A new global survey from EY places older adults at the centre of the AI access debate for the first time, arriving in a week when EU enforcement of Article 4 AI literacy obligations moved one step closer and the UN proposed a $1-3 billion fund to close the global AI capacity gap. The three findings together reveal a consistent structural pattern: policy frameworks are advancing without specifying who must be reached.
Policy
The European Commission published its official FAQ on AI literacy under Article 4 of the AI Act, the most detailed institutional guidance to date on the training obligation. The FAQ confirms that Article 4 applies to all providers and deployers of AI systems, not only those handling high-risk applications. Supervision and enforcement by national market surveillance authorities begins August 2, 2026. Non-compliance can draw fines of up to EUR 7.5 million or 1.5% of global annual turnover. The FAQ does not define a minimum standard for what constitutes sufficient AI literacy, leaving content, duration, and assessment to organisations’ own judgment.
The UN Secretary-General’s report proposed a Global Fund for AI Capacity Building with an initial target of $1-3 billion to ensure all countries secure an “irreducible minimum capacity” in skills, compute, data, and models. The first Global Dialogue on AI Governance is scheduled for July 2026 in Geneva. No committed funding exists yet.
In the United States, the LIFT AI Act was reintroduced in the 119th Congress, authorising NSF grants for K-12 AI literacy curricula and teacher training. The bill is a funding mechanism, not a mandate; it does not require states or districts to adopt any specific curricula.
Education
UNESCO published its AI Competency Framework for Students, defining 12 competencies across four dimensions: human-centred mindset, ethics, technical knowledge, and design. The framework provides the most comprehensive international reference for what student AI literacy should cover and complements the earlier framework for teachers. Adoption requires domestic policy action; the framework is voluntary and unaccompanied by funding or enforcement. Neither framework addresses adult or workforce AI literacy.
Greece renewed its AI training partnership with Google, covering 35,000 or more public servants through the end of 2026. Earlier phases reached 85,772 civil servants between 2023 and 2025, one of the largest public-sector AI training programmes in the EU. No minimum competence standard has been published.
Public and Expert Discourse
EY Ripples published survey findings on older adults and AI from 2,515 people aged 60 to 85 across 16 countries. Named contributors include Gillian Hinde (EY Global Corporate Responsibility Leader), Alex Glazebrook (OATS from AARP), Gina Neff (Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge), Takashi Maeno (Professor Emeritus, Keio University), and Lisa Reppell (Microsoft). The report, Understanding Older Generations’ Adoption of AI, is one of the first large-scale studies to focus specifically on how this age group engages with AI tools.
Usage is divided but not absent. About 40% of respondents have never used AI or have tried it only once or twice; around 21% use it multiple times per week or almost daily. Among Baby Boomers, 24% describe themselves as quite or very familiar with AI; 38% are actively learning about it; only 15% expressed no interest.
When respondents do use AI, reported experience is largely positive: 79% cited learning as their top use case, 84% reported positive experiences at work, and 80% gave positive ratings for creative uses.
Employment status is the strongest predictor of usage. Respondents still working use AI at roughly three times the rate of retired respondents. A gender gap is also present: 31% of women report never having used AI, compared to 20% of men.
The most cited barrier is data privacy concerns (41%). The next two are about orientation: 34% do not know which tools to use, and 23% do not know where to start. Nineteen percent report no barriers. Eighty percent of respondents agree that not everything produced by AI has been checked for accuracy, which the report treats as evidence of baseline AI awareness rather than confusion.
EY calls for age-appropriate AI literacy programmes in libraries, adult education centres, and healthcare settings, alongside more accessible and lower-cost tools.
What the pattern shows
The week’s findings reveal a consistent gap between the populations that AI literacy policy addresses and those that data shows are being left behind. The EU Article 4 FAQ, the UNESCO student framework, and the US LIFT AI Act all target working-age adults and students; none covers older adults who have left the workforce. The EY survey quantifies the cost of that omission: a 40% non-usage rate among people aged 60 to 85, driven not by resistance but by a lack of relevant access points, support, and tools. The UN Global Fund proposal is the only instrument this week that frames capacity building as a universal entitlement rather than a workforce or classroom concern, but it remains unfunded.
Last updated: 2026-04-21