Generative AI (GenAI) is an incredibly unique technology that is not only here to stay, but has the potential to impact every aspect of work and business. It is already entering our daily lives in a way that we have never experienced before.
We all have a lot to learn about this technology. While it may be easy to type a few prompts into ChatGPT, you need to hone your skills to turn all these new capabilities into useful tools. Luckily, there are plenty of courses out there that can help you do just that.
Many companies and schools will try to sell you their AI training programs. But as I’ll show you in my list of the best resources, you can learn a lot about AI and even earn some certifications—all for free.
So I recommend that you take a quick look at my brief overview, dig deeper into the linked articles if you can, and bookmark them as they are valuable resources. Let’s get started!
1. LinkedIn Learning: Best for Professional Certifications
Course Selection: Over 1,500 AI courses (so many!)
Price: Free trial, then $39.99 per month
LinkedIn Learning is one of the oldest online learning platforms, founded in 1995 as Lynda.com. The company offers a wide range of courses on a variety of topics. Although there is a monthly fee, most companies and schools offer accounts for all employees and students.
LinkedIn Learning is probably the one I’ve used more than any other online education site—it’s been around since the late 1990s. I paid for my membership for years.
Now, as an alumnus of my graduate school, I use the membership. With so many courses on so many topics, it’s a great resource for learning.
With so many AI courses, you’re sure to find a program that’s right for you. I’ve selected three courses that will open up some opportunities for you to get started.
- ChatGPT Tips for the Help Desk: Learn how to apply AI techniques to AI operations, including strategic planning, prompt engineering, and agent scripting.
- Machine Learning with Python: Foundations: Get a step-by-step guide on how to get started with machine learning using Python.
- Building Career Agility and Resilience in the Age of AI: Learn how to reimagine your career, adapt, and find success in the age of AI.
Check with your employer, agency, or school to see if you can get a free membership. Otherwise, you can pay monthly or annually (the annual option is about half the price).
2. Microsoft AI Skills Fest: A Collection of Free Courses
Course Selection: There were 93 courses
Price: Free during Skills Fest, many free afterwards
Microsoft won a Guinness World Record for the largest online training event called Skills Fest, which took place in April and May 2025.
It was a mix of live and video courses, and anyone could attend for free. The only cost was to provide your email and sign up with Microsoft.
There are still plenty of free online courses available after the event.
Here are three courses I took:
- AI Adventurers: A fun Minecraft Education-style introduction to the basics of Generative AI (I recommend this for introducing kids to AI).
- Building Applications with GitHub Copilot Agent Mode: A YouTube video that teaches you how to use GitHub’s new Agent Mode.
- AI for Organizational Leaders: A LinkedIn Learning course with a certificate.
Not all courses are available on demand. Now that Skills Fest is over, you can view the course catalog by visiting this link. You will see many courses ready for you to view.
3. Amazon AWS Skill Builder – Best training for AWS users
Course selection: Quite a lot
Price: Many courses are free, some with paid plans
Companies these days rely on Amazon’s cloud infrastructure to scale as needed rather than build their own. Amazon has built nearly every aspect of IT technology for rent.
This includes everything from computer vision to human-like speech recognition, and AI services like Bedrock. Bedrock is a service that provides access to LLMs developed by Amazon and leading AI startups via an API.
Amazon offers a wide range of training courses for all of these services. Some are free. Here are three free courses you should try:
- Foundations of Prompt Engineering: Learn the fundamental techniques and best practices for designing effective prompts.
- Amazon Bedrock – Getting Started: Get started with Amazon’s service for building generative AI apps.
- Twitch Series: AWS Power Hour Introduction to Machine Learning for Developers: This Twitch series teaches developers the fundamentals of machine learning from a practical perspective.
Amazon offers a ton of courses not only on their website but also on YouTube. I even finished the Generative AI Foundations series in a very interesting weekend.
If you’re using AWS-based services or considering it, these courses are a great resource worth your time.
4. IBM SkillsBuild Learning: Best for Beginners and Managers
Course Selection: A Wide Range of IT and Career Courses
Price: Free
IBM is a well-known company, needless to say. They’ve been leading the AI space with Watson services for years.
Currently, their Generative AI solution, called Watsonx, focuses on helping businesses leverage both traditional Machine Learning and Generative AI to meet their own needs.
IBM’s SkillsBuild Learning courses provide foundational training for Cybersecurity Specialists, Data Analysts, User Experience Designers, and other key IT roles.
There’s only one free AI certification available right now, but it’s one that has many of our readers excited. It’s the AI Fundamentals learning certification, which includes six courses.
You’ll need to register to follow the link, but signing up is easy and free. Upon completion of the course, you’ll receive a formal certificate that you can showcase on LinkedIn. I did the same thing after taking this course—and I recorded it for you.
My favorite lesson is the AI Ethics lesson, which lasts an hour and 45 minutes. Through real-world examples, you’ll learn about AI ethics, how to implement them, and why AI ethics is so important for building trustworthy AI systems.
5. DeepLearning (with OpenAI) – Best for Advanced and Developer Courses
Course Selection: Nearly 90 AI-focused courses
Price: Free
DeepLearning is an education-focused company that specializes in AI training. The company is constantly adding new courses focused on training developers in various aspects of AI technology.
They have collaborated with OpenAI (the creators of ChatGPT) to create a number of great courses.
I took the ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers course, which is listed below. It was a great first in-depth introduction to the ChatGPT API. If you’re interested in how coders can use LLMs like ChatGPT, this course is well worth your time.
Inserting prompts, which are more like comments than commands, between regular code helps you understand the two styles of coding.
Here are three courses I recommend you check out:
- ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers: Beyond the Chat Box, You’ll learn how to use API Access to use LLMs in your apps, and how to build your own Chatbot.
- Evaluating and Debugging Generative AI Models Using Weights and Bias: Learn MLOps tools for managing, versioning, bug-finding, and testing your Machine Learning (ML) workflow.
- Large Language Models with Semantic Search: Learn how to use LLMs to improve search and summarize results.
Since AI is such a growing field, I’m always amazed at how many valuable courses are available for free. I highly recommend bookmarking DeepLearning and checking back for new courses.
7. Secure AI/ML – Driven Software Development
As AI and machine learning (ML) are reshaping the way software developers write code, these tools are also opening the door to new threats and security vulnerabilities.
This free course, jointly developed by the Open Software Security Foundation (OpenSSF) and the Linux Foundation, teaches developers how to use AI tools while protecting them from malicious, malicious prompts, and insecure outputs.
Attendees will receive insightful, practical guidance on how to use AI code assistants without accidentally creating insecure prompts and dangerous outputs.
OpenSSF will show users how to use AI safely during development, how to write more secure code, and how to maintain the review process in an AI-powered world.
I skipped the “Writing More Secure Code with AI” section. It was a great resource for me. Although I’ve written a lot of code with AI, I was also able to gain some insights into some of the best practices I’m currently using, and some ideas for best practices I plan to implement.
This course is important for developers, because AI is already seeping into many aspects of their daily work. These could include things like generating code or automatically reviewing code.
Unfortunately, most developers aren’t trained to identify the unique security risks that come with AI-assisted code. These are real threats that aren’t covered in traditional developer training, but this course does.
Upon completion, attendees will earn a Verifiable Completion Badge, recognized by the Open Source Security Foundation. If you’re looking for more basic security skills, check out OpenSSF’s Developing Secure Software course, which is also free.
8. Google Generative AI Leader Course: A course designed for business leaders
Course Selection: 5
Price: Free to learn, $99 for certification
Google offers a 7- to 8-hour program that teaches business leaders about Generative AI concepts. It’s a pretty comprehensive set of courses, and all of them are free to watch.
The courses include:
- Gen AI: Beyond the Chatbot: A basic overview of Generative AI.
- Gen AI: Unlock Foundational Concepts: An explanation of key AI concepts.
- Gen AI: Navigate the Landscape: AI business systems and infrastructure.
- Gen AI Apps: Transform Your Work: Business AI applications.
- Gen AI Agents: Transform Your Organization: AI strategy and adoption.
Here’s a little warning: If you want the official certification, you’ll have to pay $99 and take a 90-minute exam. But if you want to call yourself a business leader and want to be recognized, I think $99 is a fair price to pay for a product that is recognized by Google as a leader in the Generative AI business.
I took the Basic Learning section. It is text-based and includes interactive quizzes. It provides a good overview for those new to the field, and I believe the rest of the lessons will be equally interesting.
9. Udemy: Best for broad and deep AI topics
Course selection: Thousands of courses, even just for AI
Price: Free trial, then $20 per month. Individual courses can also be purchased.
Udemy is a service that curates courses created by individual instructors. So while the style and quality of the courses can vary slightly, the ranking system helps exceptional instructors rise to the top. Udemy is on this list because it has a free trial.
I took some time to take Steve Ballinger’s Complete ChatGPT Course for Work 2023 (Ethically)! course. It was a huge help to me.
The course, which is just over two hours long, takes you through the ethical issues and challenges that come with using AI in the workplace, and helps you understand how to align ChatGPT with your business processes.
Udemy offers an all-you-can-watch plan for $20 per month, or it sells courses individually. I honestly don’t see why buying individual courses is a bad idea, as most courses cost more than the entire library that comes with a subscription.
Here are three courses you should check out:
- ChatGPT Masterclass: ChatGPT Guide for Beginners to Experts: Gain a mastery of ChatGPT, learn how to create high-quality content with ease, and increase your revenue potential.
- Discover, Validate & Launch New Business Ideas with ChatGPT: Learn how to generate business ideas, assess their potential, and test them with real-world customers.
- Midjourney Mastery: Create Visually Stunning AI Art: Learn how to create visually stunning AI art using Midjourney.
One of the most interesting things about Udemy is that you can find courses on very specific uses of AI (niche applications).
This is something you won’t find at companies that offer a limited number of popular courses. If you have unique application needs, don’t hesitate to spend more time finding the right course.
Also Read: How to Use AI Chatbots Effectively?
10 Google Generative AI for Educators – A great place to start for teachers
Course option: An AI course
Price: Free
Google’s Grow with Google program typically offers a variety of certification programs through Coursera. These certificates often require a fee to earn.
However, one Grow with Google program we’re interested in is aimed at teachers and is free.
Created in partnership with MIT’s Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education, the Generative AI for Educators course is a two-hour program designed to help teachers learn about generative AI and how to use it in the classroom.
Generative AI is a big challenge in education. It can provide amazing support for students, but it can also provide an easy way for students to cheat on their homework. So a course that helps teachers keep track of all these issues is very powerful.
Upon completion of this course, you will be awarded a Professional Development Certificate, which is free of charge.
