AI Foundations for Everyone
A practical 55-minute guide for business teams — no code, no buzzwords, no hype.
Last updated: 2026-05-19
What you'll learn
By the end of this course you'll be able to:
- What modern AI actually is (and isn't) — explained without jargon
- How Large Language Models work, in plain English
- Where AI fits in everyday work, with concrete role-by-role examples
- How to spot AI hype, AI risk, and AI marketing claims
- Three prompts you can try Monday morning — and how to know if they worked
- Where to go next, depending on your role
Who this is for
Everyone in the organization — from the front desk to the boardroom — who needs a working mental model of what AI is, what it isn't, and where it fits in modern work. Especially valuable for departments rolling out Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise, or any GenAI tool, where uneven baseline understanding causes adoption to stall.
Curriculum
8 chapters · 3 hands-on exercises · capstone challenge
Each chapter ends with the learning objectives ticked off. Quizzes are auto-graded with feedback; exercises are open-ended and produce artifacts you can take to your team.
1. What is AI? (Without the hype)
- Distinguish between AI, machine learning, and generative AI
- Recognize three things AI is NOT
2. How LLMs actually work
- Build a working mental model of next-token prediction
- Understand why LLMs hallucinate — and what that means for your work
3. Where AI fits in your work
- Identify 5 AI-fit patterns: summarize, draft, classify, extract, transform
- Map those patterns to your daily workflow
4. Privacy, risk, and the things to watch
- Recognize what data should never go into a public AI tool
- Understand bias risk in 3 common business scenarios
5. How to evaluate AI claims (and tools)
- Use a 5-question framework to assess any AI vendor pitch
- Spot 4 common AI marketing red flags
6. Hands-on with Copilot
- Run three Copilot prompts on your actual work
- Save and share prompts that produce useful output
7. Building AI habits that stick
- Design 3 weekly AI habits anchored to existing workflows
- Avoid the "tried it once, forgot" adoption trap
Capstone: Capstone: Your AI starter plan
- Draft a 1-page personal AI plan for the next 30 days
- Identify your team's next collective step
Capstone deliverable: Every learner who completes this course produces «Your 30-day Personal AI Plan» — a tangible artifact you take back to your organization.
Interactive Course · Free
Full web-rendered experience available now.
All 8 chapters live with interactive slides, audio narration, mock-exam practice, and cross-device progress tracking. The first two chapters are accessible without an account.
References & sources
Built on cited sources — not vibes.
Every course is researched fresh against vendor documentation, regulatory sources, and peer-reviewed work. Sources used in this course:
Microsoft Work Trend Index 2025 — Frontier Firms
Microsoft · Source link
NIST AI Risk Management Framework
National Institute of Standards and Technology · Source link
OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications
OWASP Foundation · Source link
Course details
Track
Foundations
Level
Foundational
Audience
All staff, Individual contributor, Manager
Industry
Cross-Industry
Stack
Stack-agnostic
Paired Gennoor Way phase
train
Format
interactive, video, reading
You finished the course. Now what?
From course to outcome.
Reading this course is step one. The next step is applying it where you work. Here's how Gennoor helps — without the deck, without the pitch.
Run this for your team
A 2-day workshop or virtual cohort for up to 25 of your people, with exercises run on your data and a 30-day adoption plan.
From $5k · 2 weeks · function-specific
Apply this to your data
A 4–6 week pilot that takes what you learned and ships a working system inside your environment. Fixed scope, fixed price, code transferred day one.
From $25k · 6 weeks · production-grade
Just want to talk?
Free 30-minute call. No deck, no pitch. We listen to your situation and tell you honestly what makes sense — even if it isn't us.
Free · no commitment · 30 minutes
Or just keep learning. We recommend next:
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