Applied AI for Professionals
Build with Python, data and language models over twelve weeks
Usman Tariq
Professor of Practice · AI Engineering
About this course
Applied AI for Professionals is the campus course for the three-month short course. It is organised in three month-long modules plus a capstone, and assumes no programming experience at the start.
Month one teaches exactly the Python and data handling you need to clean, join and describe real datasets. Month two builds a first predictive model and spends as much time on reading its results honestly as on training it. Month three is generative AI: calling a language model from code, retrieval over your own documents, and automation with guardrails.
Labs run in your browser. The capstone is an AI feature or automation for your own workplace, scoped in week nine and demonstrated in week twelve.
What you will be able to do
- Write and read enough Python to clean data, call APIs and automate repetitive work.
- Train, validate and explain a simple predictive model, including precision, recall and the cost of errors.
- Build a retrieval-backed assistant over a document set and evaluate its answers.
- Scope, build and present an AI feature or automation for a real business problem.
Curriculum
14 lessons · 4h 6m
- 01
Month 1 · Python and data for AI work
The smallest useful subset of Python, applied to real, messy data.
- Python in a week: the parts you needPreview20 min
- Lab · Clean a customer list30 min
- Tables, joins and the questions that matter15 min
- Module quiz · Python and data6 min
- 02
Month 2 · Machine learning without the mystery
A first predictive model, and the discipline of reading its results honestly.
- Your first predictive model20 min
- Reading a model's results honestly14 min
- Lab · Precision, recall and the cost of being wrong30 min
- Module quiz · Models and metrics6 min
- 03
Month 3 · Generative AI and automation
Call a model from code, give it your documents, automate with guardrails.
- Calling a language model from code18 min
- Retrieval: giving the model your documents15 min
- Lab · Chunk a document for retrieval30 min
- Automation with guardrails12 min
- 04
Capstone
Scope, build, measure and present an AI feature for your workplace.
- Capstone brief · An AI feature for your workplace20 min
- Final assessment10 min