What the Standard defines
The ALiF Standard defines the knowledge, skills and dispositions that enable professionals to understand, evaluate, apply and govern AI tools in their work. It is written for health care and higher education, and it is built to be adapted across professional roles and cultural contexts.
It sets out:
- five components of AI literacy: Technical Understanding, Critical Evaluation, Practical Application, Ethical Considerations and Data Literacy;
- sixteen sub-competencies that make the components specific;
- three progression levels: Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced;
- role adaptation principles that let each profession describe the same competencies in its own terms without changing them;
- conformance requirements that say what an organization, program or instrument must do to claim that it conforms or is aligned.
One construct, many roles
AI literacy in ALiF is a single construct that takes different forms in different jobs. The structure is the same for everyone. What changes between a clinician, an educator, a researcher, a student and an administrator is how each sub-competency is described, how it is assessed, and which ones matter most.
Principles
The Standard rests on these principles: progressive development across levels; integrated learning across components; practical application, because AI literacy shows in use rather than knowledge alone; an ethical foundation embedded throughout; role adaptation; and continuous development, because tools and contexts keep changing.
What the Standard does not cover
- Building AI systems. ALiF covers the knowledge needed to use AI well, not to engineer it.
- General digital literacy. Basic computer and software skills are assumed.
- Domain expertise. A clinician’s medical knowledge or an educator’s teaching expertise is a precondition of AI literacy, not part of it.
Normative and informative sections
Sections marked normative define the construct and the requirements for conformance. Informative sections give guidance and examples. In normative sections, “must” is a requirement, “should” is a strong recommendation that may be departed from with a documented reason, and “may” is permitted but optional.
Validation
The Standard was developed through literature review, analysis of existing frameworks, expert consultation and stakeholder input. Validation of the ALiF self-assessment questionnaire is under way, and its results will feed into future versions through the Versioning and Review Policy.