01 / Focused pathway
Research & write
Find evidence, resolve uncertainty and produce reports people can inspect.
You’ll produce
A sourced briefing, claim ledger, conflict log and revision record.
General AI course
The general AI course. Searchable.
105 existing lessons across the general course and Academy. Free public study. Thirty additional focused lessons are available in the pathways below. Account sync and badges apply only to supported general-course tracks.
Section I · Tracks
Pick a track. Run the reps.
Three numbered tiers (Foundations, Intermediate, Expert) are the spine. Two annex tracks bolt on for veterans with clearances or those moving into oversight roles. One standalone track, Optimize Your Workspace, sets up your files and memory so any AI works better. Below those: the eight Academy modules, the long-form curriculum that runs from orientation to production AI and federal mission work.
Foundations
AI-literate in four weeks. Free. No prereq.
Jump to track →
Intermediate
You stop using AI. You start shipping with it.
Jump to track →
Expert
Job-ready in applied AI. Production. Federal.
Jump to track →Cleared Track
AI for veterans with clearances. DoD, IC, primes, FFRDCs. Bolts onto any tier.
Jump to track →Leadership Track
For senior NCOs, warrants, and field-grades moving into AI oversight roles.
Jump to track →Optimize Your Workspace
Set up your files and memory so an AI always knows where to look. Standalone. Any tier.
Jump to track →Orientation & Placement
Find your start point. Set the ground rules. 3 lessons.
Jump to track →AI-Aware Operator
Use AI on real work. Verify everything before it ships.
Jump to track →Applied AI Practitioner
Redesign a real workflow. Measure the gain honestly.
Jump to track →AI Application Builder
Build AI applications with tests, controls, and evidence.
Jump to track →Production AI Engineer
Run AI systems in production. Reliability, cost, incident response.
Jump to track →Federal AI Mission Practitioner
Evidence for federal mission decisions. FedRAMP, RMF, ATO, acquisition.
Jump to track →AI Program Leader
Lead AI portfolios, risk, vendors, and delivery.
Jump to track →AI Career Evidence
Turn the work you did here into public, defensible proof.
Jump to track →Section II · All lessons
The full field manual.
Every lesson, every tier. Click any card to read. Sign in to track progress and earn the badge.
01 Foundations
AI-literate in four weeks. Free. No prereq.
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What AI actually is
Compare prompts, check claims against supplied facts and repair a useful draft. Leave with a three-sentence proposal and a fact-check note.
WATCH: 10:36 READ: 10 min DRILL: 15 min READY -
Five useful prompts and how to check them
Practice summarizing, rewriting, explaining, comparing and drafting using one fictional source packet.
WATCH: 1:46 READ: 3 min DRILL: 20 min READY -
Prompt like an Operator
Context, Task, Standards, Evidence: write bounded instructions and inspectable checks, then revise against a specific failure.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 6 min DRILL: 15 min READY -
When AI is wrong
Choose independent checks for source meaning, numbers, dates and unsupported claims.
WATCH: 1:47 READ: 3 min DRILL: 20 min READY -
AI for your transition
Draft truthful bullets, compare requirements with evidence and rehearse an interview using a fictional profile.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 3 min DRILL: 25 min READY -
AI vocabulary for choosing a workflow
Separate model, product, harness and environment; match text, reasoning, multimodal and retrieval capabilities to the task.
WATCH: 1:46 READ: 4 min DRILL: 20 min READY -
Where to go from here
Demonstrate a skill, identify a gap and build four weeks of bounded practice with observable criteria.
WATCH: 1:37 READ: 3 min DRILL: 20 min READY
02 Intermediate
You stop using AI. You start shipping with it.
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Python for AI work
Not general CS. The minimum Python you need to call AI APIs, handle data, and ship something. If you've never written Python, this lesson is for you. If you have, skim and move on.
WATCH: 1:38 READ: 16 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
AI API requests and safe response handling
Translate a bounded request, inspect completion and usage, and repair a guard that mistakes partial text for success. Required practice is a local simulation; provider examples are optional dated references.
WATCH: 11:41 READ: 14 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
Data fundamentals
SQL and pandas. Two tools for getting answers out of tabular data. Practice filtering, joining, cleaning and preserving data lineage.
WATCH: 1:38 READ: 18 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
Prompt engineering at scale
Foundations Lesson 03 taught you Operator prompts. This lesson teaches you to systematize them: templates, variables, structured output, chains. Same Operator framing, more reps, scalable code.
WATCH: 1:39 READ: 18 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
Retrieval-augmented generation, from scratch
RAG built end-to-end with no framework. Embeddings, chunks, similarity, prompt assembly. Once you've built one by hand, every framework's RAG is obvious.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 20 min DRILL: 45 min READY -
Vector databases and embeddings
When to graduate from numpy in memory to a real vector store. pgvector, Chroma, Pinecone, Weaviate: when to use what, and how to migrate without rebuilding everything.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 16 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
Agents and tool use
What agents actually are versus what the hype says. Function calling. Multi-step reasoning. When agents work, when they fail, and how to keep them on a leash.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 18 min DRILL: 45 min READY -
Evaluation and observability
How to know if your AI app is good, not how it feels. How it measures. Eval sets, regression tests, traces. The Operator move: standards that don't drift.
WATCH: 1:39 READ: 16 min DRILL: 45 min READY -
Cost, latency, and trade-offs
Money and time. Token economics, prompt caching, model selection. The Operator's job is to understand what every call costs and how long it takes. Know the numbers before the bill arrives.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 15 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
Capstone: ship something real
The last lesson of Intermediate. Pick a project. Scope it tightly. Build it end to end. Make a reproducible offline demo a reviewer can inspect. The portfolio you defend in interviews is the capstone.
WATCH: 1:39 READ: 14 min DRILL: 20 hr READY
03 Expert
Job-ready in applied AI. Production. Federal.
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ML and deep learning: enough to be dangerous
The minimum ML vocabulary and intuition you need to read papers, talk to ML scientists, and not get rolled in a design review. We skip the CS major. We pick up the concepts that pay back.
WATCH: 1:41 READ: 18 min DRILL: 45 min READY -
LLM internals: how transformers work
What's actually happening inside the model when you send a prompt. Attention, tokens, embeddings, decoding. The architecture that runs most production AI in 2026, explained without hand-waving.
WATCH: 2:16 READ: 18 min DRILL: 45 min READY -
Fine-tuning, post-training, and alignment
Choose prompting, lookup/retrieval, tools or adaptation from the observed failure mechanism. SFT, DPO and LoRA solve different parts of the problem.
WATCH: 1:48 READ: 17 min DRILL: 45 min READY -
Production deployment patterns and infrastructure
Going from a notebook to a production system that serves real users. Inference serving (vLLM, TGI), containerization, load balancing, autoscaling, GPU economics. The infrastructure patterns that hold up under federal load.
WATCH: 1:47 READ: 18 min DRILL: 45 min READY -
Monitoring, observability, and incident response
How you know your production AI system is healthy. SLOs and SLIs for AI. Traces, metrics, evals in production. Drift detection. The incident response playbook for AI systems. The discipline that separates engineering from theater.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 17 min DRILL: 45 min READY -
AI security: prompt injection, model risk, supply chain
How attackers will try to break your AI system. Direct and indirect prompt injection. Jailbreaks. Model extraction. Supply chain. Adversarial inputs. The defensive moves that work in 2026, and the ones that don't.
WATCH: 1:43 READ: 18 min DRILL: 45 min READY -
Federal AI compliance: NIST AI RMF from the engineer's seat
Apply GOVERN, MAP, MEASURE and MANAGE to engineering evidence, risk decisions and ownership. Distinguish voluntary framework guidance from actual organizational and authorization requirements.
WATCH: 1:45 READ: 16 min DRILL: 45 min READY -
ATO and FedRAMP for AI systems
Distinguish cloud-service evidence from agency system authorization, define the exact boundary, and prepare a reviewable synthetic decision record.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 16 min DRILL: 45 min READY -
Procurement from the engineer's chair
Reading SOOs and PWSs like an engineer. Writing the technical volume. Estimating level of effort honestly. Capability statements that get callbacks. The procurement skills senior engineers actually need on the federal side.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 15 min DRILL: 45 min READY -
Capstone: production AI in a federal context
Nine lessons in. The capstone is the system you can hand to a hiring panel, an evaluator, or a contracting officer and have it defend itself. Architecture, code, evals, security, compliance package, briefing. The portfolio piece that closes the deal.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 16 min DRILL: 40 hr READY
ANNEX A Cleared Track
AI for veterans with clearances. DoD, IC, primes, FFRDCs. Bolts onto any tier.
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What cleared AI work actually means
Separate mission, access and technical work. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:39 READ: 14 min DRILL: 20 min READY -
OPSEC for AI tools
Decide before disclosure. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 15 min DRILL: 20 min READY -
On-prem and air-gapped AI
Map the whole deployment. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 16 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
The cleared AI role landscape
Read the work behind the title. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:37 READ: 15 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
The certs that count
Choose credentials from requirements. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 14 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
Talking about your work without violating
Make claims both truthful and releasable. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 15 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
Where to go from here
Plan learning and authorized onboarding. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 13 min DRILL: 30 min READY
ANNEX B Leadership Track
For senior NCOs, warrants, and field-grades moving into AI oversight roles.
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What you actually need to know about AI as a leader
Describe a capability as a system. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:43 READ: 15 min DRILL: 20 min READY -
Vendor evaluation that doesn't get gamed
Run a reproducible mission comparison. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:35 READ: 16 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
Writing AI requirements into a contract
Turn outcomes into testable requirements. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 16 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
Risk management at the leader's altitude
Connect risk to controls and authority. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 15 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
The budget cycle and color of money
Estimate lifecycle work without authorizing spending. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:45 READ: 15 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
Building and managing an AI team
Build coverage around responsibilities. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 15 min DRILL: 30 min READY -
The first 180 days as an AI leader
Sequence evidence before scale. Learn with synthetic examples, bounded practice and evidence-based review.
WATCH: 1:41 READ: 14 min DRILL: 30 min READY
TRACK Optimize Your Workspace
Set up your files and memory so an AI always knows where to look. Standalone. Any tier.
MOD O Orientation & Placement
Find your start point. Set the ground rules. 3 lessons.
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Mission, roles, and the learning contract
Set honest expectations, select a defensible pathway, and establish the learning/data contract.
WATCH: 1:39 READ: 3 min DRILL: 2 hr READY -
Data handling and tool authorization gate
Make the stop/proceed decision before a prompt, upload, log, or action.
WATCH: 1:46 READ: 3 min DRILL: 2 hr READY -
Diagnostic and safe workspace setup
Create an isolated least-privilege workspace and use diagnostics without waiving safety.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 3 min DRILL: 2 hr READY
MOD F AI-Aware Operator
Use AI on real work. Verify everything before it ships.
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What modern AI systems do
Build an accurate system-level mental model of capability and limitation.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 3 min DRILL: 2 hr READY -
Safe use before prompting
Turn authorization and minimization into a daily operating habit.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 3 min DRILL: 2 hr READY -
Prompt like an operator: Context, Task, Standards, Evidence
Write bounded, testable instructions without treating prompts as security controls.
WATCH: 1:47 READ: 3 min DRILL: 2 hr READY -
Verification, sources, and calibrated confidence
Practice claim-level verification for consequential output.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 3 min DRILL: 2 hr READY -
Research, summarization, and drafting
Produce source-bounded work with visible provenance.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 3 min DRILL: 2 hr READY -
Decision support and human oversight
Expand analysis without delegating accountability.
WATCH: 1:47 READ: 3 min DRILL: 2 hr READY -
Tools, multimodal inputs, and agent boundaries
Recognize how retrieval and action expand risk and design least-privilege boundaries.
WATCH: 1:47 READ: 3 min DRILL: 2 hr READY -
Foundations field exercise
Demonstrate safe end-to-end work on an unfamiliar bounded task.
WATCH: 1:45 READ: 3 min DRILL: 3 hr READY
MOD A Applied AI Practitioner
Redesign a real workflow. Measure the gain honestly.
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Workflow audit and use-case selection
Select bounded work where AI can create measurable value without exceeding risk.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 3 min DRILL: 3 hr READY -
Reusable CTSE workflows and quality standards
Convert a successful prompt into a controlled reproducible package.
WATCH: 1:43 READ: 3 min DRILL: 3 hr READY -
Data preparation, provenance, and records
Prepare information while preserving ownership, lineage, minimization, and lifecycle.
WATCH: 1:35 READ: 3 min DRILL: 3 hr READY -
Source-grounded research and retrieval
Preserve claim-level traceability while resisting stale, missing, contradictory, or malicious content.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 3 min DRILL: 4 hr READY -
Documents, spreadsheets, and multimodal work
Produce accessible office artifacts with medium-specific verification.
WATCH: 1:41 READ: 3 min DRILL: 4 hr READY -
Workflow evaluation and operational metrics
Determine whether a workflow improves work using representative evidence and predeclared gates.
WATCH: 1:41 READ: 3 min DRILL: 4 hr READY -
Team rollout, change control, and incident handling
Move a workflow to controlled team use with ownership, rollback, and evidence preservation.
WATCH: 1:43 READ: 3 min DRILL: 4 hr READY -
Applied workflow capstone
Integrate authorization, design, evidence, operations, handoff, and defense.
WATCH: 1:43 READ: 3 min DRILL: 4 hr READY
MOD B AI Application Builder
Build AI applications with tests, controls, and evidence.
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Command line, Git, Python, and environments
Create reproducible work from a clean directory.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 5 min DRILL: 8 hr READY -
HTTP, JSON, APIs, secrets, and failure handling
Interpret request/response behavior and status codes.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 5 min DRILL: 8 hr READY -
Provider-neutral generation APIs
Define a minimal provider-neutral contract.
WATCH: 1:43 READ: 5 min DRILL: 8 hr READY -
Data engineering for AI applications
Validate mixed-format inputs against explicit schemas.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 5 min DRILL: 9 hr READY -
Software quality, testing, and safe telemetry
Choose unit, integration, and contract tests.
WATCH: 1:41 READ: 5 min DRILL: 9 hr READY -
Structured outputs and bounded tools
Validate structured outputs independently of the model.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 5 min DRILL: 8 hr READY -
Retrieval baseline from first principles
Chunk content with stable source identifiers.
WATCH: 1:38 READ: 5 min DRILL: 9 hr READY -
Production RAG: authorization, hybrid search, and grounding
Filter by authorization before content reaches generation.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 5 min DRILL: 12 hr READY -
Evaluation design and release gates
Design representative and adversarial cases.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 5 min DRILL: 10 hr READY -
Agents and tool use under control
Implement an explicit decide-act-observe state loop.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 5 min DRILL: 12 hr READY -
Deployment, operations, and cost evidence
Package configuration separately from code.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 5 min DRILL: 9 hr READY -
Builder capstone and technical defense
Integrate a reproducible bounded application.
WATCH: 1:38 READ: 5 min DRILL: 40 hr READY
MOD P Production AI Engineer
Run AI systems in production. Reliability, cost, incident response.
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Machine learning foundations for system builders
Distinguish learning regimes and their evidence needs.
WATCH: 1:43 READ: 5 min DRILL: 10 hr READY -
Transformer and inference internals
Trace tokenization, attention, residual flow, and decoding.
WATCH: 1:45 READ: 5 min DRILL: 12 hr READY -
Adaptation, fine-tuning, and post-training decisions
Choose among prompting, retrieval, tools, tuning, and replacement.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 5 min DRILL: 12 hr READY -
Production architecture and inference serving
Translate workload and SLOs into capacity.
WATCH: 1:41 READ: 5 min DRILL: 12 hr READY -
AI threat modeling and adversarial testing
Map assets, actors, trust boundaries, and abuse paths.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 5 min DRILL: 14 hr READY -
Identity, authorization, privacy, and data protection
Implement least-privilege authorization for users and services.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 5 min DRILL: 12 hr READY -
Evaluation engineering and statistical evidence
Design stratified comparisons tied to risks and populations.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 5 min DRILL: 14 hr READY -
Observability, safe logging, and incident response
Define signals across application, model, retrieval, and tools.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 5 min DRILL: 14 hr READY -
Reliable workflows and agents
Model durable state explicitly.
WATCH: 1:42 READ: 5 min DRILL: 14 hr READY -
Performance, reliability, and resource governance
Test latency, throughput, availability, and degradation.
WATCH: 1:43 READ: 5 min DRILL: 12 hr READY -
Secure supply chain and continuous delivery
Inventory code, model, data, dependency, and image artifacts.
WATCH: 1:38 READ: 5 min DRILL: 12 hr READY -
Production capstone, incident exercise, and board
Operate a production-like synthetic service against SLOs and gates.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 5 min DRILL: 64 hr READY
MOD G Federal AI Mission Practitioner
Evidence for federal mission decisions. FedRAMP, RMF, ATO, acquisition.
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Mission, information, and authorization boundaries
Information and authority matrix. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:47 READ: 6 min DRILL: 6 hr READY -
OPSEC and approved AI use
Disclosure and aggregation. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:45 READ: 6 min DRILL: 6 hr READY -
FedRAMP 20x, cloud impact levels, and authorization boundaries
Offering-specific boundary review. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:45 READ: 6 min DRILL: 10 hr READY -
RMF and the Authority to Operate
RMF implementation and assessment. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:43 READ: 6 min DRILL: 10 hr READY -
Continuous authorization and DevSecOps evidence
Continuous attributable evidence. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 6 min DRILL: 9 hr READY -
Federal AI governance and high-impact use
Analyze the function before choosing a policy label.. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:46 READ: 6 min DRILL: 10 hr READY -
On-premises, disconnected, and open-weights operations
Disconnected configuration operations. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:41 READ: 6 min DRILL: 10 hr READY -
Federal acquisition artifacts for engineers
Acquisition comments engineers can defend. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:41 READ: 6 min DRILL: 9 hr READY -
Federal specialization capstone and board
Traceable capstone defense. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:39 READ: 7 min DRILL: 34 hr READY
MOD L AI Program Leader
Lead AI portfolios, risk, vendors, and delivery.
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Leader's model of AI capability and accountability
System accountability. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:35 READ: 7 min DRILL: 6 hr READY -
Use-case portfolio, value, and stop decisions
Value and counterfactuals. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:39 READ: 6 min DRILL: 7 hr READY -
Vendor evaluation and mission bake-off
Reproducible mission comparison. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:41 READ: 6 min DRILL: 8 hr READY -
Requirements, test strategy, and acceptance
Executable acceptance requirements. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:43 READ: 6 min DRILL: 8 hr READY -
AI risk governance and incident leadership
Incident facts and recovery gates. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:37 READ: 6 min DRILL: 8 hr READY -
Funding, lifecycle resources, and fiscal role discipline
Lifecycle quantity planning. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:45 READ: 6 min DRILL: 7 hr READY -
Team, operating model, and 180-day leadership practicum
Operating coverage and evidence gates. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:38 READ: 7 min DRILL: 8 hr READY
MOD T AI Career Evidence
Turn the work you did here into public, defensible proof.
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Role families and evidence-based gap analysis
Requirement-to-evidence mapping. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:40 READ: 6 min DRILL: 5 hr READY -
Resume, profile, and interview translation with OPSEC
Truthful contribution and disclosure. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:36 READ: 6 min DRILL: 6 hr READY -
Portfolio, technical narrative, and credential selection
Reproducible portfolio packaging. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:44 READ: 6 min DRILL: 7 hr READY -
Career campaign and evidence defense
A claim must fit the artifact that supports it.. Apply the method to synthetic evidence, explain the result and review its limitations.
WATCH: 1:41 READ: 7 min DRILL: 6 hr READY
Learn for the work you do
What do you want to accomplish?
Keep the general AI course as your foundation, or follow a focused sequence. Each pathway adds six lessons, supplied practice and a practical capstone. Switch or combine paths anytime.
02 / Focused pathway
Business & everyday work
Create useful correspondence, plans and procedures, then check the work before acting.
You’ll produce
A checked work packet and a repeatable workflow with review and recovery steps.
03 / Focused pathway
Analyze data & support decisions
Check data and calculations, explain uncertainty and make reproducible recommendations.
You’ll produce
A cleaned dataset, calculation record, decision note and limitations.
04 / Focused pathway
Build & automate
Build bounded applications and automations with inspectable outputs and meaningful tests.
You’ll produce
A bounded offline workflow, negative-case tests, checked artifact and release note.
05 / Focused pathway
Lead & evaluate AI use
Select worthwhile uses, evaluate evidence and govern bounded pilots.
You’ll produce
An options assessment, vendor question set, pilot plan and accountable decision record.
Free public self-study. Supplied practice needs no paid AI account. Estimates include reading and practice; completion is self-reviewed.