As AI continues to advance at breakneck speed, a critical gap is emerging in the business world—a lack of AI literacy.

New data reveals that most companies are falling behind in educating their workforce about AI. And that could have serious consequences for their future competitiveness.

The 2024 State of Marketing AI Report, soon to be released by Marketing AI Institute in partnership with Drift, recently found that:

• 67% of respondents cited lack of education and training as the top barrier to AI adoption in marketing (up from 64% last year)
• 75% of organizations either offer no AI-focused education for their marketing teams (47%), have it in development (24%), or aren’t sure if it exists (4%)

Why does this matter—and what can you do about it?

I got the answers from Marketing AI Institute founder/CEO Paul Roetzer on Episode 105 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.

The urgent need for AI literacy

Without a baseline understanding of AI across an organization, Roetzer says, companies will continue to face the significant challenges that are holding back AI adoption and success. These include:

• A lack of AI-savvy talent
• Fear of change among employees
• Difficulty developing useful AI strategies

“Until we level up understanding and develop a baseline understanding of AI, you’re going to keep having these same issues,” Roetzer warns.

In fact, it’s so important that Marketing AI Institute made “AI literacy for all” its stated mission as a company starting in 2024. In a post introducing the concept, Roetzer wrote:

Continuing AI advancements in language, vision, prediction, persuasion, reasoning, decisioning, and action will augment human capabilities and redefine knowledge work at a rate and scale that the economy has never seen. 

Millions of jobs will be impacted as companies realize the power and potential of AI to drive productivity, efficiency, and profits. 

The future of all work is human + machine, and we are progressing under the assumption that at least 80 percent of what knowledge workers do every day will be AI-assisted to some degree in the next 1 – 2 years. (Note: There are an estimated 100 million knowledge workers in the U.S. alone, including consultants, marketers, lawyers, accountants, writers, bankers, software developers, doctors, artists, engineers, and teachers.)

As the rate of change accelerates, driven by increasing competition among major AI technology companies and research labs, every business in every industry faces the opportunity to disrupt, and the risk of being disrupted. 

We’ve presented to and talked with thousands of marketers and business leaders over the last year. We’ve seen first-hand how executives are scrambling to adapt and devise AI roadmaps, while facing complex challenges, including: a lack of AI-savvy talent, legacy tech stacks, a rapidly expanding AI tech landscape, fear of change from staff, industry regulations, privacy and security concerns, and mounting competitive pressure. 

What has become clear is that our mission must evolve to pursue a north star of accelerating AI literacy for all. 

We believe you can build a smarter version of any business through a responsible, human-centered approach to AI, but success requires a commitment to AI education and training across the organization.

The power of combining domain expertise with AI knowledge

Roetzer emphasizes that the goal of “AI literacy for all” isn’t to turn everyone into AI experts. Instead, it’s about empowering professionals to apply AI knowledge to their existing expertise.

“What we need are people with fundamental AI knowledge who then apply their domain expertise to go be the thought leader in their company or in their industry,” he explains. 

“[Imagine the] lawyer of 30 years who takes an interest in AI or the CFO or the HR person or the marketer, whomever it is, taking their domain expertise and experience and intuition and layering in an understanding of what AI can do. Now you can really race forward as an organization.”

The path forward

While the current state of AI literacy in business is concerning, Roetzer sees reason for optimism. He encourages listeners to become “spark plugs” in their organizations, driving AI literacy initiatives forward.

For companies looking to boost their AI literacy, Roetzer offers some practical advice:

1. Start an AI academy within your organization
2. Make AI education part of professional development
3. Encourage employees to seek out AI knowledge through podcasts, courses, and reading
4. Develop transparency about AI initiatives within the organization
5. Create a formal AI roadmap and change management plan

“Keep taking the next step on literacy,” Roetzer urges. “Keep pushing forward, but bring the people in your organization along with you.”