Building AI fluency inside your organization
In April 2025, Shopify’s CEO Tobi Lütke released a company-wide memo making one thing clear: using AI isn’t optional anymore. It’s a core expectation for everyone at Shopify. This shift wasn’t about chasing trends. It was focused on preparing the entire workforce to think, work, and build with AI at the center.
Lütke didn’t just call for adoption. He asked teams to reimagine their workflows through the lens of AI agents. He also signaled that being “AI-native” will soon be a competitive advantage for new hires.
Zapier also just came out with similar news: they’re requiring all new hires to be fluent in AI.
The CEO of Zapier stating all new hires must have AI fluency skills
Shopify’s and Zapier’s announcements give a name to something we didn’t quite have the language for. AI fluency captures the growing set of practical skills and mindset shifts employees need to work effectively with generative AI.
It’s common to refer to “AI skills” or “AI-savviness,” but those terms can still be hard to define. AI fluency defines a middle ground. It’s not about becoming a developer, and it’s more than just knowing how to use a tool. It’s about navigating AI in a thoughtful, confident, and capable way.
In that sense, AI fluency is a useful label for a real but often unnamed skill gap inside many organizations. It turns a vague challenge (“our people need to get better with AI”) into something you can assess, map, and build.
Zapier defining AI fluency skills for the workplace
What Is AI Fluency?
AI fluency is the ability to understand, interact with, and apply AI tools confidently in the context of your work. It includes skills like writing effective prompts, integrating AI into workflows, reviewing outputs critically, and using AI responsibly. AI fluency is quickly becoming one of the most important workplace capabilities—especially for teams trying to stay relevant and competitive.
Why AI Fluency Now?
While the terminology is more helfpul, the broader challenge remains: many Learning and Development (L&D) teams are still trying to figure out how to help their workforce gain the AI skills they need, without overwhelming anyone.
AI is already reshaping daily work, but most organizations are behind on training. While employees experiment with AI tools on their own, many lack structured support to use them effectively or responsibly. And without a clear strategy, efforts to upskill often fall flat.
This is where L&D teams can lead.
But leading requires more than tool demos or one-off sessions. It requires a framework for building real capability across roles and experience levels. That’s where AI Fluency Mapping comes in.
AI Fluency Mapping: A Framework for Action
AI Fluency Mapping is a practical tool that helps L&D teams identify AI skills across the organization, segment employees by how they currently engage with AI, and design targeted training programs that actually meet people where they are.
The framework is built around two components:
AI Personas: Behavioral profiles that reflect how employees are currently using AI
AI Skills: Core capabilities that employees need to build or deepen
Here’s how it breaks down:
AI Personas
Explorer: Just starting out. Needs foundational learning and low-risk practice.
Adopter: Using AI for daily tasks. Needs better prompting and workflow skills.
Amplifier: Customizes workflows, builds templates, and shares best practices.
Builder: Technical team members building or managing AI systems.
Core AI Skills
AI Literacy: Understand what generative AI is, and what it can and can’t do
Prompting: Craft clear, useful prompts and iterate for better outputs
Workflow Collaboration: Use AI across multi-step tasks and integrate into tools
Critical Evaluation: Review outputs for accuracy, bias, and usefulness
Data Fluency: Understand how data affects AI behavior and privacy
AI Ethics: Apply responsible use guidelines and raise issues when needed
By mapping personas to these skills, L&D teams can focus training efforts where they matter most—without guessing or overgeneralizing.
How to Start Building AI Fluency
Use a quick AI fluency survey or audit to identify current personas and gaps
Align training efforts to skill levels, not job titles
Create opportunities for low-risk practice with tools like ChatGPT
Support power users (Amplifiers) who can guide peer learning
Measure progress by tracking confidence, adoption, and impact over time
AI fluency is not just a tech skill, it’s a strategic capability. And it can’t be built overnight. But with a focused, practical approach like AI Fluency Mapping, your organization can move from experimenting with AI to embedding it confidently across teams.
Ready to take the next step?
Take our short AI Fluency Mapping mini course or get in touch.
