AI Academy | Scaling AI

Accelerate AI Adoption with Scaling AI

Your initial AI pilot projects have shown promise, but now you face a greater challenge: How do you scale AI across the entire organization without sacrificing strategy, security, and your company's core values? Moving from isolated experiments to enterprise-wide transformation requires a new level of leadership and a formal blueprint for change.

This Professional Certificate provides that blueprint, equipping you with the frameworks, templates, and resources to lead your organization into its next phase of growth and innovation.

7-Course Series Duration 5 hours
Released Sept 2025

Intermediate Level Learn responsible AI adoption

Certification Professional certificate awarded after exam

Format On-demand videos to learn at your own pace

About This Series

The Scaling AI Professional Certificate is the definitive strategic playbook for leaders tasked with driving AI transformation within their teams, departments, and organizations. This comprehensive series provides a complete operational framework for becoming an "AI-Forward" organization—one that puts people first while making AI core to its identity.

You will learn how to build the essential pillars of a scalable and responsible AI strategy, from establishing an internal AI Academy and a formal AI Council to developing your ethical principles, policies, and a dynamic AI Roadmap.

This is the masterclass for leaders who are ready to move beyond piloting and architect the future of their company.

What You'll Learn

Across this seven-course series, you will learn how to:

Master the "AI-Forward" philosophy and a 5-step framework for building a human-centered AI strategy.
Architect a complete AI governance system, including an AI Council, Generative AI Policies, and Responsible AI Principles.
Design and launch an internal AI Academy to accelerate literacy and upskill your workforce, complete with tools to prove its ROI.
Conduct continuous, forward-looking AI Impact Assessments on your talent, services, products, and customers.
Construct a comprehensive, 12-part AI Roadmap to guide your organization's 1–2 year transformation.

Key Questions Addressed

This Professional Certificate provides a comprehensive, C-suite-level answer to the most complex questions of AI adoption:

How do we move from successful pilot projects to a scalable, enterprise-wide AI strategy?
What are the essential organizational pillars—from education to governance—that we must build to support AI at scale?
How do we create a human-centered AI culture that empowers employees and builds trust?
What is a proven process for assessing the long-term impact of AI on our business model and workforce?
How do we bring everything together into a single, dynamic AI Roadmap that aligns our entire organization?

Who It's For

C-suite executives, business owners, and senior leaders responsible for company-wide strategy, innovation, and transformation.
AI Council leaders and members tasked with creating and executing the organization's governance and strategy.
Directors and VPs who are leading the charge for AI adoption within their departments and across the enterprise.

What You'll Do

Throughout this Professional Certificate program you will:

Engage with a complete suite of strategic frameworks for building an AI-Forward organization.
Learn from dozens of real-world examples and case studies from leading companies, government agencies, and educational institutions.
Utilize a collection of downloadable templates and tools, including the AI Audit, AI Value Calculator, and the comprehensive AI Roadmap Outline.
Complete a series of hands-on exercises designed to help you build each component of your organization's AI strategy.

Course Syllabus

Course 1: The AI-Forward Organization: Reimagining What’s Possible in Your Organization
This course is the definitive guide for leaders who want to infuse AI into their organization's identity and operations. You will learn the core principles of the "AI-Forward" philosophy—a human-centered approach that prioritizes people over profits to unlock greater performance and innovation.

We will equip you with a 5-step framework for building the essential pillars of a successful business AI strategy, covering everything from education and governance to your long-term strategic roadmap. This is not a course about technology; it's a course about transforming your people, processes, and culture to build a smarter, more human future.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Differentiate between AI Native, AI Emergent, and Obsolete organizations to assess your company's competitive position.
- Define the core principles of an "AI-Forward" organization, emphasizing a people-first, human-centered approach.
- Apply a 5-step framework to build the foundational pillars of a successful AI strategy.
- Analyze the key cultural and operational obstacles that prevent organizations from successfully scaling AI.
- Understand the concept and objectives of an "AGI Horizons Team" for long-term strategic planning.
Course 2: The AI Academy: Preparing Your People for the Future of Work
This course provides a comprehensive blueprint for designing, launching, and managing a world-class internal AI education program—an AI Academy. You will learn a 10-step framework that covers everything from organizing your team and defining goals to designing personalized learning journeys and measuring impact.

We will equip you with the strategic plans and financial models, including a detailed AI Value Calculator, to build a data-driven business case and prove the immense ROI of accelerating AI literacy across your organization.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Articulate why AI literacy is a business imperative and a competitive advantage.
- Apply a 10-step framework to build a comprehensive internal AI education program from the ground up.
- Utilize an AI Value Calculator to build a compelling, data-driven business case for investing in AI training.
- Design personalized "learning journeys" that guide employees from foundational comprehension to true AI mastery.
- Identify key metrics to measure the impact of your AI Academy on efficiency, productivity, and performance.
Course 3: The AI Council: Engaging Your Teams in AI Transformation
This course is a practical guide to building the foundation for your company's AI transformation. You will learn what an AI Council is, why it's critical for success, and how to establish one using a proven 5-step framework.

We will walk you through how to define a mission, recruit members, assess your organization's AI maturity, and create a formal charter. Featuring real-world examples, this course equips you to champion, design, and launch an AI Council that drives alignment, innovation, and trust.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Articulate the business case for forming an AI Council.
- Apply a 5-step framework to establish an AI Council in your organization.
- Draft a compelling mission statement and a comprehensive charter, using real-world examples as a guide.
- Conduct an AI Maturity Assessment using a detailed audit template to benchmark your organization's current state.
- Define the roles, responsibilities, and governance structure for an effective AI Council.
Course 4: Generative AI Policies: Empowering Your People to Experiment and Innovate
This course is an essential guide to creating the guardrails for responsible AI adoption. Moving from the urgent "why" to the practical "how," this course provides the key elements, real-world examples, and customizable templates you need to build a comprehensive Generative AI Policy from scratch.

You will learn to navigate the complexities of data privacy, intellectual property, and disclosure, enabling you to craft a policy that minimizes risk while empowering your teams to experiment and innovate safely.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Articulate the urgent business case for establishing a formal Generative AI Policy, using recent data on AI adoption in the workplace.
- Identify the key risks and benefits associated with employee use of AI tools.
- Master the core components of a comprehensive AI policy, from acceptable use and approved technologies to data security and IP guidelines.
- Analyze real-world policy examples from leading public and private sector organizations to inform your own approach.
- Utilize a detailed, customizable template to draft a Generative AI & AI Agent Acceptable Use Policy for your organization.
Course 5: Responsible AI Principles: Taking a Human-Centered Approach to Transformation
This course moves beyond policies to the core values that should guide every AI decision your organization makes. You will do a deep dive into the Responsible AI Manifesto, a 12-point framework designed to ensure that artificial intelligence is used to empower people and make business more human.

We provide this manifesto as an open-source template, giving you a powerful and practical starting point to codify and champion the principles that will build trust with your employees, customers, and stakeholders in the age of AI.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Articulate the critical importance of establishing formal Responsible AI Principles to guide your AI strategy.
- Analyze the 12 core tenets of the Responsible AI Manifesto, covering topics from human accountability and data privacy to transparency and beneficial automation.
- Differentiate between intelligent automation and dehumanization in the application of AI.
- Adopt and customize an open-source template to create a set of Responsible AI Principles for your own company.
- Align your AI strategy with a human-centered philosophy that prioritizes trust, ethics, and augmenting human potential.
Course 6: AI Impact Assessments: Evaluating and Preparing for Continuous Change
This is a strategic foresight and planning course for the age of AI. You will learn how to move beyond reacting to change and begin to anticipate it. This course provides a structured methodology and a suite of practical tools for conducting comprehensive AI Impact Assessments across the most critical areas of your business—including your talent, products, customers, and technology stack.

You will learn how to use forecasting frameworks to think deeply about the near-term transformations AI will bring, preparing you to lead your organization with confidence.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Identify key areas of a business that require continuous AI impact assessment.
- Apply frameworks like the AI Timeline and the AI Exposure Key to forecast the impact of near-term AI advancements on your business.
- Conduct a forward-looking talent assessment to understand how AI will transform roles and team structures.
- Evaluate the potential disruption AI poses to your company's products, services, and customer base.
- Utilize the JobsGPT tool to perform a detailed AI impact assessment on a specific job role and forecast its evolution.
Course 7: The AI Roadmap: Building the Blueprint for AI Transformation
This capstone course is where your entire AI strategy comes together. You will learn to synthesize your vision, governance, and pilot projects into a comprehensive, 12-part AI Roadmap.

This is the dynamic 1–2 year plan that will guide your organization's transformation—from defining your AI vision statement and assessing your company's AI profile to prioritizing projects and allocating budgets.

This course provides the structure and tools to create a living strategic document that will align your teams and accelerate your journey to becoming an AI-emergent leader.

What You'll Learn
This course will teach you how to:
- Master the 12 essential components of a comprehensive and dynamic AI Roadmap.
- Synthesize outputs from your AI Council, policies, and impact assessments into a unified strategic plan.
- Develop a compelling AI Vision Statement to align and inspire your organization.
- Apply the AI Innovation Model to look beyond solving existing problems and identify disruptive, AI-native opportunities.
- Create a visual, timeline-based plan that outlines project priorities, budgets, and team requirements.
Final Exam

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Dshanya Reese
Strategic Insurance Marketer

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Erin Carpenter
Sr. Digital Marketing Director

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Yadin Porter de León
Leading Global CXO

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.

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