In the current context, marked by the centrality of images and the mediation of artificial intelligence, visual literacy competencies have become key. However, the available evidence on their level among Education students in Ecuador is limited. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to diagnose visual literacy competencies in pre-service teachers, with a complementary objective of analyzing whether a significant correlation exists between the level of these competencies and participants' sex. The study adopted a quantitative approach and was classified as descriptive cross-sectional. The population consisted of 151 students from the Basic Education program at a higher education institution focused on teacher training in Ecuador. Participants were selected through non-probabilistic convenience sampling, resulting in a sample of 122 students. In order to carry out the diagnosis, a 37-item test based on contributions from the Association of College & Research Libraries was applied. Data analysis was performed using Excel and the Jamovi statistical software. The main results revealed that the level of competencies is predominantly medium and beginner, indicating that students are at a basic level of visual consumption. Regarding sex, the Spearman correlation analysis did not provide sufficient evidence to support a significant relationship. Therefore, the main conclusion is that the visual training of future teachers faces critical challenges amplified by artificial intelligence, such as blindness to bias, vulnerability to misinformation, and ethical and legal problems, among others.