By February 2025, your organisation must be AI literate. But what does that actually mean?
Are you already AI literate?
AI literacy is the ability to understand, use and critically evaluate AI. It includes knowledge of how AI works, its capabilities and limitations, and its ethical and societal implications. The premise is that if you are AI literate, you can better assess how AI can add value to your organisation while mitigating risks. But where does AI literacy suddenly come from? It comes from the AI Act. The Act came into force on 1 August 2024, and organisations using AI will be required to be AI literate from February 2nd, 2025.
What does the AI Act say about AI literacy?
Suppliers of AI systems and organisations using AI systems are required by Section 4 of the AI Act to ensure that all employees using the AI are also AI literate. This does not mean that everyone has to become an AI expert, but it does mean that you have to be able to:
- Understand the basics of AI: how does it work, what are its capabilities and limitations?
- Look critically at AI solutions: be able to assess how AI decisions are made, and how reliable and incorruptible they are.
- Use AI responsibly: consider ethical issues such as privacy, transparency and bias.
Article 4 AI Act Providers and users of AI systems shall take measures to ensure, to the best of their ability, a sufficient level of AI literacy of their staff and other persons involved in the operation and use of AI systems on their behalf, taking into account their technical knowledge, experience, education and training, and the context in which the AI systems are to be used, and taking into account the persons or groups of persons on whom the AI systems are to be used.
How do I or my organisation become AI literate?
It starts with making your employees AI literate and goes all the way to providing in-depth AI implementation training. There is (as yet) no test or framework to which AI literacy training must conform. On the one hand, this makes it difficult to prove compliance, but on the other hand, it gives you the freedom to decide what is important for your organisation and your employees. Avoid making it about the familiar 'compliance tick'.
An employee who has little practical involvement with AI systems does not need to be as AI literate as his or her more involved colleague. This sounds logical. When developing your AI training & awareness plan, you should also consider who is affected by your organisation's use of AI. Or, for the benefit of which audience your organisation provides services that involve the use of AI systems.
All this means that there is no 'one size fits all' AI training. To assess what your organisation needs are, you need to determine:
- Who are my target audience(s)? Who comes into contact with AI systems and AI decisions on a daily basis?
- What do they need to know? Is it basic knowledge or in-depth knowledge of AI? Do they need to (re-)learn about legal, technical or ethical aspects?
- What is the best learning method for the target group? Knowledge transfer can take different forms. What suits the audience and the content best?
- Ensure follow-up: learning is an ongoing process, especially in a field like AI where developments are happening at lightning speed.
Do you already have an AI training plan for 2025? We would like to help you. Both in the development of the plan and in its implementation. Just contact us at: annemartine.koetsier@privacycompany.nl
