This AI Literacy Review for September 2026 covers the Council of Europe’s recommendation on AI literacy dimensions, Alabama’s AI Community Caravan workshops bringing AI literacy to the public, the UK’s AI Skills and Adoption Report on tech skills gaps, public libraries as sites for building critical AI literacy, AI literacy and the role of libraries and librarians in the US, Dubai, and Ghana, University of Georgia’s AI & Data Studio in its main library, studies of AI literacy among nurses in Asia, the UAE’s National AI Literacy Curriculum Framework for K-12, UNESCO’s collection of think pieces on AI and the future of education, the Los Angeles and New York City school moratoriums on student Gen AI use alongside NYC’s required AI literacy modules for high schoolers, SUNY’s AI literacy curriculum requirement, WISE AI Literacy Framework for K-12 education, an IBM study on AI readiness in K-12 schools, ASU’s AI literacy courses in every college and school, a cluster of Times Higher Education pieces and research papers on AI literacy frameworks, curriculum design, and student and faculty outcomes, the Georgia Tech Academic AI Playbook, and AI literacy for people with disabilities and special education teachers.
General
The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers publishes a recommendation that member States recognize that AI literacy encompasses three dimensions of AI: human, technological and practical dimensions, and that States promote AI literacy through education systems and society.
Snead State Community College and other schools within the Alabama Community College System plan to host the AI Community Caravan, a series of free, beginner-friendly AI literacy workshops for individuals, businesses, and communities throughout Alabama.
The UK’s AI Skills and Adoption Report finds that AI is the top tech skills gap identified by tech professionals in 2026, the same as 2025, and that over 40% of tech workers use AI tools at work that haven’t been formally provided or approved. Tech professionals strong support required ethics training and only 11% considered their organization’s AI retraining very effective.
Parody news site The Needling features a humorous response to AI literacy in education with the piece New AI Literacy Program Awards Students Free Pizza If They Don’t Know How to Read Books Anymore.
Catharina Doria runs an AI literacy book club featuring books such as Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant.
The Machines are Literate. Now what? Human Agency. by Kate Arthur explores how humans have always desired to communicate with one another and what literacy might mean in a world where machines can work with information on their own without human intervention.
In AI literacy as an extension of digital literacy: A conceptual framework for knowledge work in AI-enabled organizations [paywalled] Kha Huy Tran proposes a theoretical framework for how human capabilities interact with intelligent technologies to support knowledge creation, decision-making, and organizational learning in the context of knowledge work.
Libraries
EBSCO post AI Literacy Is Information Literacy: Helping Students Navigate a New Research Landscape by Tammy Ross discusses the expansion of information literacy to include AI literacy and the opportunity for school librarians to help students think critically about information and AI outputs and tools.
Michael Parker’s Public libraries emerge as key sites for building critical AI literacy covers the study Who Participates in AI Programs at Public Libraries? Exploring Demographic and Attitudinal Factors by Zong-Xian (Sam) Huang et al. and the findings, including that older people and women were less likely to participate.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services provides a grant to Syracuse University professor Megan Oakleaf to train 110 academic librarians nationwide in AI literacy and assessment as part of a three-year project Student Success through Assessment and AI Literacy in Libraries.
In At the Crossroads of Curiosity and Caution: Generative AI in the Academic Library a poster shows findings from a library-led initiative at Heriot-Watt University Dubai looking at students’ perceptions and concerns about Generative AI, and the evolving role of librarians as AI literacy educators and contributors to AI policies.
The case study Public Libraries in Ghana: Equipping Students with Critical Information Literacy Skills in the Age of AI and Misinformation shows how public libraries in Ghana incorporated AI literacy into training programs for high school students despite limited access to digital devices and connectivity.
Prompting Critical Thinkers: Using Library Frameworks to Teach AI Literacy as a Workforce Skill by Anna Clymer follows a librarian’s library lesson on Gen AI tools and its intersection with information literacy skill development.
The University of Georgia launches an AI & Data Studio in its main library to help students with AI through AI and data literacy workshops, a study ambassador team, and other initiatives.
Healthcare
In The association between AI dependence, AI literacy, and critical thinking ability among nursing interns: a multicenter cross-sectional study Wei Cui and Xiaping Zhang study the associations between AI dependence, AI literacy, and critical thinking ability among nursing interns in Hunan, China, and find that AI dependence is not negatively associated with critical thinking ability.
In Artificial Intelligence Literacy and Subjective Workload Among Clinical Nurses: A Cross-Sectional Study Che-Wei Yu and Cheng-Chia Yang find that higher AI literacy is associated with lower temporal demand and frustration among clinical nurses in a study of 305 nurses in Taiwan.
Education
The UAE launches its National AI Literacy Curriculum Framework (K–12) to provide AI education for students and prepare them for an AI-enabled future, with the framework benchmarked against other international frameworks from UNESCO and the OECD/European Commission.
UNESCO’s publication The algorithm in the room: Seeing and confronting the implications of AI for the future of education is a collection of 26 think pieces about the future of education in the age of AI, including pieces on AI literacy such as Marianne Haarsbjerg’s Between wood and algorithms: Crafting AI literacy in TVET on the role of AI in vocational education in Denmark.
The Los Angeles Unified School District places a moratorium on student Gen. AI use for the current school year. New York City Public Schools also places a moratorium on student-facing Gen AI for grades K-8 and only limited use for high schoolers for the 2026-2027 school year, with high schoolers being required to complete two 45-minute AI literacy modules on how AI works, data privacy and bias, and appropriate uses of AI.
SUNY schools in New York have added an AI literacy requirement to the curriculum, weaving AI lessons into courses as part of general education requirements.
Michigan State University encourages undergraduates to take the one-credit, self-paced online course AI Essentials: What Every Spartan Should Know with 15 interactive lessons to help them build practice AI literacy skills. Completions provide an MSU micro-credential and LinkedIn digital badge
Washington State University is also looking at AI literacy in its redesign of the general education curriculum, according to an interview with the provost and vice provost.
The Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) based in Edmonton, Canada offers three learning streams for advancing AI literacy in Canada: AI for All: Essentials for Students, AI for All: Essentials for Educators, and AI for All: Essentials for Canadians.
Tom Vontz et al. publish the WISE AI Literacy Framework (Wisdom-centered, Informed, Safe, and Ethical) as a human-centered model for AI literacy in K–12 education with five domains: understanding AI, using AI responsibly, interacting with AI productively, evaluating AI critically, and applying AI wisely.
IBM study looks at AI readiness in K-12 schools, finding that 59% of educators think AI literacy should be required or offered as an elective, compared with 40% of parents.
In ASU News Provost Q&A: What endures as AI transforms higher education Kevin Kovaleski interviews Provost Nancy Gonzalez about the university’s approach to change, including offering AI literacy courses in every college and school that count towards a student’s major and providing faculty and students access to AI tools and training.
In CNN’s This university built an AI curriculum before ChatGPT. Now it wants to help other schools do the same Lisa Eadicicco covers the University of Florida’s approach to AI courses and certificates and responses from professors and teachers.
Raspberry Pi Foundation post Experience AI evolves with flexible resources for every classroom by Ben Garside covers updated and new resources and lessons for AI literacy aimed at learners ages 8-16.
A U.S. National Science Foundation-backed project by the University of Denver and the Tech Interactive called Co-Designing a Developmentally Grounded AI Literacy Tool for Grades 5-8 aims to create a tool to help students critically evaluate AI-generated output.
Caterham School in Surrey, UK, launches a GCSE-equivalent Ethical AI & Entrepreneurship qualification in partnership with Nottingham University Business School and Enactus UK combining entrepreneurship, ethical AI and social impact, and AI development to prepare high school students with more problem-solving and future-ready skills.
The University of Phoenix outlines a three-pillar framework for embracing AI in higher education through a white paper, acknowledging that AI literacy is a workforce necessity and that AI skill-building needs to be integrated throughout the learner experience rather than be a standalone subject.
Several Times Higher Education articles cover the topic of AI literacy:
In Make AI literacy a foundational element of your course design Andrea Ramirez-Salgado, Darius Brown, Soohyoun Ahn, and Tom Zhang from the University of Florida discuss how to integrate AI into a course through small steps and treat it as a collaborative tool rather than a shortcut.
In Move beyond technical skills and embed AI literacy that teaches students to question Katie Ledingham and Sarah Hartley from the University of Exeter argue that AI literacy should prepare students to both use AI and participate in the collective stewardship of the future of the technology, including teaching AI as a socio-technical system, going beyond technical fixes and better prompting, cultivating agency through learning, and incorporating futures thinking as a part of AI literacy.
In Outreach activities for AI literacy: from sparking curiosity to lifelong learning Kenneth Wai-Ting Leung from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology offers four teaching principles to guide outreach activities: Try it before we explain; What you see is what you get; Prompt, improve and refine; and Spark, explore and continue.
In Why AI literacy must include supporting student – and faculty – well-being Amy Allen and David Hicks from Virginia Tech discuss how they help students develop self-monitoring and self-regulation habits using six areas of questioning: purpose, reliability, boundaries, distance, privacy, and human connection.
Tufts student Sera Kwon writes about how many internship jobs were now asking for AI literacy or fluency, and brings questions about what AI literacy means to Tufts’ AI Council members.
In Teaching Cyber Threats Differently: An AI-Powered Gamified Approach Ramalingam Dharmalingam from Majan University College discusses a case study of bringing AI into a cybersecurity course to help develop students’ critical AI literacy by working directly with tools and comparing them with one another, and the use of microlearning units to provide more flexibility for busy students.
The Georgia Tech Academic AI Playbook includes 67 articles on how AI is being used in classrooms. For example: Teaching AI Literacy and Self-Determination for Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities by Nathaniel Heald and Rachel Lowy covers their experience developing and delivering the pilot AI Skills for Life program for 11 students with disabilities and how the students increased their confidence and willingness to experiment independently with AI tools. Teaching AI Literacy Through Cultural Critique by Krystian K. Ramlogan explores the research question: before recommending any AI tool to students for creative work, what do these tools actually do to culturally specific voices once they are given editorial authority?
AI literacy development among special education graduate students: a mixed-methods exploration by Randa Keeley et al. explores AI literacy development of 19 master’s students in special education and how they could use Gen AI tools to support students with disabilities.
In AILiFE+: An inclusive AI Literacy and Workforce Readiness Framework for disabled people in Ireland Stefanie Havelka from University College Dublin, Ireland discusses her forthcoming work on the AILiFE+ (Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Inclusion, Futures and Employment) research project.
In Readers Respond on AI Literacy Matt Reed reviews different responses from readers on his previous article’s question on how to define AI literacy, including thinking of AI as a microwave that can be one way to cook but not the only way and perhaps not the best way.
In the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill post From pens to prompts: Incorporating AI into English 105 English faculty Dan Anderson and Ryan Prewitt discuss how they have approached bringing Gen AI into the English 105 course, and thinking of AI literacy as a practice instead of an end state or skillset.
Education Week piece ‘Just Say No’ Didn’t Keep Teens Off Drugs. It Won’t Work for AI, Either. If we truly care about our students’ critical thinking skills, we must teach them AI literacy by David Nurenberg argues that AI literacy should not be siloed in computer science courses and discusses how he has incorporated it into his high school English classes.
The Learning Machines Podcast hosts Sreedhar Potarazu and Carin Isabel Knoop interview Sam Illingworth in the episode Who gets to decide what AI literacy means?
European University Association piece Universities need to take the AI debate beyond the campus by Lena Holmberg argues that universities need to collaborate with wider society on AI through collaborative AI literacy, defined as the shared capacity to understand, question and govern AI use.
Designing AI Literacy Curricula for Higher Education: A Comparative Framework by Wynand Goosen offers a literature review of sources on AI literacy in university context and an AI Literacy Design Matrix with four dimensions: conceptual, ethical, productive, and participatory.
In AI is shaping kids. What if kids could shape AI, too? Jennifer Kiilerich writes about Vanderbilt University’s Golnaz Arastoopour Irgens and Sarah K. Burriss’ framework published as A Framework for Facilitating Young People’s Sociocritical AI Literacies on how educators can embed social, ethical and critical thinking about AI into their lessons, with four components: being, knowing, acting, and making.
Sage and Choice publish recordings from the seventh annual Critical Thinking Bootcamp which focused on AI literacy this year and the resource Critical Thinking Bootcamp 2026 Toolkit Al Literacy & Critical Thinking with a crowd-sourced list of recommendations relating to AI literacy.
Are We Asking AI Literacy to Do the Job of Regulation? by the AI School Librarian Elissa Malespina looks at the role of regulation alongside AI literacy and how users, especially youth, should not be responsible for irresponsibly designed products.
In Generative AI as a catalyst for critical thinking: reframing students from consumers to co-creators Dalia Alsaiid Abdelbaki from the Arab Open University explores undergraduate students’ AI literacy and how it relates to perceived learning benefits and ethical awareness.
In AI Literacy with Teenagers: Exploring Large Language Models Beneath the Surface Pauli Klemettilä et al. discuss their week-long AI literacy workshop with 22 teenagers (aged 15-17) and how hands-on LLM activities supported AI literacy development.
In Beyond prompt literacy: Towards a critical epistemological framework for artificial intelligence literacy in higher education Rubby Dhunpath discusses a reconceptualized AI literacy centered on epistemic discernment and notes the urgency of a framework that can be used in African higher education.
In Knowing its name, not its nature: word association mapping of student AI cognition and evidence-based micro-credential design in Turkish higher education İsmail Şan and Hanife Gülhan Orhan Karsak point to gaps and fragmentation in students’ cognitive representations of AI and propose an Ethical AI and Workforce Readiness micro-credential framework to bridge the gap between functional use and conceptual mastery.
In Cultivating Critical AI Literacy Through a Critical Thinking-Oriented Flipped Classroom: Implications for Sustainable Higher Education Yaohuizhuo Liu et al. evaluate a critical thinking-oriented flipped model in an AI general education course with 82 undergraduate students, finding improvements in critical literacy compared to the control group.
In A Workflow-Aligned Framework for AI Literacy in Materials-Informatics Education: Scientific Judgment, Equity, and Curriculum Design Dongming Mei et al. discuss a workflow-aligned model of AI literacy for materials-informatics competency development and propose a dual-track curriculum model and reusable curriculum artifacts to prepare students to become better scientists.
In Exploring the Interplay of AI Literacy, Self-Regulated Learning, and Engagement in EFL Contexts Yujia Mu et al. look at the relationships between AI literacy, self-regulated learning, and learning engagement in AI-enhanced English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts.
In AI literacy as both bridge and buffer: unraveling its dual role between research stressors and teaching excellence Guimei Yang et al. investigate faculty AI literacy through a survey of 253 faculty from universities in China, finding that AI literacy mediated the positive effect of challenge stressors and buffered the negative impact of teaching-research time conflict on teaching excellence.
In Extending UTAUT With AI Literacy: Understanding Nigerian Teachers’ Adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence Michael Olayiwola and Nazir Jogezai study Nigerian university teachers’ behavioral intentions of using Gen AI in relation to the effects of AI literacy.
In Confidence is not competence: Self-report and the measurement of AI literacy [paywalled] Glenn Stockwell examines the limitations of self-reporting AI literacy.
In Conceptualizing the Depth and Breadth of AI Literacy [paywalled] Otto Segersven et al. proposes a meta-conceptual framework for AI literacy along dimensions of breadth and depth.
The University of San Diego piece AI in the Classroom: How K–12 Educators Can Develop AI Literacy Skills provides an overview of the basics of AI literacy in education and how teachers can check if they are prepared.
The New York Times is soliciting strategies, assignments, and lesson plans on AI from educators on how they have been teaching with and about AI, including what has been successful and what hasn’t.
Google provides 100,000 scholarships for AI courses through the AI Skills Coalition for people in 80+ countries.
