Beyond The Tool: AI Literacy Workshop Kit
A facilitated workshop curriculum for design schools and product teams that uses the 'tools shape us' framing to teach critical evaluation of AI features — beyond 'just use it well.'
Design educators and product ethics leads running AI training
- Four 90-minute session plans with readings on Heidegger's Gestell and tool politics
- Real case studies (cars, hammers, AI assistants) adapted for student discussion
- Group activity template mapping how a proposed AI feature reshapes user behavior
- Slide deck and facilitator guide licensed per institution
The 'AI is just a tool' phrase ranks top-2 on Google and is shaping public and academic discourse; the author himself notes there's no better critical framework in circulation.
Multiple established providers (AI for Education, litpartners.ai, ATD, Amii, SquareCX, TeachAI) actively selling AI literacy workshops to educators and product teams, and the 'AI is just a tool' critique has gone cross-platform viral (HN, Medium, Substack, WordPress) — indicating real demand for critical-framing alternatives.Professional Development Workshops — AI for Education ↗Stop saying that AI is just a tool and it only matters how it is used ↗
Adjacent space is crowded (AI for Education sells an 'Ethical Use of GenAI for Educators' workshop; Amii and ATD sell AI ethics workshops), but the specific Heidegger/Postphenomenology 'tools shape us' framing aimed at design schools and product ethics leads is a narrower niche with no direct competitor surfaced.Professional Development Workshops — AI for Education ↗AI Ethics — Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute ↗
Corporate/educator PD workshops clearly monetize (AI for Education runs an extensive paid PD catalog and courses), but selling a curriculum kit rather than delivered facilitation faces downward price pressure and depends on school PD budgets that are often modest; willingness-to-pay for a niche critical-theory add-on is unproven.Professional Development Workshops — AI for Education ↗AI for Instructional Design Workshop - ATD ↗
Critical AI literacy is a durable concern as AI features embed deeper into products; discourse shows the 'tools shape us' framing is gaining traction in academia and tech press, though the specific viral meme may cool — overall the underlying need (ethics training for designers) should persist for years.Why "AI is just a tool" is a dodge ↗
A facilitated workshop kit is mostly authored content (slide decks, exercises, facilitator notes, reading lists) — no technical infrastructure, no model dependencies, minimal ongoing costs; shippable in weeks.How to Build Workshops for AI Literacy Training ↗