Learn essential AI skills

You probably already know that AI is short for artificial intelligence. But what does that mean exactly? AI refers to computer programs trained to do complex actions that usually require human brain power — and potentially a lot of time and effort — to accomplish. Simply put, AI can help with challenging tasks. When you learn to use AI tools effectively in your job, it can help you speed through some of those not-so-fun, routine tasks you dread to tackle, which can give you the time and space you need to concentrate on big-picture thinking or reach your goals more quickly. For example, you can use AI tools to help summarize notes, analyze dense spreadsheets, and create an engaging presentation. You can even use AI tools to help draft a detailed sales report and highlight key insights that you can share with your coworkers and managers. By learning how to augment your work with AI, you can set yourself up for success — and you don’t even need programming skills to use it.

Generative AI is a specific form of AI that focuses on creating new content like text, images, or other media based on examples it’s been trained on. Some AI tools accept text or speech as input, while others also take videos or images.

An exciting feature of generative AI tools is that you can give them instructions with natural language, also known as prompts. So, no coding is needed. During many of the Google AI courses, you’ll practice using a conversational AI tool like Gemini, where you’ll experience using natural language to ask Gemini questions or brainstorm with it.

In the workplace, you can use generative AI tools to get creative inspiration, boost your productivity, and make your ideas even bigger. You can prompt an AI tool to help brainstorm ideas. Then, after reviewing the output, you can refine your ideas with additional prompts. You can use an AI tool to help generate a presentation outline, draft marketing copy or create visuals for your presentation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to reshape the way we work. Yet, many people and organizations don’t have the expertise they need to unlock AI’s full potential. Learning AI skills helps future-proof your career, increases your productivity, and opens up new opportunities.

AI can tackle routine tasks on your to-do list, help you enhance the quality of your work, empower you to make informed decisions, and generate new content for you. Stuck for ideas at the beginning of a project? Use AI as a creative collaboration tool. Drowning in a sea of emails? Use AI tools to help draft responses so you can clear out your inbox quickly. Need to make a quick promo video to market a new product? Prompt an AI tool with your ideas and assets.

Developing a strong understanding of how to use generative AI could give you a competitive edge in a variety of industries.

It depends on your current AI knowledge and your learning goals. New to AI? Start with introductory courses like AI Boost Bites and explore the Google AI Professional Certificate to teach the skills you need to use AI effectively at work. These will give you a solid foundation in AI concepts.

Ready to dive deeper? Consider more specialized courses or certifications based on your specific interests or career goals. Google Skills offers AI courses and hands-on labs where you can earn Skill Badges —digital credentials to validate your abilities with Google Cloud products.

Google AI Essentials helps beginners get started with the basics, including writing prompts. The Google AI Professional Certificate is designed to teach the skills you need to use AI effectively at work. Validated by a coalition of large employers, this program helps you master using AI across 20+ work scenarios—like creating marketing assets, vibe coding custom apps, and conducting data analysis.

Certificates generally refer to a program focused on building practical skills in a specific area. Certificates often require less time and financial commitment than certifications. Examples include Google Career Certificates or Google Cloud Certificates, which focus on job-ready skills.

Certifications, including Google Cloud Certifications typically involve a more rigorous process to validate technical expertise in a particular technology or domain. Certifications often require passing an exam and may demonstrate proficiency in specific tools or platforms.

Google Career Certificates were designed and built by subject-matter experts and senior practitioners at Google from each of the job fields. Every certificate has been created to equip learners with theoretical and practical knowledge and real-life problem-solving skills to support you to be successful in an entry-level job. Expert industry organisations and platforms consulted and collaborated on material.

Google offers many learning resources to learn AI skills—some paid and some available free of charge to learners. The complementary resources on this page are marked with a “no charge” tag.

Join the Google Enterprise Agent Ready (GEAR) community to build AI skills with 35 learning credits to use on courses and hands-on labs in Google Skills —at no cost to you. These credits renew every month. You can also access the full catalog of learning content on Google Skills with a monthly subscription of $29 per month. For higher education, government, nonprofit and workforce development programs, Google Cloud offers a no-charge option. You can learn more at g.co/edu/cloudready.

Lastly, as a Google Career Certificate learner, you will get charged a standard Coursera monthly fee for your country for taking a certificate. In the U.S. and Canada, the subscription cost is $49 USD per month after an initial 7-day free trial period. Google Career Certificates are completely self-paced. To see the exact cost in CAD, please visit the Coursera page and view the enrollment options.

Google has also funded scholarships for Google Career Certificates across Canada, which will be distributed by Grow with Google partners and Google.org grantees. The Google Career Certificate Scholarship Program gives awardees access to take the certificate courses free of charge.