New year, new you, same old AI trends and tools to deal with at work. While you’re setting all those resolutions for how you’ll improve yourself this year, you might as well throw in an AI training course or two.
Ultimately, AI tools might be a big reason why many white collar workers are concerned about retaining their jobs in 2025. Still, figuring out how to operate those same tools might be enough to convince your bosses that you’re staying on the cutting edge of technology.
If you’re interested in how to upskill your AI know-how, you don’t have to pay through the nose. Online sites like Coursera, edX, and Codecademy are home to plenty of video training courses that won’t cost you a cent. Here are all the best options available this month for anyone with an internet connection and a dream.
Google: Google AI for Anyone
⏰Length: 8-12 hours
We don’t often repeat course recommendations in this series. However, this video course, which we already covered back in May 2024, is worth bringing up again.
Google is a top AI company today, as anyone who has tried to Google anything recently can tell you. On top of all the inescapable AI summaries that your Google results are pushing on you, the tech giant has major investments in OpenAI, as well as the French AI startup Mistral.
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This course is aimed at the layperson who wants to know what AI is and what the hype is all about. It’s self-paced, but Google suggests spending two to three hours on it for four weeks, making it a relatively easy path towards learning about concepts that include ML, deep learning, data and applications, Neural Networks, AI ethics, and more.
You can get started today on edX for free.
Codeacademy: Learn How to Use ChatGPT
⏰Length: 1 hour
Need the quickest possible ChatGPT explainer? Join the 104,695 learners who opted for this Codeacademy course, which is among the shortest video courses you’ll find at a scant 60 minutes long.
You’ll learn more about how OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT chatbot solution works, how many people are using it in their everyday life, and how you can write the most effective ChatGPT prompts — all over the same amount of time that you’d take for a lunch break.
You’ll get six sections, each with its own quiz to help lock in what you’ve been taught. One of the most important ones is the “Risks and Limitations of ChatGPT” section. Generative AI tools are impressive, they’re not magic, and those who don’t know what they can’t accomplish with generative AI might wind up making headlines, from creating movie trailers that lie about critic quotes to submitting legal briefs packed with falsehoods.
Check out the popular free Codeacademy course online.
Codeacademy: Deep Dive Into Generative AI with Azure OpenAI
⏰Length: 2 hours
For those who turn up their nose at a simplistic one-hour ChatGPT course, Codeacademy has an intermediate offering: A two-hour Azure OpenAI course.
This course will take you through a rollercoaster of definitions and explainations that includes: Azure architecture, OpenAI Studio, model customization and deployment, text and image generation, integration, privacy and compliance issues, among others.
In the end, it’s all in preparation to work with Azure OpenAI, Microsoft’s cloud-based platform aimed at giving developers and data scientists REST API access to a wide range of OpenAI language models. It’s a step towards a more technical understanding of OpenAI’s models. Look at it this way: Within a half of an afternoon, you can know more than the average ChatGPT user about how AI works.
Get started today on Codeacademy over here.
AI for Business: Generation & Prediction
⏰Length: 3 hours
Let’s be honest: The real reason to learn more about AI is to do better in school or at work. If you’re hoping to gain a little bit of an edge at your workplace, this course might be a fast way to gain perspective on what AI can and can’t do for you.
Here, you’ll learn how AI can promote critical thinking, rather than replace it. You’ll also pick up a few more lessons. According to the course material itself, you’ll learn to:
- Differentiate between various generative AI models and identify their advantages across frameworks.
- Construct strategies for implementing generative AI applications in business environments and determine the best models for specific contexts.
- Illustrate the advantages and benefits of implementing generative AI in practical business environments.
The role of AI in financial forecasting is likely the most helpful lesson in this course, although you’ll also gain insight on its benefits for content creation and the ethical implications to know about.
Like most free video courses, it’s taught in English. However, you’ll have access to 21 different language translations, making this an accessable course for many around the globe. Get started on Coursera here.
LinkedIn: Understanding AI for Business Professionals
⏰Length: About 6 hours
Those in need of a longer guide to AI literacy in the business world may want to check out this LinkedIn video course, which takes a little under six hours to complete.
This is a good general-knowledge course exploring what AI is, the key ways that the new tools are currently streamlining workflows, and — par for these types of courses, it seems — what ethical considerations to know about.
The audience for this course is so broad that it isn’t even limited to those who plan to use AI themselves. Anyone who just wants to know what the big deal is with the much-hyped technology can watch these lessons to learn how AI is impacting the business landscape around them.
Technically, this one is not free, but you can get an entire month of LinkedIn Learning without paying at all, and that should be plenty of time to get through this relatively fast training course. Check it out on LinkedIn here.
Future-Proofing Your Career, With or Without AI
As we dive into 2025, the AI takeover might seem inevitable. After all, more than half of the longform posts you’ll find on LinkedIn are likely AI-generated, according to a new study.
In reality, though, we’re still just in the technology’s “freemium” era — eventually, big companies like OpenAI will have to do something about the billions of dollars that they’re still losing every year. Either they’ll land the fat government contracts they need to propell them into massive profits, or they’ll crash and burn.
In either case, most white collar workers are just hoping to know enough about AI to keep their current position or land their next one. If that’s you, check out one or two of the courses above, and you’ll be well on your way.
What next step is best for you after picking up a little free training? Consider browsing through our own online resources, from our guide to crafting a resume to our explainer on the rise of AI slop.
