Applied Artificial Intelligence, Micro-Credential

Topic: How Generative AI Works Across ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini, Including Hallucinations, Bias, Data Privacy, and How to Use AI Safely

In Week 1, we build the foundation for using generative AI the right way. You’ll learn how these tools actually work, why ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini share the same core strengths and weaknesses, and why their human-sounding answers can be risky if you don’t understand their limits.

We’ll focus on the two biggest risks professionals face. The first is AI hallucinations, where a tool produces information that sounds confident but is inaccurate, incomplete, or made up. You’ll learn why hallucinations happen and practice hands-on techniques to catch them, including grounding AI in your own documents and using a second AI tool to check the first one’s work.

The second is protecting your information. Many AI tools can use what you type to train future models unless you change the settings, and free, paid, and business versions handle your data very differently. You’ll learn what happens to the information you share, how to adjust your privacy settings in each platform, and what you should never put into an AI tool, so you can use AI confidently without putting client, company, or personal information at risk.

Topic: Streamlining Repetitive Tasks with the CRAFTY Prompt Framework and High-Impact Use Cases

Week 2 moves you past trial and error and into consistent, high-quality results. You’ll learn CRAFTY (Context, Role, Action, Format, Tone, Your Words Matter), a prompt framework that works the same way whether you’re in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or Gemini.

We’ll apply it to the tasks that consume the most time each week, including writing, summarizing, planning, organizing, and follow-up communication, and turn them into reusable prompts and templates. You’ll also learn when a quick prompt is enough, when a high-stakes task calls for the full framework, and how to have AI build better prompts for you.

Topic: Personalizing AI and Automating Recurring Work with Projects and Agents (No Coding Required)

Week 3 is where AI becomes personal, practical, and scalable. Instead of starting from scratch in every conversation, you’ll set up AI to match your voice, understand your priorities, and deliver output in the format you need.

We start by building what I call “AI-Me”: a personalized setup that reflects your tone, communication style, and expectations. From there, you’ll build two of the most useful tools available in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini:

• Projects: dedicated workspaces that keep your files, instructions, and conversations for one client, initiative, or area of work together, so AI starts every conversation already knowing the context.
• Agents: custom assistants built for a single recurring job, such as drafting proposals, answering policy questions, or reviewing documents, that you or your team can use again and again.

Every platform names these features differently, and those names change often. You’ll learn the underlying concepts so you can build them in whatever tool you use, now and after the next update.

Topic: Teaching AI Your Processes with Skills and Putting Work on Autopilot with Scheduled Tasks

Week 4 moves from AI that helps when you ask to AI that follows your playbook and works on its own schedule.

Skills are packaged instructions that teach AI how to complete a specific task your way, every time: your report format, your proposal structure, your review checklist. Once built, the AI applies the skill automatically when the task comes up. You’ll learn how to turn a process you already do into a skill and how to refine it until the output is consistent.

Scheduled tasks let AI run work on a set schedule without you starting it, such as a Monday morning briefing, a weekly research update, or a recurring report. You’ll build a scheduled task and learn which kinds of work are good candidates for automation and which still need a human in the loop.

You’ll leave with at least one working skill and one scheduled task built around your own job.

Topic: Using AI to Build Spreadsheets, Speed Up Documents, and Manage Email Without Leaving Your Everyday Tools

Week 5 brings AI out of the chat window and into the work you do every day. You’ll learn how to use AI where your work already lives, including your spreadsheets, documents, presentations, and inbox.

We’ll work hands-on through the tasks that eat the most time:

• Spreadsheets: building them from scratch, asking questions of your data, creating charts and summaries, and spotting trends without writing formulas
• Documents: drafting, editing, summarizing long files, and turning rough notes into polished reports
• Email: summarizing long threads, drafting replies in your voice, and getting through your inbox faster

Whether your organization runs on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, or you work primarily in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or Gemini, you’ll learn the approach that fits your setup and leave with workflows you can use the next morning.

Topic: Deep Research, Image Generation, Real-Time Voice and Vision, Managing Model Usage, and Building Your AI Stack

Week 6 puts the most powerful AI features to work and helps you navigate a crowded landscape with confidence. You’ll use deep research, image generation, and real-time voice and vision on mobile for real business tasks, and learn where each platform performs best.

We’ll then cover how to work smarter across tools: choosing the right model for the task, understanding why AI usage runs out and how to stretch it, and building a simple AI stack with one primary tool for most of your work and a short list of specialists for everything else.

We close with a capstone where you map one real workflow from your job to the skills from all six weeks, leaving with a clear plan to put AI to work and lead adoption in your organization.