AI Academy | AI Fundamentals

Get started with AI Fundamentals

Are you watching the AI revolution unfold, feeling a mix of curiosity and concern about what it means for your career and your organization? The pace of change is accelerating, and a gap is widening between those who understand and leverage AI and those who risk being left behind.

This foundational series is designed to close that gap, transforming uncertainty into opportunity and empowering you to take the critical first steps toward becoming an AI-forward professional and leader.

8-Course Series Duration ~6 hours
Released August 2025

Course Level Beginner

Certification Professional certificate awarded after exam

Format On-demand videos to learn at your own pace

About This Series

An AI Fundamentals Professional Certificate is your essential starting point for personal and business AI transformation. This comprehensive series moves beyond headlines and hype to provide a complete foundational understanding of artificial intelligence.

You will journey from the core concepts and the current state of AI to the practical skills needed to use generative tools. And you’ll gain the strategic foresight to prepare for what's next. Upon completion, you will have the clarity, confidence, and capability to not just navigate the age of AI, but also to lead within it, making you an indispensable asset to any team or organization.

You'll Learn To

Explain the core concepts, history, and future direction of AI.
Evaluate the current state of AI and its potential impact on various industries and job functions.
Define key terms and technologies, including generative AI, AI agents, and custom GPTs.
Apply basic prompting techniques to interact with and generate valuable outputs from AI models.
Identify personal and professional opportunities for using AI to enhance productivity, creativity, and innovation.
Propose initial steps for how you or your organization can begin to pilot AI responsibly.
Assess the ethical considerations and human impact surrounding AI development and deployment.

Key Questions Addressed

This series is will help you answer critical questions about AI adoption, including:

What is AI, and how did it evolve to its current state?
How can I use generative AI tools effectively and responsibly in my daily work?
What are the differences between AI concepts like machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI?
How do I move beyond the hype to identify practical AI applications?
What are the essential, human-centered principles I should apply when thinking about AI?

Who It's For

This course series is designed for:

Professionals seeking to build foundational AI literacy to future-proof their careers.
Business Leaders and Managers looking for a clear starting point to understand AI's strategic implications.
Anyone curious about AI who wants a structured, accessible, and comprehensive introduction.

This course is ideal for learners seeking both personal and business AI transformation.

What You'll Do

During this series you will:

Engage with interactive video lessons and expert tutorials.
Analyze real-world case studies of AI implementation.
Participate in self-reflection prompts to connect concepts to your own context.
Complete knowledge checks and a final exam to solidify your understanding.

Upon completion, you will earn a Professional Certificate for the AI Fundamentals Series.

Course Syllabus

Welcome to AI Fundamentals

Are you watching the AI revolution unfold, feeling a mix of curiosity and concern about what it means for your career and your organization? The pace of change is accelerating, and a gap is widening between those who understand and leverage AI and those who risk being left behind.

This foundational series is designed to close that gap, transforming uncertainty into opportunity and empowering you to take the critical first steps toward becoming an AI-forward professional and leader.
Course 1: Intro to AI
This course is the first step in your AI transformation journey. You will gain a fundamental understanding of AI's core concepts, learn to identify and evaluate opportunities for its application, and map out a personalized learning path. We will explore actionable frameworks and real-world examples to help you build a strategic approach to AI in your professional life.
What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Define your AI opportunity.
- Explain the core concepts of AI.
- Evaluate common AI use cases and their potential business impact.
- Develop a strategic framework for getting started with AI.
- Assess key considerations for purchasing AI technology.
- Design a personalized AI learning journey to accelerate your literacy.
Course 2: AI Concepts 101
AI Concepts 101 takes you on a journey of understanding AI so that you can apply it to transform your company and career. This course breaks down the AI ecosystem—from how models are built and trained to the hardware that powers them and the safety principles that guide them. You will gain the vocabulary and conceptual foundations required to analyze AI's impact, differentiate between technologies, and make smarter strategic decisions for yourself and your organization.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Define the core concepts of modern AI, from Machine Learning to Large Language Models (LLMs).
- Explain how AI models are built using techniques like pre-training, fine-tuning, and reinforcement learning.
- Describe the essential components of the AI ecosystem, including compute, specialized chips, and data centers.
- Differentiate between key AI capabilities such as reasoning, multimodality, and agentic systems.
- Analyze the core principles of AI safety and alignment, including red teaming and mechanistic interpretability.
- Distinguish between common AI applications like chatbots, assistants, and agents.
Course 3: The State of AI
This course delivers a concise, data-driven briefing on the most important trends in AI today. We cut through the noise to focus on five key developments you need to understand: the acceleration of AI adoption, big tech's race for dominance, the role of LLMs in current innovation, the path beyond today's AI, and the imminent impact on every knowledge worker. You will leave this course with the clarity and context needed to lead through this transformative era with confidence.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Analyze the key trends and data points that show the accelerating adoption of AI.
- Identify how big tech companies are battling for AI supremacy by investing billions in infrastructure, talent, and models.
- Explain the role of Large Language Models (LLMs) as the foundation for the current wave of generative AI innovation.
- Evaluate the rapid trajectory of AI capabilities and the potential emergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
- Assess the impact of AI on the future of work and the radical transformation of roles, teams, and organizational structures.
Course 4: The AI Timeline
"The AI Timeline" demystifies the path to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and beyond. For more than 70 years, researchers have pursued the dream of intelligent machines, and we are now at a pivotal moment.

In this course, we will explore a potential timeline for the coming waves of AI innovation—from the multimodal and AI agent explosions to the emergence of rRobotics and AGI. You will gain an understanding of the key milestones, the factors that could accelerate or slow progress, and the profound impact these advancements will have on business, the economy, and society.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Define Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and understand how leading AI labs are approaching its development.
- Analyze a potential timeline for major AI advancements, including multimodal AI, AI agents, and robotics.
- Evaluate the key drivers that are accelerating AI progress and the potential obstacles that could slow it down.
- Assess the potential for wide-scale workforce disruption and the emergence of new, autonomous enterprises.
- Explore the concepts of Superintelligence and The Singularity as potential long-term outcomes.
Course 5: Generative AI 101
This isn't just a course about what generative AI is; it's a hands-on guide to what you can do with it. We provide a simple 5-step framework that will empower you to immediately use generative AI to enhance your efficiency, productivity, and creativity.

From mastering the art of prompting and building custom AI assistants to leveraging multimodal tools for image and video creation, this course gives you the practical skills you need to become an AI-forward professional.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Apply a 5-step framework to begin using generative AI tools immediately.
- Utilize a simple prompting framework to get better results from chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.
- Identify opportunities to build your own custom AI tools (like GPTs or Gems) for repetitive tasks.
- Leverage multimodal AI to generate and analyze images and video for marketing and other business use cases.
- Incorporate advanced reasoning and Deep Research tools into your strategic planning and research workflows.
Course 6: Prompting 101
In Prompting 101, you will learn the art and science of communicating with generative AI. We will introduce you to a simple, powerful framework for structuring your prompts that works for text, images, video, and more.

This course provides practical techniques for a wide range of use cases, from drafting an email to generating a marketing campaign plan. You'll also learn the essential principles of responsible AI prompting, ensuring your use of these powerful tools is ethical, accurate, and transparent.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Apply a universal prompting framework to get better results from any generative AI tool.
- Craft effective prompts for a variety of modalities, including text, reasoning, images, video, and audio.
- Understand and apply responsible AI principles when prompting, including how to mitigate bias, fact-check for accuracy, and ensure transparency.
- Use the Human-to-Machine (H2M) Scale for Writers™ to decide when to rely more on human creativity versus machine efficiency.
- Transform a vague idea into a comprehensive, actionable project brief in minutes using a structured prompt.
Course 7: AI Agents 101
AI Agents 101 provides a clear, strategic framework for understanding the most powerful development in AI today. You will learn the critical differences between chatbots, AI assistants, and true AI agents, and explore the characteristics that enable agents to act autonomously.

From understanding the levels of autonomy to identifying practical business use cases, this course will equip you with the foundational knowledge to navigate and lead the shift toward a workforce augmented by digital co-workers.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Differentiate between chatbots, AI assistants, and AI agents
- Define the key characteristics of agentic AI systems, including autonomy, planning, and tool use.
- Analyze the different levels of AI autonomy and their implications for human oversight.
- Apply the Human-to-Machine (H2M) Scale™ to assess the potential for agent-driven automation.
- Identify the limitations and risks associated with current AI agent technology.
- Develop a 3-step plan to begin exploring and experimenting with AI agent pilot projects.
Course 8: AI and You
This capstone course brings the AI revolution back to its most important element: you. After learning the fundamentals of AI, this experience guides you to synthesize that knowledge and create a personalized plan for what comes next. You will explore the relationship between AI and uniquely human abilities like creativity, assess where you are on your AI adoption journey, and define concrete goals for your future.

This course is the bridge from understanding AI to actively shaping your role within an AI-powered world.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Analyze the exponential pace of AI development and its impact on your career.
- Evaluate the relationship between AI and uniquely human skills like creativity and critical thinking.
- Consider three key questions you should ask yourself in relation to thriving through the uncertainty ahead.
- Apply a 5-stage framework to assess your personal progress in AI literacy and adoption.
- Define actionable goals for your personal and business AI transformation.
- Design a personalized learning journey by mapping your goals to advanced courses and specializations.
Final Exam

“I find tremendous value from the Mastery Membership. In a world rich in snake oil, the Mastery membership content is grounded in useful, real-world applicable learning.”

Heather DelCarpini
Director of Marketing
Catania Oils

“The value of the membership goes far beyond the annual investment. I’m squeezing more insight, support, and momentum out of this membership than my tiny one-person budget ever dreamed possible.”

MJ Johnston
Owner
qt Web Expert

“What surprised me was how valuable the ongoing access would become: the quarterly briefings offer a clear, concise overview of top news; the AMAs with Paul make complex topics feel approachable”

Jen Taylor
Director, AI Strategy & Integration
Capacity Interactive

About the Instructor

Paul Roetzer is on a mission to accelerate AI literacy and human-centered AI transformation in organizations.

As the founder and CEO of SmarterX and Marketing AI Institute, Paul is the driving force behind some of the industry's leading AI events and content. He created the Marketing AI Conference (MAICON), co-hosts the popular podcast The Artificial Intelligence Show, and is co-author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence.

Through SmarterX’s AI Academy, his work directly helps thousands of professionals and leaders understand and apply AI. His free monthly Intro to AI class alone has reached more than 40,000 registrants since its launch in 2021.

Paul’s entrepreneurial journey began long before the current AI boom. A graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, he founded PR 20/20, HubSpot’s first partner agency, and sold it in 2021 after establishing it as a pioneer in digital marketing.

This unique background as both an agency innovator and AI educator gives him a practical, story-driven approach to helping professionals and leaders reimagine business models, reinvent industries, and rethink what's possible.

Paul Roetzer

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