Problem addressed

AI is rapidly changing education, employment and civic life, but many people lack the skills and confidence to engage with it critically and productively. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 highlights that employers expect almost 40% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030, making upskilling and reskilling a central challenge for the labour market. At the same time, the EU AI Act requires providers and deployers of AI systems to ensure a sufficient level of AI literacy among staff and other persons dealing with AI systems.
This creates an urgent need for practical AI literacy beyond technical experts. Young people often use AI tools without understanding their limitations, risks or effects on learning and decision-making. Educators, social organizations and SMEs frequently lack accessible formats to address AI in their own work. Without such skills, people are more vulnerable to misinformation, deepfakes, biased outputs, algorithmic influence and overdependence on automated systems.
The project addresses this gap by making AI literacy practical, inclusive and relevant for different groups, helping participants move from passive technology use toward informed, responsible and employability-oriented engagement with AI.

Innovative solution

The project is inspired by the AI Skills Coalition, a global initiative under AI for Good, coordinated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The coalition brings together partners from across sectors to support inclusive AI skills development and help people build the competencies needed to participate in an AI-driven society and economy.

Young AI Leaders Linz adapts this broader approach to a regional and youth-led context in Austria, translating the AI skills agenda into practical AI literacy workshops, school formats, community programs and hands-on learning experiences for students, social organizations and non-technical audiences. Reference: https://aiforgood.itu.int/ai-skills-coalition/

The initiative uses a community-driven and youth-led model to make AI literacy accessible beyond traditional technical education. Instead of focusing only on coding or abstract theory, the project translates AI into practical learning experiences for different target groups, including middle school students, university students, business professionals and social organizations.
The content is informed by established European and international frameworks. It builds on the European Commission’s DigComp 2.2 framework, which defines digital competence as the ability to engage confidently, critically and safely with digital technologies, including AI systems. It also aligns with the emerging AI Literacy Framework for primary and secondary education developed by the European Commission, OECD and Code.org, which focuses on helping learners understand, use, evaluate and create with AI. For teacher and education-related formats, the project draws on UNESCO’s AI competency frameworks, especially their emphasis on a human-centred mindset, AI ethics, AI foundations, AI pedagogy and professional learning.
In practice, workshops combine critical reflection with hands-on exercises: prompt engineering, evaluation of AI outputs, deepfake awareness, misinformation resilience, ethical use cases and creative experimentation. For non-technical participants, the project introduces low-barrier approaches such as natural-language-based building and vibe coding, enabling people to move from simply using AI tools to actively creating with them.
The innovation lies in combining global AI literacy frameworks with local, practical and adaptable formats that connect employability, civic resilience and social inclusion.

Key results and benefits

During the Q4 2025 pilot phase, the initiative reached approximately 100 middle school students aged 12–13 through AI literacy workshops in Austrian schools. It also engaged around 60 business professionals and 20 representatives from social organizations through workshops and community formats.
Participants gained a better understanding of how AI works, where its limits are, and how to use AI tools responsibly in learning, work and organizational settings. The pilot helped young people develop critical thinking around AI-generated content, misinformation and deepfakes, while also introducing practical future skills such as prompt engineering, responsible tool use and AI-assisted problem solving.
For business professionals and social organizations, the initiative created awareness around responsible AI adoption, productivity, employability and organizational readiness. The Q4 2025 pilot also validated strong demand for further AI literacy formats and created the basis for scaling the project into additional school workshops, community programs and hands-on AI building formats.
In addition, the initiative contributed to a broader regional skills dialogue through the “War for AI Talent” panel, reaching around 200 participants and connecting youth, academia and industry representatives from organizations such as Google, Microsoft, AWS, Dynatrace, McKinsey, PwC, KEBA, and EDIH around Europe’s AI capability and employability gap.

The first adaptation of the project took place in Austria, where the original AI literacy format for middle school students was adapted for business professionals and representatives of social organizations. While the core model remained the same, focusing on practical AI literacy, critical thinking, responsible AI use and hands-on experimentation, the examples, exercises and level of depth were adjusted to the needs of each target group.

The initiative is now being scaled across Austria, including planned transfer to Young AI Leaders Vienna and further regional implementation. In parallel, Young AI Leaders Linz is transferring its knowledge to other hubs through a cross-country AI literacy task force within the global Young AI Leaders Community. We have already shared workshop templates, workflows and implementation materials with other hubs to support local adaptation of the model.

Further scaling and replication opportunities are being explored through the Young AI Leaders Community, Catalyst Now and the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance.

Potential for mainstreaming

The project has strong potential for mainstreaming because its workshop formats are modular and can be adapted to different age groups, sectors and institutional contexts. The core model can be integrated into schools, youth programs, university formats, social organizations, public sector training and workplace learning.
The initiative is designed to scale through both local partnerships and international peer exchange. Topics such as prompt engineering, misinformation, deepfakes, responsible AI use and practical AI experimentation can be adjusted based on audience needs, digital maturity and local context.
To support this, Young AI Leaders Linz has already helped build a cross-country task force within the global Young AI Leaders Community, connecting hubs and cities that are developing or improving AI literacy programs. This enables exchange of workshop formats, lessons learned, materials and implementation approaches across different regions.
Through this task force, as well as networks such as AI for Good, the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance, Catalyst Now and European social innovation communities, the project can be transferred and adapted beyond Upper Austria. Its combination of youth leadership, practical skills development and responsible AI education makes it highly suitable for replication in other European and international contexts.