Last Updated on September 17, 2024 by Katie
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing industries across the globe, transforming the workplace and daily life. As this technology advances, understanding and leveraging AI skills can significantly boost your career prospects and earning potential, which is why it’s worth reading on to learn about the best free online AI courses for beginners!
By boosting your AI knowledge, you can access a range of opportunities in various sectors, from tech to business and beyond.
Online courses provide a flexible and accessible way to acquire these valuable skills without the need to invest heavily in formal education.
Whether you’re a job seeker, a person with a 9-5 looking to upskill, a marketer looking to reduce your workload or a business owner interested in how AI can boost your sales, these free online AI courses for beginners are a good place to start.
Read on to learn about how AI can significantly enhance your work life and prospects.
In a hurry?
Check out these 20 free AI courses on Alison.
I have taken a few and can confirm they are really interesting and informative:
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Best Free Online AI Courses for Beginners You Can Take Today
Do you keep hearing about AI and feel worried it will take your job?
Well, while AI might eventually take some jobs, the majority of roles will be safe and AI will help to reduce the workload and make things run smoother.
So, don’t panic just yet – take the opportunity to learn about AI and show your current or prospective employer that you’re keeping up with trends.
1: Alison: Prompt Engineering for AI Applications
Alison has over 20 free online AI courses for beginners, making this a worthwhile platform to bookmark!
This particular course teaches you how to leverage existing AI tools and train language models to build useful applications.
It aims to make you proficient in prompt engineering, equipping you to shape human-AI interactions responsibly and ethically.
- Course Provider: Alison
- Experience Level: Suitable for beginners and intermediates
- Course Duration: Approximately 3-4 hours
Enroll in the course
2: Alison: Generative AI and Large Language Models for Beginners
Alison offers a course designed for those new to generative AI and large language models.
This course presents fundamental concepts through accessible explanations and engaging examples.
You don’t need any coding experience, just curiosity about this fascinating technology.
Learn how AI generates images and text, and explore its practical applications.
- Course Provider: Alison
- Experience Level: Beginners
- Duration: Short Course
Sign up for the course here.
3: edX’s ‘Artificial Intelligence’ by Columbia University
The Artificial Intelligence course by Columbia University on edX offers an in-depth introduction to AI.
You will explore fundamental AI concepts, including machine learning, neural networks, and robotics.
Topics covered range from basic algorithms to advanced applications in real-world scenarios.
- Course Provider: Columbia University via edX
- Experience Level: Beginner to Intermediate
- Duration: Approximately 12 weeks
Sign up for the course
4: Google’s ‘Machine Learning Crash Course’
Google’s ‘Machine Learning Crash Course’ offers a comprehensive introduction to machine learning.
You will learn about fundamental concepts like supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and more advanced topics such as neural networks.
Practical exercises and real-world examples help you gain hands-on experience.
- Course Provider: Google Developers
- Experience Level: Beginner to Intermediate
- Duration: Approximately 15 hours
Sign up for the course here.
5: Cognitive Class: Fundamentals of AI
The Cognitive Class platform offers the ‘Fundamentals of AI’ free course that teaches students the basics of AI, AI concepts and I ethics.
You’ll learn how AI has been developed over the years and the impact it as had on several industries.
By enrolling in this AI class you’ll learn about the limitless possibilities of this ever-changing technology and gain insight on how to thrive in the new, AI world.
- Course Provider: Cognitive Class
- Experience Level: Beginner
- Course Length: Approximately 3 hours
Sign up for the course here.
6: Coursera’s Supervised Machine Learning: Regression and Classification
Andrew Ng’s ‘Machine Learning’ course on Coursera is a widely recognized online program that covers the fundamentals of building machine learning models in Python.
It is an excellent course for beginners who want to gain a solid understanding of machine learning and how to use these techniques to build real-world AI applications
Through this course, you will learn various topics such as supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and specific applications like anomaly detection.
- Course Provider: Deep Learning AI on Coursera
- Experience Level: Beginner
- Duration: Approximately 11 weeks
Sign up for the course here.
7: Harvard’s ‘CS50’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python’
This course explores the core concepts and algorithms that form the foundation of modern artificial intelligence.
You’ll learn about technologies like game-playing engines, handwriting recognition, and machine translation.
Furthermore, you’ll develop practical skills through hands-on projects.
The course includes study topics such as graph search algorithms, classification, optimization, and machine learning.
- Course Provider: Harvard University
- Experience Level: Beginner to Intermediate
- Duration: 10-12 weeks
Sign up for the course here.
8: Khan Academy’s ‘What is AI?’
Khan Academy is another top educational platform with a range of free online AI courses for beginners.
Khan Academy’s ‘Wat is AI’ course offers a straightforward entry point into the complex world of AI.
You will explore how AI works, what is machine learning and how chatbots and large language models (LLMs) work.
Furthermore, you will gain insight into neral networks, the ethics of AI and why this matters.
- Course provider: Code.org on Khan Academy
- Good for: Beginners
- Duration: Approximately 3 hours
Sign up for the course
9: Career Essentials in Generative AI By Microsoft and LinkedIn
Learn how to apply generative AI in your career with this free online course.
Explore core concepts and functionality of artificial intelligence, focusing on generative models and large language models (LLMs).
This course is designed by cloud advocates and experts in the field. You will also get to build your own generative AI applications.
- Provider: Microsoft and LinkedIn
- Experience Level: All levels
- Duration: Variable
Sign up for the course here
10: Microsoft’s ‘AI School’
Microsoft’s ‘AI School’ is a comprehensive learning platform designed to help you grasp both fundamental and advanced AI concepts.
This resource provides up-to-date content for developers and data scientists, enabling you to quickly get started with Microsoft’s AI technologies.
You’ll find a wealth of materials ranging from introductory tutorials to deep-dive sessions on machine learning and data science.
- Course Provider: Microsoft
- Experience Level: All levels
- Duration: Self-paced
Sign up for Microsoft’s AI School
11: Google Cloud: Introduction to Generative AI Learning Path
The “Introduction to Generative AI” course from Google Cloud is a great starting point for those who want to understand generative AI concepts.
This course covers what generative AI is, its applications, and how it differs from traditional machine learning methods.
You will also learn about the Google tools that can help you develop your own generative AI applications.
- Course Provider: Google Cloud
- Experience Level: Introductory
- Duration: 45 minutes
Sign up for the course here.
12: Udacity: Intro to Artificial Intelligence
Udacity offers a comprehensive “Intro to Artificial Intelligence” course designed to equip you with the foundational skills in AI.
This course is perfect if you are looking to enhance your career prospects in this rapidly growing field.
You will gain hands-on experience and learn about a variety of AI techniques and applications.
- Course Provider: Udacity
- Experience Level: Beginner to Intermediate
- Duration: Approximately 4 months
Sign up for the course here
13: IBM: AI for Everyone – Master the Basics
This course offers a fundamental introduction to artificial intelligence.
It covers key concepts like machine learning, deep learning, and neural networks.
Additionally, you will explore practical applications and use cases of AI, as well as ethical concerns and impacts on society.
- Course Provider: IBM on edX
- Experience Level: Beginner
- Duration: Approximately 4 weeks
Sign up for the course here.
14: DeepLearningAI: Generative AI for Everyone
DeepLearning.AI offers “Generative AI for Everyone,” guided by AI pioneer Andrew Ng.
You will explore how generative AI works, its capabilities, and its limitations.
This course includes hands-on exercises that enable you to practically apply generative AI in various scenarios.
- Course provider: DeepLearning.AI on Coursera
- Experience level: All levels
- Duration: Short-term (3 modules)
Sign up for Generative AI for Everyone
15: IBM: AI Chatbots Without Programming
This course, offered by IBM on edX, is designed to teach you how to build AI chatbots without needing to write any code.
By leveraging IBM Watson’s Natural Language Processing capabilities, you will learn to create, test, and deploy chatbots efficiently.
- Course Provider: IBM on edX
- Experience Level: Suitable for beginners
- Course Duration: Approximately 6 weeks
Sign up for the course
Final Thoughts on the Best Free Online AI Courses for Beginners
So, there you have it – the best free online AI course for beginners!
Which course are you going to start with?
I have taken a few myself on Alison and am really enjoying learning about the possibilities of AI and how it can help me make more money and make my life easier.
Whether you love it or hate it, AI is here to stay so you might as well start educating yourself, especially if you are looking for work.
More and more businesses will start using AI technology, meaning being proactive and learning about it will only help your career prospects!
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.
