AI literacy needs shared practices

One of the things that stuck with me from the recent All Things Open Conference meetup wasn’t one of the slides. It was the little outdoor space at The Barn: a few chairs arranged around a hearth.

That felt appropriate because one of the evening’s themes was that AI literacy is no longer optional at work. But organizations aren’t going to create it by buying licenses, circulating a policy, or teaching everyone a few prompts.
In the work I’ve done with organizations, I’ve often found that the tools arrive before the shared practices do. By the time leaders start asking how AI is being used in software development and across the business, teams may already have their own habits—some useful, some risky, and many invisible outside the team.

Getting a handle on that doesn’t mean shutting experimentation down. It means understanding where AI is already showing up, what information is moving through it, and where people may be relying on an answer without enough review. Then you can build guidance around the work people are actually doing.
Responsible use isn’t something a policy can create by itself. People need room to compare notes, challenge outputs, talk honestly about mistakes, and work out what good use looks like in their jobs.

Maybe that’s why the hearth stuck with me. The technology may be new, but shared judgment is still built the old-fashioned way: people sitting together and talking through what they’re seeing.

Thanks to All Things Open Conference for bringing the conversation together, and to Bandwidth Inc. for welcoming us to such a remarkable space.

PS. That image isn't AI, and I'm not even a good photographer.