It's the age of machine learning. Companies are seizing upon the power of this technology to combat risk, boost sales, cut costs, block fraud, streamline manufacturing, conquer spam, toughen crime fighting, and win elections.

Want to tap that potential? It's best to start with a holistic, business-oriented course on machine learning – no matter whether you’re more on the tech or the business side. After all, successfully deploying machine learning relies on savvy business leadership just as much as it relies on technical skill. And for that reason, data scientists aren't the only ones who need to learn the fundamentals. Executives, decision makers, and line of business managers must also ramp up on how machine learning works and how it delivers business value.

And the reverse is true as well: Techies need to look beyond the number crunching itself and become deeply familiar with the business demands of machine learning. This way, both sides speak the same language and can collaborate effectively.

This course will prepare you to participate in the deployment of machine learning – whether you'll do so in the role of enterprise leader or quant. In order to serve both types, this course goes further than typical machine learning courses, which cover only the technical foundations and core quantitative techniques. This curriculum uniquely integrates both sides – both the business and tech know-how – that are essential for deploying machine learning. It covers:

– How launching machine learning – aka predictive analytics – improves marketing, financial services, fraud detection, and many other business operations

– A concrete yet accessible guide to predictive modeling methods, delving most deeply into decision trees

– Reporting on the predictive performance of machine learning and the profit it generates

– What your data needs to look like before applying machine learning

– Avoiding the hype and false promises of “artificial intelligence”

– AI ethics: social justice concerns, such as when predictive models blatantly discriminate by protected class

NO HANDS-ON AND NO HEAVY MATH. This concentrated entry-level program is totally accessible to business leaders – and yet totally vital to data scientists who want to secure their business relevance. It's for anyone who wishes to participate in the commercial deployment of machine learning, no matter whether you'll play a role on the business side or the technical side. This includes business professionals and decision makers of all kinds, such as executives, directors, line of business managers, and consultants – as well as data scientists.

BUT TECHNICAL LEARNERS SHOULD TAKE ANOTHER LOOK. Before jumping straight into the hands-on, as quants are inclined to do, consider one thing: This curriculum provides complementary know-how that all great techies also need to master. It contextualizes the core technology, guiding you on the end-to-end process required to successfully deploy a predictive model so that it delivers a business impact.

LIKE A UNIVERSITY COURSE. This course is also a good fit for college students, or for those planning for or currently enrolled in an MBA program. The breadth and depth of the overall three-course specialization is equivalent to one full-semester MBA or graduate-level course.

IN-DEPTH YET ACCESSIBLE. Brought to you by industry leader Eric Siegel – a winner of teaching awards when he was a professor at Columbia University – this curriculum stands out as one of the most thorough, engaging, and surprisingly accessible on the subject of machine learning.

VENDOR-NEUTRAL. This course includes illuminating software demos of machine learning in action using SAS products. However, the curriculum is vendor-neutral and universally-applicable. The contents and learning objectives apply, regardless of which machine learning software tools you end up choosing to work with.