Practical AI Tools: Using AI Assistants Wisely
Learn what AI is, how to write clear prompts, and how to use AI assistants for study, work and creative projects safely, honestly and with good judgement.
- 20 lessons
- 4 h 21 min
- Certificate
Artificial intelligence - Intermediate
Generative AI at Work: Prompting, Safety and Productivity
Use generative AI tools well and safely at work or school: write strong prompts, draft, summarise and analyse, check facts, protect private data, follow policy and build repeatable workflows.
About this course
Generative AI tools can write, summarise, translate and explain in seconds. Used well, they save hours on routine work. Used carelessly, they invent facts, leak private information and produce work that is not really yours. The people who benefit most are those who know how the tools work, how to ask clearly, and how to check the answer.
This intermediate course builds practical habits for offices, schools and small businesses. You will learn how these tools work in plain words, a reliable pattern for writing prompts, how to iterate on results, and how to use AI for drafting, summarising, analysing and translating. Then you will learn the responsible side: checking facts, spotting bias, protecting confidential data, respecting copyright, being open about AI use and following school or workplace rules. The course ends with building simple repeatable workflows.
The course is about skills that stay useful as tools change, so it does not depend on any single product.
What you will learn
- Explain in plain words how a generative AI tool produces its answers and why it can be wrong
- Choose tasks that suit AI and tasks that should stay with a person
- Write clear prompts using role, context, task, format and examples
- Improve a weak first answer through follow-up instructions and step-by-step requests
- Use AI to draft, summarise, analyse information and translate for office and small-business work
- Check AI output for errors, made-up facts and bias before using it
- Protect personal and confidential information when using AI tools
- Follow copyright, honesty and disclosure rules, and school or workplace AI policies
- Build a simple, repeatable AI workflow with a personal prompt library
Course content
5 modules · 17 lessons · 5 h 35 min · 6 quizzes
Module 1: How generative AI works
Understand what these tools do, why they sometimes make things up, and which jobs suit them.
- What generative AI is, in plain words 15 min
- Strengths, limits and hallucinations 20 min
- Choosing the right tasks for AI 15 min
- Quiz: 8 questions
Module 2: The art of prompting
Write prompts with role, context, task, format and examples, and improve results step by step.
- The anatomy of a good prompt 20 min
- Showing examples and controlling the format 20 min
- Iterating: improving the first answer 15 min
- Step-by-step thinking and self-checking prompts 20 min
- Quiz: 8 questions
Module 3: AI for everyday work
Practical uses for drafting, summarising, analysing information, translating and running a small business.
- Drafting emails, letters and reports 20 min
- Summarising documents and meetings 20 min
- Analysing information and data with AI 25 min
- Translation, language support and small-business uses 20 min
- Quiz: 8 questions
Module 4: Checking, bias and privacy
Verify what AI tells you, notice unfair patterns, and keep personal and confidential information safe.
- Fact-checking AI output 20 min
- Bias, fairness and responsible judgement 20 min
- Privacy and confidential data 25 min
- Quiz: 8 questions
Module 5: Rules, honesty and repeatable workflows
Respect copyright, be open about AI use, follow policies, and build simple workflows and a prompt library you can reuse.
- Copyright, originality and disclosure 20 min
- School and workplace AI policies 15 min
- Building repeatable workflows and a prompt library 25 min
- Quiz: 8 questions
Final exam
26 questions. Pass with 70% or more to earn your certificate.
What you need
- Completed Practical AI Tools: Using AI Assistants Wisely (ai-tools-literacy), or equivalent experience with an AI chat assistant
- A computer or smartphone with internet access and access to at least one free AI assistant of your choice
- Comfortable reading and writing in English at work level
Further reading
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