly insufficient for businesses.

So What Is Needed If Not AI Literacy?

I would argue that what every business needs is broad AI Fluency, and targeted AI Mastery. First lets explore what that means with an analogy.

- AI Literacy, as we defined above, is the AI equivalent of being able to read and write (Literacy)

The Non-Negotiable

As always, the non-negotiable is ROI. How do these AI skill levels contribute?

- AI Literacy is the starting requirement. Hiring a new employee without it would be the equivalent of hiring someone who cannot read or write emails.