The event celebrates the new report by the National Literacy Trust on the use of AI to support literacy

Please join DISC and our AI Literacies working group, in conversation with Irene Picton from the National Literacy Trust, to celebrate NLT’s new report, Young people and teachers’ use of generative AI to support literacy in 2025

Irene’s presentation will share findings based on data from young people (13–18) taking part in the National Literacy Trust’s 2025 Annual Literacy Survey, focusing on 32,757 who used generative AI, with insights complemented by a survey of 2,908 UK teachers. The findings demonstrate growing concerns around how generative AI is affecting how literacy skills are valued and enacted, with AI tools bringing issues around academic integrity, critical thinking and intrinsic motivation to learn to the fore. We highlight the need to balance AI’s potential with the enduring value of strong literacy skills.

Irene Picton will be joined by members of the AI Literacies Group from Manchester Met Digital Societies Research Group (DISC), to disuss the report.

Irene Picton is a Senior Research Manager at the National Literacy Trust . Her research focuses on children and young people’s experiences of literacy in a digital world, exploring reading for pleasure alongside critical, digital and media literacy, and she sits on the Ofcom Research, Evidence and Evaluation working group.

AI Literacies working group is a sub-gorup of DISC, bringing together researchers from across Social Sciences, Humanities and teh Arts, to address the urgent need to understand and theorise our engagement with AI in all spheres of social, cultural and political life. “AI literacy” (or even “literacies”) extends far beyond the technical understanding of how artificial intelligence and associated technologies work.