"If You're Very Clever, No One Knows You've Used It": The Social Dynamics of Developing Generative AI Literacy in the Workplace

ArXi:2602.01386v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Generative AI (GenAI) tools are rapidly transforming knowledge work, making AI literacy a critical priority for organizations. However, research on AI literacy lacks empirical insight into how knowledge workers' beliefs around GenAI literacy are shaped by the social dynamics of the workplace, and how workers learn to apply GenAI tools in these environments. To address this gap, we conducted in-depth interviews with 19 knowledge workers across multiple sectors to examine how they develop GenAI competencies in real-world professional contexts.