AI Foundations
A ~40-minute foundations course for non-technical professionals — calibrated literacy, not hype or fear. What AI is, how LLMs work in plain English, where AI fits, the risks to watch, how to evaluate claims, 5 prompt patterns, durable habits, a 2-week starter plan.
8
Chapters
~40 min
Duration
Foundational
Level
No
Certification
Who this is for
For non-technical professionals starting their AI journey in 2026.
How this course works
- 8 audio-narrated slide chapters · ~40 min of focused content
- Capstone with interactive Markdown builder you take to your team
- Trust trip-wires on every play — what not to cross
- Free verifiable certificate on completion
What you'll walk out with
Specific outcomes from this course — no fluff.
- A working mental model of what current AI actually does — and the boundary where it stops being reliable
- How LLMs really work in plain English — tokens, training, next-token prediction, why hallucinations happen, retrieval grounding
- The 5 use categories that consistently ship (drafting · summarising · translating · classifying · code) and the 3 that don't
- How to evaluate any AI claim — Tetlock calibration > confidence, the 3 questions for any vendor productivity number
- 5 hands-on prompt patterns: role+task+format+constraints+examples, outline-first, verify-the-citation, rewrite-for-audience, critique-my-draft
- The privacy + bias awareness anchored on real cases — Mata v. Avianca, Air Canada Moffatt, Bloomberg resume study
- A 2-week starter plan with the use-it-Monday habit and 4 trust trip-wires you don't cross
Course content
8 chapters · ~40 min
Welcome
A 1-minute orientation — what the course covers, how to navigate, and what you walk out with. No audio on this screen.
What AI is (and isn't)
Stanford AI Index 2025: 78% adoption (up from 55%). McKinsey: 71% regularly use gen AI. ChatGPT reached 100M users in 2 months. The 3 things people mean by "AI" — machine learning, LLMs, marketing-speak. Gartner trough of disillusionment. Pew 23% have tried ChatGPT.
How LLMs actually work
Plain English. Tokens. Training on trillions of tokens (GPT-4 ~$100M, once). Next-token prediction — the model produces plausible-sounding text, not retrieved facts. Why hallucinations happen. Stanford "Hallucinating Law" 17–34% even with retrieval grounding.
Where AI fits in everyday work
MIT/BCG/Harvard/Goldman 2023-24: 15–40% productivity gains on knowledge work. 5 categories that work: drafting · summarising · translating · classifying · code. 3 that work less reliably: open-ended research, judgemental decisions, identity facts. MS Work Trend Index ~30% for active users.
Privacy and bias risks
3 verifiable cases: Mata v. Avianca (S.D.N.Y. Jun 2023, $5K + letters to judges), Moffatt v. Air Canada (BC CRT Feb 2024, CA$812), Bloomberg resume study (Mar 2024, reproducible bias). Personal-data rule: enterprise tools for sensitive data. EU AI Act Art. 50 transparency + Art. 99 fines from Aug 2 2026.
Evaluating AI claims
Tetlock: calibration > confidence. The 3 questions: studied population (who exactly?), compared to what (the honest baseline), what didn't get measured (quality, re-work, verification). Pew 2025: 70% prefer disclosure, 9% prefer hidden AI.
Hands-on prompts that work
5 patterns: (1) role+task+format+constraints+examples, (2) ask for structure first, (3) verify the citation, (4) rewrite my draft for X audience, (5) critique my draft. Worked across Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude. Boring is the feature.
Habits that stick
Why most initiatives drift in 4 weeks: integration friction, uncalibrated trust, no accountability. 3 fixes: use-it-Monday, pair with one colleague (biggest predictor of durable adoption), track simply (time/quality/comfort). WEF Future of Jobs 2025: upskilling is the durable response.
Making it stick: your 2-week starter plan
Not 90 days. Not a quarter. 2 weeks. Pick 2 use cases · pair with one colleague · 4 trust trip-wires (no personal data to free tools, verify every specific fact, no AI signs anything binding, no "set and forget"). Interactive starter-plan builder.
Want this delivered inside your organisation?
The course is the starting point. The same content powers a 4-week pilot, an org-wide rollout, or a continuous build engagement — set up on your data, with your team, by Gennoor Tech.