GenAI Quickstart

Artificial Intelligence is everywhere — news headlines, staff meetings, your phone’s keyboard. Yet the jargon pile-up (AI, ML, Gen AI, LLMs…) can make it feel like you’ve missed a prerequisite. This lesson provides some critical vocabulary and high-level context to ground students for their AI journey.

Explore what GenAI can (and can't) do at work, understand the core GenAI capaiblities, and discover some ways to put GenAI to work for you right away.

When most of us first encounter a Generative AI tool, we treat it like a search engine or a magician. Unlocking the true professional power of AI requires a mindset shift - moving from simple requests and questions to clear, detailed, well-structured instructions. This lesson will help you speak the language of GenAI: the prompt.

The lesson covers critical security practices, including identifying sensitive data, understanding privacy implications of AI platforms, and adhering to approved tools. We’ll discuss the "Human-in-the-Loop" framework, to explore the important dynamic relationship and role that humans play when using AI tools to ensure responsible AI output and prevent over-reliance. Finally, we look at the environmental impact of AI and steps we can take to limit overuse.

Many of the science fiction depictions of AI involve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) - human-like AI that works alongside - or in place of - humans. In this lesson, we look at the hype vs. the reality. This lesson introduces AI Agents as the current evolution of AI, moving from simple tools to collaborative teammates capable of multi-step actions and complex goal completion. We'll also discuss the theoretical concept of AGI, and what it might mean for the future of work. We’ll also explore ways to keep skills sharp as AI continues to advance and gain prominence in the workplace.

In this lesson, we'll look back on the key takeaways from this course and provide some practical next steps to continue your learning and enhance your skills with GenAI.