GENERATIVE AI
For ProductivityCornell

Certificate Program

As generative AI takes center stage in our digital landscape, how can you harness its power and set yourself up for success in a rapidly changing world?

In this course, you will develop a conceptual understanding of the recent advances, current capabilities, and limitations of generative AI. You will build a framework to keep up with new developments and assess where the technologies might — and might not — go next. You will begin by exploring how generative AI tools represent a categorical leap in the cognitive capabilities of computers. You will examine the three conceptual ideas that unlocked these new capabilities — machine learning, reinforcement learning, and pretraining (i.e., the P in GPT) — along with the advances in data, computation, and algorithms that fueled these ideas. You will also build a comprehensive understanding of the capabilities and compromises that go along with these new cognitive capabilities. Finally, you will extrapolate the patterns from past general-purpose technologies to map out AI's potential societal and economic promises as well as its perils.

By the end of this course, you will have a solid foundation for making strategic decisions to utilize generative AI to transform your organization, enhance your productivity, and stay ahead of the curve.

Unlocking the potential of AI can revolutionize individual, managerial, and team productivity. In this course, you will discover how to harness the power of AI to significantly enhance performance, recognizing that while AI can dramatically boost productivity for some, it may hinder others if not used correctly. The key lies in discerning where and how to effectively employ AI.

You will build a mental model of AI by considering its three “personas” then applying several use cases associated with each persona to identify where you can use AI to increase the effectiveness of your work. You will also master the art of how to use AI: selecting the right tools for each scenario, crafting effective prompts, seamlessly integrating AI outputs into your workflows, and strategically deploying these tools within your organization. Finally, you will apply your skills to design an AI co-pilot for a critical job role that is currently a profitability bottleneck due to scaling, cost, or quality constraints. By the end of this course, you will be able to apply the necessary skills to harness the power of generative AI to become more effective in your work.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Generative AI: Capabilities and Compromises

It is critical for leaders to be able to harness the power of AI to transform their business. In this course, you will master the use of modern AI to enhance the profitability, productivity, quality, flexibility, and efficiency of your business operations. You will explore three key frameworks for how AI can transform business processes.

You will identify ways in which AI increases productivity by allowing for new information gathering, monitoring, and control; by creating new interfaces for seamless information sharing; and by enabling analytics on new information modalities. You will then identify opportunities for the automation of cognitive and physical tasks within your business processes — enabled by generative AI — to reduce associated cost and overcome scale, speed, and quality constraints, focusing on five key principles that separate successful automation efforts from ones that fail. Finally, you will explore how you can use AI to make your processes more flexible and modular, allowing them to adapt to evolving market conditions and support new business models. By the end of the course, you will take away specific opportunities for AI-driven business transformation at your organization and in your industry overall.

You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Generative AI: Capabilities and Compromises
• Working With Generative AI to Become More Effective

AI models provide very few performance guarantees. Models are often trained on unfiltered internet-scale data; as a result, they have unpredictable outcomes which can create legal liability. How can you better understand this risk for yourself, your work, and your organization?

In this course, you will explore the laws and ethics of generative AI. You will begin by considering AI's performance guarantees and unintended consequences. You will also examine the legal liability from unpredictable AI outcomes and the concerns around copyright when it comes to utilizing this technology. Finally, you will dive into the ethics surrounding generative AI, including the effect of unintended use of the models by unscrupulous actors. By the end of this course, you will have new insight in the foundational law and ethics of generative AI that can be applied to help protect your work and your organization.

You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course: 

• Generative AI: Capabilities and Compromises
• Working With Generative AI to Become More Effective
• Using Generative AI to Transform Business Processes

How can you apply AI within your teams using a transformative, low-risk strategy? In this course, you will explore a counterintuitive approach to validating, building, and scaling new AI ventures that allows for quick learning and the increased success of AI transformation initiatives.

You will use examples of several high-profile venture failures to understand alternate development strategies and build intuition on how to develop new AI transformation ventures. You will then formalize these skills, exploring a recipe to derisk new AI ventures. You will also discover how to assess the ROI of AI transformation ventures without committing too many business resources.

As you are introduced to the art and science of designing good business experiments, you will examine three key experimentation strategies for AI ventures: prototypes, pilots, and equivalent experiments. Finally, you will put these learnings into practice on a new AI venture, applying strategic recommendations as you develop a plan to experiment with an AI transformation initiative at your organization. By the end of this course, you will have new knowledge and practice at assessing and developing plans for strategic AI transformation in your organization and beyond.

You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Generative AI: Capabilities and Compromises
• Working With Generative AI to Become More Effective
• Using Generative AI to Transform Business Processes
• Generative AI Law and Ethics

Symposium sessions feature three days of live, highly interactive virtual Zoom sessions that will explore today’s most pressing topics. The AI Symposium offers you a unique opportunity to engage in real-time conversations with peers and experts from the Cornell community and beyond. Using the context of your own experiences, you will take part in reflections and small-group discussions to build on the skills and knowledge you have gained from your courses.

Join us for the next Symposium, in which we’ll share experiences from across the industry, inspiring real-time conversations about best practices, innovation, and the future of AI. You will support your coursework by applying your knowledge and experiences to some of the most pressing topics and trends in the field. By participating in relevant and engaging discussions, you will discover a variety of perspectives and build connections with your fellow participants from across a variety of industries.

Upcoming Symposium: March 18, 19 and 20, 2025 11AM – 1PM ET

• Tuesday, March 18, 2025 11:00 AM ET – 1:00 PM ET
• Wednesday, March 19, 2025 11:00 AM ET – 1:00 PM ET
• Thursday, March 20, 2025 11:00 AM ET – 1:00 PM ET

All sessions are held on Zoom.

Future dates are subject to change. You may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending Symposium sessions is not required to successfully complete any certificate program. Once enrolled in your courses, you will receive information about upcoming events. Accessibility accommodations will be available upon request.