Beginner

AI Foundations

A plain-English grounding in how modern AI actually works.

Programme Overview

A comprehensive introduction to artificial intelligence for professionals who need to lead, commission, or collaborate on AI work without becoming data scientists. Covers the intuition behind large language models, the realities of current capability and limitation, and a practical framework for identifying AI opportunities in your own organisation.

What You'll Learn

Explain how modern AI systems work without relying on jargon
Distinguish between traditional ML, generative AI, and agentic systems
Identify high-value AI use cases in your organisation
Recognise the risks, limitations, and failure modes of current AI
Brief stakeholders and commission AI work with confidence

Who It's For

Managers and directors across any function
Founders evaluating AI for their business
Marketers, product owners, and operational leaders

Prerequisites

No technical background required

Curriculum

- A brief history of AI and where we are now
- Understanding large language models
- Traditional ML vs. generative AI vs. agents
- Tokens, embeddings, and context windows
- Training vs. inference
- Prompting as a core competency
- Use case identification workshop
- Hallucinations, bias, and data leakage
- Governance essentials
- Vendor landscape and build-vs-buy
- Pilot design and success metrics
- Change management for AI adoption