Empowering Learners for the Age of AI
An AI Literacy Framework for Primary and Secondary Education
Young people actively use artificial intelligence (AI) across their learning, creative tasks, and for connecting with peers. As AI becomes more prevalent in daily life, young people need guidance to understand its role and prepare to use it ethically and creatively, while maintaining agency over how AI might shape their lives.
Why AI Literacy?
AI literacy empowers students and teachers to understand how AI systems work, critically evaluate their opportunities and risks, and use them responsibly. To fully realize this potential, we must address key barriers to AI literacy implementation, including:
- A lack of a shared understanding of AI literacy and how to teach it.
- Inconsistent adoption of AI literacy initiatives across schools and education systems.
- Anxiety and misconceptions about the role of AI in daily life.
- Limited understanding of how to use AI to enhance and support learning.
“Integrating AI literacy into education is essential to equip students with the critical thinking skills necessary to understand, interact with, and innovate using digital technologies, preparing them to contribute meaningfully to society”
Who is This
Framework For?
This framework is designed for teachers, education leaders, education policymakers, learning designers, and parents. It outlines competences and learning scenarios to inform learning materials, standards, and systemwide initiatives for primary and secondary education settings.
Teachers and Educators
Teachers and educators decide how AI can help their students learn and how to integrate AI literacy into their curriculum.
School and Education System Leaders
School and education system leaders implement frameworks, build partnerships, and strengthen capacity to support AI literacy across their community.
Education Policymakers
Policymakers create forward-looking policies that prepare learners for a changing world, support educators, and ensure the ethical, responsible use of AI.
Learning Designers and Training Providers
Learning designers and training providers translate AI literacy goals into learning experiences for learners, teachers, and educators.
Parents, Families and Caregivers
Parents, families, and caregivers guide responsible use and foster conversations about how AI shapes young people’s lives.
“AI literacy should be part of every learner’s journey, with educators playing a key role in making AI meaningful. By helping students understand and engage with AI in ways that reflect their local context, we can support more inclusive, future-ready education systems around the world.”
A Common Effort to Advance AI Literacy
The AILit Framework is a joint initiative of the European Commission (EC) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Its development is supported by CodeAI (formerly Code.org) and leading international experts. The initiative contributes to the Innovative Domain of the PISA 2029 Assessment and supports the European Union’s goals to promote quality and inclusive digital education and skills.
What is in the Framework?
The AILit Framework supports learners across subject areas and developmental stages. It outlines competences that describe what learners need to understand and be able to do to thrive with AI.
The competences are organized into four domains: Engage with AI, Create with AI, Manage AI, and Shape AI. The domains are presented sequentially to reflect a potential learning approach.
Each competence combines Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes from the framework. Learner Expectations and Learning Scenarios demonstrate how the competences can be applied in practice.
Want More Context? Download the AILit Framework for detailed explanations of the framework’s components.
Interactive Framework
Use the Interactive AILit Framework page to find competences that fit your context. Filter results to focus on what’s most relevant to your setting, and explore each competence’s progression, classroom applications, and the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that inform it.
This feature is currently available in English only.
An Internationally Reviewed Framework
Educators, researchers, education leaders, and policymakers shared their perspectives shared their perspectives on a draft of the AILit Framework, published in May 2025. Stakeholders provided feedback through a dedicated survey and a series of stakeholder consultations. Insights from more than 2,000 individuals helped shape the final version.
Appreciation goes to everyone who contributed their time and ideas, helping ensure the framework reflects a wide range of experiences and educational contexts.
