What is AI literacy?
At Brilliant Noise, we work with leaders every day on how to build AI literacy inside their organisations. But before the how, we always come back to a more fundamental question: what exactly is it?
We’ve developed a definition that works for our world – senior professionals in marketing, strategy, comms, and creative roles who don’t have technical backgrounds, but who need to understand, evaluate and apply AI tools with clarity and confidence.
A working definition
For us, AI literacy means:
The ability to understand, evaluate and use artificial intelligence tools in a responsible, ethical and effective way.
It’s not one skill – it’s a developing set of capabilities. Things like:
Knowing the limitations of AI tools (and how to spot their blind spots)
Assessing the reliability of outputs before you make decisions based on them
Understanding where AI can genuinely add value in your workflow – whether it’s analysis, content, or decision support
And, crucially, having the critical thinking to use these tools well, not just use them often.
Right now, when we talk about “AI”, we mostly mean generative AI – large language models like ChatGPT and Claude, and tools built on top of them. Other forms of AI exist, and may well become more relevant to you over time – but generative tools are where most teams are starting.
Why this matters now
Generative AI is moving quickly from experiment to expectation. Whether your team is ready or not, it’s already shaping how work gets done.
A 2024 report by the World Economic Forum found that AI adoption will disrupt over 40% of core job tasks in knowledge-based roles by 2027.
McKinsey estimates that generative AI could add up to $4.4 trillion in value to the global economy annually.
But unlocking that value doesn’t happen automatically. It depends on how confidently and appropriately people use the tools. That’s what AI literacy unlocks.
From digital to AI literacy: our path here
This isn’t the first time organisations have had to build a new kind of fluency. At Brilliant Noise, our thinking about AI literacy grew out of our early work on digital literacy – back when smartphones, social media and cloud collaboration were reshaping how work happened.
In 2011, our CEO Antony Mayfield spoke at TEDx Brighton about the skills we’d need in the digital age. He talked about:
Networks – understanding the systems we work within, online and offline
Sharing – as a strategic skill, not a passive act
Focus and flow – managing attention and energy in a world of constant connection
That early work led to programmes with Microsoft, the Financial Times and others – helping teams build the habits and capabilities needed to thrive in digital-first environments.
One result of that work was Design Your Day – a short handbook for Nokia (later Microsoft’s mobile division) that introduced neuroscience-backed strategies for structuring time and focus. It wasn’t just about tech. It was about designing better days in a digital world.
The same principles are proving essential now, as AI reshapes the landscape again.
What we’re learning about AI literacy today
Running AI workshops, coaching leaders, and building AI capability programmes across global organisations, we’ve seen that literacy doesn’t come from understanding the technology – it comes from applying it.
It’s why we talk about AI fluency, not just awareness. And why we focus on hands-on, task-specific learning rather than abstract theory.
Whether it’s using ChatGPT to rework a campaign brief, or building a custom GPT to automate a reporting task, the real skill isn’t in knowing how the tool works – it’s in knowing how to make it work for you.
What next
AI literacy isn’t a ‘nice to have’. It’s becoming a defining capability for organisations that want to stay relevant, competitive and creatively strong.
That doesn’t mean everyone needs to become a prompt engineer. But it does mean every leader should know what’s possible, what’s risky, and how to build confidence and competence across their teams.
For a deeper dive into how we define and deliver AI literacy, download our briefing paper: Prepared Minds.
