The PAILQ-6, or Perceived Artificial Intelligence Literacy Questionnaire, is a concise, reliable psychometric tool created to assess individuals’ self-perceived competence and confidence in AI literacy. Its development involved a comprehensive validation process, evaluating psychometric properties like factor structure, internal consistency, and construct validity, making it robust and accurate. Validated across diverse samples, the PAILQ-6 has shown consistency and reliability, suggesting it performs well across different demographic and cultural contexts and is applicable in varied settings.

The PAILQ-6 uses a 7-point scale for each item, ranging from 1 ("Strongly disagree") to 7 ("Strongly agree"). Higher scores (closer to 7) indicate a stronger perceived understanding and engagement with AI, while lower scores (closer to 1) suggest a less developed self-perception of AI literacy.

The validation of the PAILQ-6 revealed a two-factor structure, indicating that AI literacy comprises distinct but interrelated dimensions. The first factor, often termed "Awareness Literacy," encompasses foundational knowledge of AI, the ability to critically evaluate AI's benefits and drawbacks, and confidence in discussing AI with others. This factor reflects a deeper conceptual understanding of AI alongside ethical reasoning and communicative ease. The second factor, "Engagement Literacy," involves items assessing an individual’s proactive engagement with AI, including staying updated on AI advancements, confidence in contributing to AI projects, and innovative thinking in applying AI technologies. Both factors demonstrated good internal consistency, supporting the reliability of these subscales as standalone measures. This structure suggests that the PAILQ-6 can effectively capture both a broad understanding of AI and a dynamic engagement with its evolving applications, making it a versatile tool for measuring AI literacy.

This tool is helpful for various applications, particularly in research focused on understanding public perceptions of AI literacy, attitudes toward AI, and technology adoption. It can serve researchers, educators, and policymakers by providing insights into AI literacy levels, informing educational initiatives, communication strategies, and policy development. Additionally, the PAILQ-6 can benefit organizations seeking to assess their workforce’s AI readiness, allowing them to tailor training and support initiatives accordingly.

Original validation study:

Grassini, S. (2024, October). A psychometric validation of the PAILQ-6: Perceived Artificial Intelligence Literacy Questionnaire. In Proceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 1–10). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3679318.3685359

Scoring Instructions: . The final score is calculated by averaging responses to all six items, providing a composite score that reflects respondents' overall self-perceived AI literacy. Additionally, each factor can be analyzed independently by averaging the responses for the respective foctor constituent items, providing focused insights into these specific dimensions of AI literacy.