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Generative and Agentic AI

Matthias Holweg

4.7

Based on 42 ratings

Matthias Holweg

You’ll dive into the mechanics of large language models (LLMs), the design of effective prompts, and the power of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to ground outputs in real data. As AI systems become more proactive and goal-directed, you’ll examine what agentic AI means for autonomy, alignment, and organisational control. Alongside technical insights, this course guides you in understanding the strategic and operational challenges of deploying these systems responsibly.

With simulations, practical demonstrations, and expert-led content, you’ll gain the tools to evaluate generative and agentic AI systems with clarity and confidence. Whether you’re exploring content automation, AI agents for business tasks, or governance strategies, this course helps you navigate both the potential and the pitfalls of this fast-evolving field.

This is the second course in the AI Foundations for Business Professionals specialisation. We recommend completing AI Essentials first to build a strong conceptual foundation before applying these advanced AI systems in your organisation.

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Syllabus

Introduction

Generative and agentic AI are unlocking new forms of creativity, reasoning, and automation; reshaping how organisations generate value. In this course, you’ll explore how systems like large language models and autonomous agents work, what makes them powerful, and how to deploy them effectively. You’ll also examine their risks, including hallucinations and loss of control, and learn what it takes to harness these technologies responsibly and with impact.

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Career center

Learners who complete Generative and Agentic AI will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Prompt Engineer

A Prompt Engineer specializes in crafting, refining, and optimizing inputs for generative artificial intelligence models, particularly large language models, to achieve desired outputs. This highly focused role is crucial for maximizing the effectiveness and reliability of AI systems in various applications, from content generation to complex problem-solving. The Generative and Agentic AI course offers direct, in-depth knowledge essential for this career path, specifically covering how to work effectively with large language models through techniques like prompt engineering. Learners will gain practical skills in guiding AI outputs and integrating generative tools into real business workflows. The course's emphasis on model evaluation and understanding system capabilities ensures a Prompt Engineer can develop sophisticated, repeatable prompting strategies while navigating potential pitfalls like hallucinations, enabling impactful and responsible AI interaction.

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AI Governance Specialist

An AI Governance Specialist establishes and enforces policies, frameworks, and ethical guidelines to ensure artificial intelligence systems are developed, deployed, and used responsibly within an organization. This role focuses on mitigating risks, ensuring compliance, and promoting trust in AI technologies. The Generative and Agentic AI course is exceptionally well-suited for this career, as it guides learners in understanding the strategic and operational challenges of deploying these systems responsibly. The course explicitly examines risks, including hallucinations and loss of control, and delves into what agentic AI means for autonomy, alignment, and organizational control. An AI Governance Specialist needs this detailed understanding of potential pitfalls and the required governance strategies to harness these technologies ethically and with impact, making the course a critical foundation for ensuring responsible innovation. This role typically requires an advanced degree.

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AI Ethics and Risk Manager

An AI Ethics and Risk Manager is responsible for identifying, assessing, and mitigating the ethical dilemmas and potential risks associated with the development and deployment of artificial intelligence systems. This critical role ensures that AI initiatives align with organizational values, regulatory requirements, and societal expectations. The Generative and Agentic AI course provides an invaluable and comprehensive foundation for an AI Ethics and Risk Manager. It explicitly examines risks, including hallucinations and loss of control, and delves into what agentic AI means for autonomy, alignment, and organizational control. The course guides learners in understanding the strategic and operational challenges of deploying these systems responsibly, equipping them with the tools to evaluate AI systems with clarity and confidence, crucial for preventing pitfalls and harnessing these technologies ethically and with impact. This role typically requires an advanced degree.

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AI Product Manager

An AI Product Manager oversees the lifecycle of AI-powered products, from conceptualization to launch and iteration, ensuring they meet market needs and business goals. This role involves defining product vision, features, and user experiences for applications leveraging advanced AI. The Generative and Agentic AI course is highly relevant, providing a comprehensive understanding of how systems like large language models and autonomous agents work, what makes them powerful, and how to deploy them effectively. Learners will explore prompt engineering, model evaluation, and retrieval-augmented generation, which are critical for guiding product outputs and integrating generative tools into real business workflows. Understanding agentic AI's implications for autonomy and organizational control is crucial for designing proactive, goal-directed products, preparing individuals to lead the development of responsible and impactful AI solutions.

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AI Strategy Consultant

An AI Strategy Consultant guides organizations in integrating and leveraging artificial intelligence to achieve strategic business objectives. This role involves assessing current capabilities, identifying opportunities for AI-driven transformation, and developing roadmaps for adoption. This course deeply explores how generative and agentic AI systems are transforming workflows and decision-making across industries, which is central to this consultancy role. Learners will gain tools to evaluate AI systems with clarity and confidence, understand strategic and operational deployment challenges, and examine how these technologies reshape value creation. The insights into responsible deployment, including risks like hallucinations and loss of control, are particularly relevant for advising clients on navigating the complexities and ensuring ethical, impactful AI integration. This course helps build a foundation for advising on the opportunities and pitfalls of this fast-evolving field.

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AI Program Manager

An AI Program Manager oversees multiple interconnected AI projects, ensuring their strategic alignment, successful execution, and responsible deployment within an organization. This multi-faceted role involves coordinating teams, managing resources, and navigating the complexities inherent in artificial intelligence initiatives. The Generative and Agentic AI course provides an excellent foundation for an AI Program Manager by exploring how systems like large language models and autonomous agents work and how to deploy them effectively. Learners gain an understanding of strategic and operational challenges, including risks like hallucinations and loss of control, which are vital for managing AI projects responsibly. The course's focus on evaluating generative and agentic AI systems with clarity and confidence prepares individuals to guide teams in integrating these advanced tools into real business workflows and delivering impactful solutions.

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AI Solutions Architect

An AI Solutions Architect designs and oversees the implementation of complex artificial intelligence systems within an organizational infrastructure, ensuring they align with business objectives and technical requirements. This role involves selecting appropriate AI technologies, integrating them with existing systems, and considering scalability, performance, and security. The Generative and Agentic AI course provides invaluable insights into how systems like large language models and autonomous agents work, what makes them powerful, and how to deploy them effectively. Learners will explore the mechanics behind these tools, understand their capabilities, and learn to evaluate them with clarity. Crucially, the course addresses the strategic and operational challenges of deploying these systems responsibly, which is vital for an AI Solutions Architect tasked with designing robust, ethical, and impactful AI solutions for real-world business scenarios.

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Business Transformation Lead AI

A Business Transformation Lead AI drives significant organizational change by identifying opportunities to integrate artificial intelligence, particularly generative and agentic systems, to reshape processes, enhance efficiency, and unlock new forms of value. This role requires a strategic vision for how AI can redefine workflows, communication, and decision-making across various business functions. The Generative and Agentic AI course directly supports this career by exploring how these advanced AI systems are transforming workflows, communication, and decision-making across industries. Learners will understand how autonomous agents pursue goals and collaborate across tasks, enabling them to envision and design new operating models. The course also addresses the strategic and operational challenges of deploying these systems responsibly, equipping a Business Transformation Lead AI to navigate both the potential and pitfalls in driving impactful change.

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AI Automation Specialist

An AI Automation Specialist designs, implements, and manages intelligent automation solutions, leveraging agentic artificial intelligence to streamline business processes, optimize operations, and achieve goal-directed outcomes without continuous human intervention. This role focuses on identifying tasks that can be automated by advanced AI and configuring these systems for maximum efficiency. The Generative and Agentic AI course is highly relevant, providing deep insights into how autonomous systems make decisions, take actions, and collaborate across tasks. Learners will explore the mechanics of agentic AI and understand its implications for autonomy and organizational control, which is fundamental for responsibly deploying advanced automation. The course's practical demonstrations and focus on integrating generative tools into real business workflows prepare an AI Automation Specialist to harness these technologies responsibly and with considerable impact in transforming operations.

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AI Innovation Lead

An AI Innovation Lead champions and drives the exploration, development, and adoption of cutting-edge artificial intelligence solutions, particularly generative and agentic AI, to create new products, services, or operational efficiencies. This role requires a forward-thinking approach to leveraging advanced technologies for competitive advantage. The Generative and Agentic AI course is highly beneficial for an AI Innovation Lead, exploring the new forms of creativity, reasoning, and automation unlocked by these systems and how they are reshaping how organizations generate value. Learners will gain the tools to evaluate generative and agentic AI systems with clarity and confidence, understand their mechanics, and examine the strategic and operational challenges of deploying them responsibly. This knowledge prepares an AI Innovation Lead to identify opportunities, design innovative AI solutions for real-world business scenarios, and navigate the entire innovation lifecycle effectively.

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Content Strategist Generative AI

A Content Strategist Generative AI develops and executes strategies for creating and managing digital content using advanced artificial intelligence tools, particularly large language models. This role involves understanding how generative AI can enhance content production, optimize communication, and ensure brand consistency while navigating the unique challenges of AI-generated material. The Generative and Agentic AI course offers a robust foundation, exploring how generative AI is redefining what machines can create, including business reports and code, and how these systems transform communication. Learners will acquire skills in working effectively with large language models through prompt engineering and model evaluation, which are essential for guiding content outputs and integrating generative tools into real business workflows. The course covers risks like hallucinations, enabling a Content Strategist Generative AI to ethically and effectively leverage AI for content automation initiatives.

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Knowledge Management Innovator AI

A Knowledge Management Innovator AI pioneers the integration of artificial intelligence, especially generative AI and retrieval-augmented generation, to revolutionize how organizations capture, store, disseminate, and leverage information. This role focuses on enhancing knowledge access, improving communication, and facilitating decision-making through intelligent systems. The Generative and Agentic AI course provides a strong foundation by exploring how generative and agentic AI systems are transforming workflows, communication, and decision-making. Learners will gain practical skills in working with large language models and understanding the power of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to ground outputs in real data, which is directly applicable to creating more effective knowledge systems. The course's insights into deploying these systems responsibly, while navigating potential pitfalls, prepare a Knowledge Management Innovator AI to build impactful and reliable AI-driven knowledge solutions.

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AI Business Intelligence Specialist

An AI Business Intelligence Specialist leverages artificial intelligence, particularly generative and agentic systems, to enhance data analysis, generate actionable insights, and improve decision-making processes within an organization. This role focuses on transforming raw data into strategic intelligence using advanced AI capabilities. The Generative and Agentic AI course is highly relevant, guiding learners in understanding how these systems are transforming decision-making across industries. It specifically covers the power of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to ground outputs in real data, which is a critical skill for an AI Business Intelligence Specialist tasked with ensuring data integrity and relevance in AI-generated insights. The course also teaches how to evaluate AI systems with clarity and confidence, enabling professionals to responsibly deploy these tools to unlock new forms of reasoning and deliver impactful business intelligence.

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User Experience Designer AI

A User Experience Designer AI focuses on creating intuitive, effective, and ethical interactions between users and artificial intelligence systems, including generative AI and autonomous agents. This role involves understanding user needs, designing interaction flows, and ensuring the AI’s behavior is transparent and reliable. The Generative and Agentic AI course offers valuable insights for a User Experience Designer AI, as it unpacks not just how tools like large language models work, but how they’re transforming communication. Learners explore prompt engineering and model evaluation, which are critical for designing effective user inputs and understanding AI system outputs. Furthermore, considering risks like hallucinations and the implications of agentic AI for autonomy is essential for building trustworthy and user-friendly AI experiences, enabling designers to navigate both the potential and pitfalls of this fast-evolving field.

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AI Educator and Trainer

An AI Educator and Trainer develops and delivers learning programs to help individuals and organizations understand, adopt, and effectively utilize artificial intelligence technologies. This role is crucial for bridging the knowledge gap and fostering AI literacy across various professional levels. The Generative and Agentic AI course provides an excellent foundation for an AI Educator and Trainer, as it explicitly explores the cutting-edge capabilities behind tools like ChatGPT and autonomous agents. Learners will unpack not just how they work, but how they’re transforming workflows, communication, and decision-making across industries. The course's detailed modules on large language models, prompt engineering, model evaluation, and retrieval-augmented generation offer specific content that can be translated into practical training. Furthermore, discussions on responsible deployment, risks, and governance strategies are essential for teaching how to harness these technologies with impact.

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Reading list

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Rebooting AI

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Provides a thought-provoking exploration of the future of generative AI, discussing its potential benefits and risks. It is written by Gary Marcus, a leading researcher in the field.

Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We...

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