Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly present in the everyday lives of young people. It shapes how they search for information, communicate, learn, create content and interact with digital platforms. Yet frequent use of technology does not necessarily mean that young people feel prepared to understand how these systems work, assess their risks or use them critically.
For AIDA – AI for All: Empowering Digital Citizens, this is why research comes before training.
The project’s current research phase is designed to understand what young people actually need in order to participate confidently and responsibly in increasingly AI-shaped digital environments. Rather than assuming that all young people have the same knowledge, opportunities or challenges, AIDA is examining different experiences, skills gaps, motivations and barriers to participation.
The findings will provide the foundation for the next stages of the project, including the Grow & Go online course and the future Virtual Youth Exchanges.
Research in progress: listening before designing
AIDA’s Research and Online Course Work Package is led by PRONA, with the participation of all project partners from Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Italy.
The research combines different methods, including questionnaires, focus groups, literature and desk research, and interviews. Its purpose is to explore young people’s previous experiences, identify areas in which they feel less confident and understand which knowledge, skills and tools could help them participate more effectively in future learning and virtual exchange activities.
The research also looks at motivation and learning preferences. Understanding which formats young people find accessible, useful and engaging is important if future educational activities are expected to respond to their real circumstances rather than simply provide information.
This process is therefore not separate from the educational activities that will follow. It is intended to guide them.
Digital skills and AI awareness
One of the central questions for AIDA is what it means to be digitally competent in an environment increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence.
Young people may already use AI-assisted tools for studying, searching, writing, translation or content creation. They also interact daily with recommendation systems and algorithms through social media, video platforms and search engines.
However, practical familiarity does not always correspond to a deeper understanding of how these technologies operate or influence digital experiences.
AI awareness involves more than knowing that artificial intelligence exists. It includes understanding that AI-generated information may contain errors, that automated systems can influence the content people see, and that the outputs of digital tools need to be assessed rather than automatically accepted.
For this reason, AIDA is interested in the relationship between practical digital skills and critical digital literacy. Future learning activities will aim to help participants use digital technologies while also developing the ability to question, evaluate and make informed decisions about them.
Privacy, bias and misinformation
Digital competence also involves recognising the risks that can accompany the use of AI and online platforms.
Privacy is one of these areas. Young people regularly share information with digital services, sometimes without being fully aware of what data are collected, how they may be processed or why certain personal information should not be entered into AI systems.
Bias represents another important challenge. Artificial intelligence systems learn from data, and those data may reflect existing inequalities, stereotypes or gaps in representation. Understanding this is important for recognising that an automated result is not necessarily objective simply because it has been produced by technology.
Misinformation adds another layer of complexity. Generative AI makes it increasingly easy to produce realistic text, images and other forms of digital content. This creates new possibilities for communication and creativity, but also makes source verification and critical thinking increasingly important.
Future AIDA activities are expected to work with practical situations such as analysing unreliable information, recognising AI-generated or manipulated content, examining algorithmic bias and discussing the ethical implications of AI in education, employment and society.
The objective is not simply to identify risks. It is to give young people practical strategies for responding to them.
Inclusion and barriers to participation
The opportunities created by digital education are not experienced equally.
Access to devices and stable internet connections can differ significantly. Language can make high-quality resources difficult to use. Some young people may have had fewer opportunities to develop digital competences through school or non-formal education. Others may face economic, geographical, social or accessibility barriers.
These differences matter particularly in a project based on virtual exchange.
AIDA therefore places inclusion within the research process itself. The project aims to identify barriers and perspectives affecting young people, including those with fewer opportunities, and to understand the conditions that can support meaningful participation.
This can influence practical decisions about future activities: how learning materials are structured, which digital tools are selected, how much preparation participants need, what accessibility measures should be incorporated and how flexible the learning process should be.
An inclusive online learning environment cannot be created simply by making a course available on the internet. It requires understanding who may struggle to access or use it and adapting the learning experience accordingly.
Turning research into learning
The research phase has a direct purpose within AIDA: its findings will inform the development of the Grow & Go online course.
Rather than designing the course independently and then asking young people to adapt to it, AIDA intends to use the evidence collected during the research phase to determine the knowledge, skills, tools and learning approaches that participants need.
The Grow & Go course is planned as a flexible online learning experience using interactive lessons, practical exercises, case studies and multimedia resources. Its themes will connect digital skills with intercultural understanding, democratic participation, sustainability and innovative learning methodologies.
Research findings will also contribute to preparing the later Virtual Youth Exchanges, where participants will have opportunities to apply their learning through international collaboration.
These exchanges will explore themes including inclusion and diversity, digital transformation, youth participation in democratic life, sustainability and innovative methodologies.
The relationship between research, learning and exchange is central to the project: first understand the needs, then design appropriate learning opportunities, and finally create spaces where participants can apply their knowledge together.
Building learning around real experiences
Young people are not a single, uniform group of “digital natives”. Their experiences with technology differ according to education, social context, access, confidence, language and previous opportunities.
Understanding those differences is particularly important in the age of AI, because technological change can create opportunities while also reinforcing existing inequalities.
AIDA’s research phase is intended to ensure that future project activities start from those real experiences.
By listening to young people, youth workers, educators and other relevant actors, the project can identify where support is most useful and translate that evidence into educational activities that are practical, inclusive and relevant.
The aim is to create learning opportunities that help young people not only use digital and AI tools, but understand them, question them and participate more confidently in the digital environments that increasingly shape education, work and civic life.
About AIDA
AIDA – AI for All: Empowering Digital Citizens
Project No. 101253098
Erasmus+ Virtual Exchanges in the Western Balkans
Call: ERASMUS-EDU-2025-VIRT-EXCH
Project duration: 1 February 2026 – 31 January 2029
AIDA brings together organisations from Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Italy to strengthen digital, intercultural and civic competences among young people and youth workers through research, online learning and virtual exchange.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.