The AI revolution is moving so fast that even the most tech-savvy among us are struggling to keep up. And that’s a huge problem. While more and more organizations realize they need AI skills, the vast majority still aren’t providing the training people desperately need.
Enter SmarterX and its founder, Paul Roetzer, who just launched a major new initiative to solve exactly this problem. It’s called The AI Literacy Project, and it aims to make AI education far more accessible and personalized for professionals across every industry—not just marketing.
What is the project? And what does it mean for you?
I recently got the inside scoop from Roetzer on the project on Episode 132 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.
If you’ve been paying any attention to AI, you’ll know it’s no longer a theoretical future: it’s here. Yet many of us (and our organizations) haven’t caught up.
According to Accenture, 94% of workers want to develop new AI skills, but only 5% of companies are providing training at scale. Meanwhile, Marketing AI Institute’s 2024 State of Marketing AI Report found that:
That disconnect couldn’t be more alarming. And it’s exactly what The AI Literacy Project hopes to fix.
The AI Literacy Project is an initiative to prepare individuals and organizations for the future of work by making AI education accessible and personalized through three broad pillars:
The AI Literacy Project is anchored in the belief that AI literacy is not just a competitive advantage, but a career and business imperative.
The AI Literacy Project is spearheaded by SmarterX, a research and education firm owned by Roetzer that is Marketing AI Institute's sister company.
Roetzer’s team isn’t just dropping a few courses and calling it a day. They’re launching a long-term initiative anchored by a set of guiding principles. Here are just a few:
In essence, SmarterX wants to help businesses and society harness AI’s benefits—while remaining laser-focused on the value of human creativity, knowledge, and emotion.
Roetzer outlined a phased roadmap for making all this happen:
Roetzer calls this moment in AI a “once in a generation opportunity to reimagine everything.” In his view, the big-name AI leaders agree that the next five years will bring radical change—possibly even the advent of AGI (artificial general intelligence) or superintelligence.
"If that's the case, we have to have a far greater sense of urgency as a society to figure this stuff out and to enable more people in more professions to develop domain expertise about AI relevant to them, their career paths, and their companies," he says.
SmarterX’s goal is to meet that urgency head-on with a flexible, scalable learning system that helps:
If you’re interested in upskilling yourself or your team, check out literacyproject.ai to see what’s available now—and what’s coming soon. You’ll also find core principles, details about the membership program, and ways to partner with SmarterX.
In a world where AI capabilities are leaping forward almost daily, initiatives like the AI Literacy Project are a rare bright spot—giving people and businesses the skills they need to keep pace (and even get ahead).
It’s a mission that many will find not just ambitious, but absolutely essential.