Really useful personas for generative AI trainers from the AI Proficiency report. I seem to be encountering mostly experimenters and newcomers in workshops I'm doing, although always have one or two AI Power Users who share their experience.
The challenge in adoption is moving the newcomers to experimenters while leveraging the expertise and knowledge of power users without creating any power dynamics.
AI Power Users: Early adopters of AI and use the tools daily, primarily relying on paid versions of LLMs. Highly skilled at prompting and uses AI for multiple purposes beyond just content generation, including as a thought partner, teachers, and researcher. They report time savings, with many saving over 30% of their work time weekly. They work at organizations that openly approve of and support AI use, often providing training and access to enterprise AI tools. (7% of survey respondents)
AI Experimenters: This group uses AI about once a week and is starting to see some productivity gains, typically saving a few hours per week. They use a mix of free and paid AI tools but haven't fully integrated AI into their daily workflows. Experimenters have basic prompting skills and mainly use AI for text and image generation. While their companies generally approve of AI use, they may not have provided formal training or deployed company-wide AI tools yet. (25% of users)
AI Newcomers: Representing the majority of knowledge workers, Newcomers use AI infrequently - only a few times a month or less. They primarily rely on free AI tools and haven't received formal training on AI use. Newcomers report minimal time savings from AI and have limited prompting skills. While their employers may approve of AI use, there's often a lack of concrete support or resources provided. Many Newcomers are interested in AI but don't know where to start or how to effectively integrate it into their work. (57% of users)
AI Skeptics:This group rarely or never uses AI and reports no time savings from it. Skeptics almost exclusively use free AI tools when they do engage with the technology. They have the lowest prompting skills of all groups. Interestingly, many Skeptics work for organizations that approve of AI use, but these companies often haven't taken a clear stance on AI or provided any formal guidance or training. This lack of clear policy and support seems to breed uncertainty and reluctance to engage with AI among Skeptics. (11% of users)
The report suggests that the key factors differentiating these groups are:
1. Frequency of AI use
2. Access to and use of paid AI tools
3. Prompting skills and AI proficiency
4. Variety of AI use cases employed
5. Level of company support and training provided
6. Clear organizational policies on AI use
