Bridging the AI Divide: Digital Capabilities, AI Literacy, and Life Satisfaction in a National Sample

The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) across health, education, agriculture, economy, public services, and daily life (Almatrafi et al., 2024; Kaya et al., 2025; Ng et al., 2021) has created both unprecedented opportunities and a growing concern: those who lack the skills to interact with AI risk being left behind socially and economically (Beltran et al., 2024; Carter et al., 2020). This emerging AI divide parallels and extends the traditional digital divide, as AI literacy, which refers to the multidimensional ability to understand, use, evaluate, and interact with AI technologies critically and ethically (Almatrafi et al., 2024; Yi, 2021), becomes essential for full participation in the so-called AI era. Despite the importance of AI literacy, a notable research gap persists: approximately 75% of published AI literacy studies have focused on students or educational settings (Almatrafi et al., 2024; Zhang et al., 2024), leaving the needs and behaviors of the general public under-examined. This imbalance is problematic, as adults (including working professionals, parents, and seniors) are increasingly encountering AI technologies in workplaces and daily life without formal AI education. While some scholars have begun extending the scope to general populations, for instance, (Carolus et al., 2023) developed a comprehensive Meta AI Literacy Scale to measure AI literacy competencies in general users, and (Kaya et al., 2025) demonstrated that adults’ AI literacy is positively associated with their digital well-being, such studies remain scarce.