The ability to understand and use Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be the critical skill for workers in the coming decades. That means preparing workers to succeed with investments in AI literacy — education and training to help users understand basic concepts, uses, and risks of AI — will be essential.
As businesses, governments, and individuals rush to try to harness the tremendous potential of AI to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation across a wide range of uses, Alteryx has joined many policymakers and advocates in calling for investments in AI literacy.
More than that, we have sought to lead by example in establishing an AI literacy program for our own workforce that equips every Alteryx employee with the skills and knowledge needed to responsibly leverage AI in our work.
Alteryx’s multi-layered approach to AI literacy
Alteryx’s commitment to responsible AI depends upon ensuring our workforce can make responsible decisions to limit risk and make appropriate use of AI technology throughout our product lifecycle. It requires that our workforce be AI literate.
To that end, we have established an AI literacy program that tailors training and educational content so that it is most relevant to our employees based on both their professional roles and their personal uses of AI tools. Our program is highlighted in the European Union AI Office’s recently published Repository of AI Literacy Practices, as well as in a recent report from the Artificial Intelligence Skills Alliance (ARISA).
Alteryx maintains a layered approach to AI literacy, providing resources on AI to the entire workforce while directing specialized training to individual employees based on roles. This approach includes:
- Broadbased access to AI learning. A company-wide learning platform, Learning for All, provides access to substantial third-party educational content relevant to a wide range of professional roles, including a large portfolio of AI-specific content educating users on the basics of AI and responsible AI practices.
- Required training for all GenAI users. Alteryx requires that all employees who are allowed to access generative AI tools in the workplace must first complete an initial training on generative AI and pass an assessment before they can access these tools.
- Specific, role-based training. Role-based training is provided to key stakeholders in Alteryx’s product development and governance areas to ensure they understand their responsibilities, as well as specific opportunities and challenges for AI development and use, in relation to their roles.
- Focused learning content. Subject-specific training modules addressing internal AI governance practices, responsible AI practices, and similar content are regularly provided through existing company learning venues.
- Specialized content for engineers. An extensive library of content on AI governance is made accessible to all product engineers, together with live, quarterly trainings on best practices for engineering.
- Internal AI Hub. Finally, our internal AI Hub makes available specific AI educational content, such as webinars, as well as specific user guides for internally deployed AI tools and information about legal policies governing internal AI use.
This layered approach, providing diverse content tailored to individuals and teams based on roles and responsibilities and delivered through a variety of platforms and formats, ensures that our workforce is well-informed, well-trained, and able to make responsible decisions in the integration and use of AI tools in the Alteryx One platform.
AI literacy is data literacy
One thing that has become clear as Alteryx has worked with a wide range of companies seeking to adopt AI is that the foundation of AI adoption is a strong data layer.
To fully leverage the potential of AI, organizations require sufficient data infrastructure: the structured and high-quality data necessary to ensure that AI systems can access accurate information, as well as the ability to responsibly manage, access, and share that data across stovepipes. Businesses have repeatedly told us, their trust in AI extends only as far as their trust in the data.
That vital link between AI and data extends to AI literacy: for users to fully understand the uses, risks, and potential of AI, they must understand data and the way data interacts with AI systems. AI literacy is data literacy.
As AI is mainstreamed in the government and across industry, the vast majority of workers will become data workers; these workers must be equipped with modern and continuous training — including learning through applied exercises and experimentation — to wrangle and automate data to solve mission problems.
The new AI-powered economy must be accompanied by an ambitious AI and data literacy initiative to provide awareness, education, and upskilling to a major portion of the workforce.
Alteryx is committed to doing our part; that’s why we continue to make our SparkED data education program available at no cost to university students and mid-career learners around the world.
The need for AI and data literacy investments across our society
Alteryx’s commitment to AI literacy extends well beyond our own workforce. We believe that AI and data literacy will be a cornerstone of the workplace across nearly every sector, and we’re working with governments around the world to advocate for investments in training, education, and other programming to meet this need.
In the United States, the federal government is actively promoting the adoption of AI technologies across agencies to enable government workers to meet citizens’ needs faster, more efficiently, and with better results.
Recently, Alteryx provided comments on the AI Action Plan and AI Regulatory Reform to the Office of Science and Technology Policy arguing that investments in AI and data literacy are vital to creating a foundation for AI adoption, both in the government and across the private sector. In the past, we’ve also endorsed legislation aimed at improving data literacy across the country.
AI and data literacy will require global, years-long collaboration to deliver necessary skills to millions of workers. It will not happen overnight, and it will not happen without the combined leadership of forward-thinking governments and businesses across different industries. At Alteryx, we’re ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work building the future.