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Economist Education
Artificial Intelligence: Understanding and Applying AI in Business
Learn to use AI effectively and ethically.
Start date
27 January 2025
Course duration
2 weeks
Language
English
Access resources from start date
Effort
5–6 hours per week
Self-paced learning online
Course overview
Duration: 2 weeks (excluding orientation)
Gain the knowledge and skills you need to use artificial intelligence (AI) effectively at work. With insights from The Economist’s journalists and Tom Chatfield, an expert on technology and society, the course penetrates the hype surrounding AI to provide a practical grounding in applying the technology for productivity and profit.
As excitement and concern about generative AI surge, so do misconceptions and confusion. Artificial Intelligence: Understanding and Applying AI in Business, a two-week online course from Economist Education, provides an accessible guide to the technology—its potential and problems. The course explains and demystifies large language models such as ChatGPT, illustrating their capabilities and risks by explaining where they have come from and might be heading. It delves into AI’s applications and implications for business, showing how companies are using it and providing both principles and opportunities for practice. With guidance from The Economist’s science-and-technology experts and external guest speakers, you will consider what AI’s rise will mean for you, your industry and society.
By the end of the course, you will have gained a practical understanding of AI and built up essential skills to use the tools of the algorithmic age. You will better understand AI's limitations and be able to make informed decisions about how you and your employer can harness the power of machines.
Enjoy a free three-month digital subscription to The Economist with this executive-education course from Economist Education. Read articles on Economist.com or the app, listen to the weekly edition, watch videos, browse newsletters, immerse yourself in podcasts and join exclusive events.
Is this course for you?
Whether you are a professional seeking hands-on skills in using AI or a leader looking to understand its broader implications for organisations and society, this course provides a valuable foundation. The course also briefly covers legal, ethical and regulatory concerns surrounding AI, encouraging you to think critically about its future.
Course overview
Introduction
Duration: 2 weeks (excluding orientation)
Gain the knowledge and skills you need to use artificial intelligence (AI) effectively at work. With insights from The Economist’s journalists and Tom Chatfield, an expert on technology and society, the course penetrates the hype surrounding AI to provide a practical grounding in applying the technology for productivity and profit.
As excitement and concern about generative AI surge, so do misconceptions and confusion. Artificial Intelligence: Understanding and Applying AI in Business, a two-week online course from Economist Education, provides an accessible guide to the technology—its potential and problems. The course explains and demystifies large language models such as ChatGPT, illustrating their capabilities and risks by explaining where they have come from and might be heading. It delves into AI’s applications and implications for business, showing how companies are using it and providing both principles and opportunities for practice. With guidance from The Economist’s science-and-technology experts and external guest speakers, you will consider what AI’s rise will mean for you, your industry and society.
By the end of the course, you will have gained a practical understanding of AI and built up essential skills to use the tools of the algorithmic age. You will better understand AI's limitations and be able to make informed decisions about how you and your employer can harness the power of machines.
Enjoy a free three-month digital subscription to The Economist with this executive-education course from Economist Education. Read articles on Economist.com or the app, listen to the weekly edition, watch videos, browse newsletters, immerse yourself in podcasts and join exclusive events.
Is this course for you?
Whether you are a professional seeking hands-on skills in using AI or a leader looking to understand its broader implications for organisations and society, this course provides a valuable foundation. The course also briefly covers legal, ethical and regulatory concerns surrounding AI, encouraging you to think critically about its future.
How is this course different?
What will set you apart
A practical toolkit for using AI, including services like ChatGPT, in business.
Insights into how businesses can use AI productively and effectively.
A grasp of legal, ethical and regulatory issues surrounding AI.
The ability to critically reflect on the future of AI, and how the technology will affect business and society.
Unlimited access to the official Economist Education alumni group on LinkedIn and edX’s Career Engagement Network, offering you exclusive resources and events to support your professional progress.The curriculum
Understanding the ultimate tool: what is AI made from?
Learn about the history and foundations of AI in order to understand its capabilities, uses and limits in the workplace.
- Discuss how the current state of AI rests on past developments.
- Articulate how far AI has advanced by identifying its different types and uses.
- Investigate AI's capabilities, limits and potential.
- Evaluate AI’s impact on business by exploring its opportunities and limits within the world of work.
Putting AI to work: uses and abuses
Learn to deploy AI ethically and effectively at work, and discover how to counter risks and avoid misconceptions.
- Identify how prompting models in different ways affects the quality and relevance of their outputs.
- Determine the risks and misconceptions surrounding AI in the workplace.
- Investigate strategies for mitigating the risks of deploying AI and consider the need to keep humans involved and informed.
- Reflect on the current and future possibilities of AI in your industry while considering both its opportunities and risks.
Course designers
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Your skills recognised
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How you will learn
This online course is divided into manageable units designed to accelerate your progress:
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Work through downloadable and online instructional material
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Interact with your peers and tutors in reviewed small-group discussions
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Enjoy a wide range of interactive content, including videos, podcasts and more
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Receive a toolkit for practical use in your career
Apply what you learn throughout this two-week online course and develop the skills to use AI effectively and ethically.
Your success team
GetSmarter, a provider of online education, offers a personalised approach to accelerate learning with support every step of the way.
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Head tutor
A subject-matter expert who will guide you through content-related challenges.
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Global success team
Available 24/7 to solve your tech-related and administrative queries and concerns.
A powerful collaboration
Economist Education is collaborating with GetSmarter, an online education provider, to create courses that add lasting value to your business and professional life.
About The Economist and Economist Education
For more than 180 years, The Economist has offered in-depth reporting of the news shaping the world. With its objective analysis and original insight, The Economist is one of the world’s most trusted brands in journalism.
Building on this legacy, Economist Education offers online courses led by expert practitioners and crafted with The Economist’s team of correspondents and editors. Since its launch in 2021, Economist Education has won the 2022 DPA Award for Best Digital Publishing Innovation, as well as the 2022 Digiday Award for Best Subscription or Membership Product.
About GetSmarter
GetSmarter, part of edX, helps working professionals gain verifiable skills from leading global universities and institutions to thrive in an ever-changing work environment. Technology meets academic rigour in GetSmarter’s instructor-led interactive online format, which allows for self-paced learning and a greater level of engagement.
Grow your knowledge
Gain a practical understanding of AI and discover how to use AI tools for productivity and profit.
Want to know more?
Payment options
You can pay online via our secure payment gateway, or make payment via electronic transfer or direct deposit. For transfers, banking details can be found on your invoice once you've completed your registration. Please get in touch with an Enrollment Adviser or contact us for more information.
Seek employer assistance
By improving your skills and industry knowledge, you'll have an influence on the success of your organization. Why wouldn't you ask your boss to help you fund your studies if it's going to have an impact on the way you do business?
Of our past students, 37 percent have received financial assistance from their employers. You can ask for help, too. Here is a guide to show you how to request financial assistance from your employer.
If you are a Learning & Development (L&D) manager, or involved in training and upskilling for an organization, you can request information regarding our corporate offering on our GetSmarter for business page.
Manage your time
GetSmarter's learning model is designed to help you, as a working professional, improve your skills without compromising on work and family responsibilities. The course work is broken up into weekly, manageable bite-sized modules, designed to help you pace yourself over the duration of the course and allow you the legroom to work when it suits you best. You'll be presented with the course content at the beginning of each module so that you can plan your time.
You also have access to the Global success team who will support you with any administrative or technical queries you might have.
Discover the Online Campus
The Online Campus will be your virtual classroom for the duration of your course. Through its easy-to-use interface you'll have access to a diverse variety of course content formats including: interactive videos, module notes, practice quizzes, presentations, and additional web resources.
On the Online Campus, you'll also be able to ask questions and interact with your fellow students and teaching team through the discussion forums. If you are looking for your Online Campus login, please see the list of university partner login pages here.
