NDIA trainer: AI is reshaping digital-skilling but raises new teaching and security challenges

Nate Stone, who leads the digital navigator working group at the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, told the advisory group that AI has become an extension of everyday digital-skilling work and must be integrated into instruction. "AI tools have become so integrated into so many of the platforms that are necessary to teach basic, basic skills that you can't avoid teaching AI if you're teaching someone email or internet basics, right?" he said.

Stone described practical dilemmas for trainers: practitioners must teach both how tools work and professional norms for their use. He gave the example of job-seekers using generative chat tools to prepare for interviews and then using those same tools in ways employers view as inappropriate. He said the field is wrestling with where to set norms for acceptable AI use in job-search and workplace contexts.

Stone also warned that AI is "supercharging" security risks: phishing and scams are becoming more convincing because AI can generate tailored, well-formed messages that avoid old red flags. That has increased demand for stronger digital-security and media-literacy lessons as part of skill-building programs.

He described two pilots: a workforce program in Kentucky that integrated AI into job-search classes with measurable success, and a basic-skills pilot that produced mixed comprehension when introducing AI concepts alongside internet basics. Stone recommended peer learning among organizations to identify tools that are genuinely useful and cautioned against vendor-driven product pushes.