Turn what you have learned into something you can hand to your team and use yourself: a one-page AI literacy brief for your own workplace. This is your first portfolio piece and the start of how you will be seen as the person who understands AI.
The brief
Write a short document, about two to four pages, for a colleague or manager who has not taken this course. It should leave them better informed and ready to make decisions. Use real examples from your own organization, with any confidential details removed.
What it must contain
- What AI is, in plain words. The AI, machine learning and generative AI map, and rules-versus-learning, explained for your audience.
- How a language model works, in five sentences. Tokens, next-token prediction, context, training, and why answers vary.
- A use-case scan. List at least ten tasks from your team's work. Score each with the suitability table from lesson 5. Pick the top three and say why, and name two that look tempting but are poor fits.
- A risk checklist. Hallucination, privacy, bias, security and cost, each with one concrete example from your context and one precaution.
- A one-paragraph policy suggestion. What may and may not be pasted into public AI tools, and what review is required.
- A glossary of 20 terms. Written in your own words.
- Your landscape map. For your top use case: hosted API or local model, the stack layers involved, and what you would buy versus build.
- A next-steps plan. Which courses on this path you will take, and one small experiment you will run in the next two weeks.
How to check your work
Ask yourself, and ideally a colleague:
- Could someone with no AI background follow it?
- Is every claim either true or marked as uncertain?
- Does each recommendation say what a wrong answer would cost?
- Did you avoid hype and avoid doom?
A simple rubric
| Area | Strong | Needs work |
|---|---|---|
| Accuracy | Claims are correct and hedged where unsure | Overstates what AI can do |
| Practicality | Uses real tasks and a clear scoring method | Generic examples only |
| Risk awareness | Specific risks with precautions | A list of buzzwords |
| Clarity | Short, plain, well organized | Jargon without explanation |
| Action | Concrete next steps with dates | Vague intentions |
Stretch goals
- Present the brief to your team in a 20-minute talk and collect their questions.
- Run your top use case as a small experiment with an approved tool, and report what worked and what did not.
- Ask a colleague in another role (security, legal, support) to review it and add their concerns.
Share it
Keep a version without confidential details for your portfolio or profile. A candid brief that says "AI is a poor fit for these three tasks, and here is why" shows better judgment than one that is only enthusiastic.
Where to go next
Continue to the next course on this path: working skillfully with LLMs. In stage 2 you will start building, beginning with calls to a model from code and then a "chat with your documents" app.
Free: a framework for working with AI effectively and responsibly. A good way to check and extend your brief.
A reference for the risk section of your brief and for talking with risk and compliance teams.
A source of precise definitions to check your glossary against.