The 4 Best Zero-Cost AI Courses For L&D Pros

📨 Subscribe | 🤖 AI Training | 🚀 Courses

 TODAY’S THOUGHTS ☠️

Hey there 👋,

As you can probably guess, tons of L&D pros ask me: “How do I learn AI?”

I don’t have a straightforward answer to that.

Lots of inputs need to be considered. One thought that swirls around my head is that with so many L&D teams either being asked to lead or support organisational AI adoption, how are they being enabled to do that?

It’s not as if there’s lots of us walking around with high-level AI skills.

So, I’ve spent the past 6 weeks researching, completing and reviewing a bunch of AI courses to uncover what can help you build the AI fluency needed to navigate our current era.

Today, I’m sharing the 4 best zero-cost AI courses that are perfect for L&D pros.

Get your tea or beverage of choice ready 🍵.

We've got lots to discuss!

P.S. Your app might clip this edition due to size. If so, read the full edition in all its glory in your browser.

 IN THIS DROP 📔

• The 4 courses that will build real AI fluency

• My pick for the AI learning experience every L&D pro should take

• The state of AI agents for L&D in 2026

TOGETHER WITH 7TAPS

At Best Friends Animal Society, the L&D team trains people to make judgment calls under pressure. Not just seasoned animal welfare experts, but also 12,500 volunteers and over 6,000 network partners nationwide every year.

Carol Delisi, Instructional Designer & Facilitator Specialist, joins MicrolearningCONF on May 28 to share how Best Friends build training for emotional, high-stakes work—and why their lessons travel beyond animal welfare.

If your team has to think on its feet, this session is for you.

🙋‍♀️ Want to reach over 5,000 L&D pros? Become a Newsletter sponsor in 2026

 THE BIG THOUGHT 👀

The 4 Best Zero-Cost AI Courses For L&D Pros

Whenever someone asks me, "How do I learn AI?" I have to pause because it feels like it's a double-loaded question.

I understand why people want to ask me that, especially in my line of work and visibility in showcasing different use cases of artificial intelligence specifically in the realm of learning and development.

Despite this, it's still really hard for me to give a concrete and clear answer.

It’s difficult because there are so many courses, resources, and experiences that are available to you. For the most part, they all sound the same, look the same, and tell us that they're gonna give us the same outcome.

I'm always of the belief that there isn't one tool, one method, or one strategy to rule them all.

And… to top it all off, the term “learn AI” is pretty ambiguous.

What I assume they mean is to understand how a generative tool, like an LLM, works and how they can work with it to get their desired results. That’s how I’ll frame this for today’s advice.

To help someone, you need to understand:

• What is the context of the individual and organisation?

• What are the constraints they may be experiencing?

• What is their current starting point?

Without understanding all of these key inputs, it's very hard for anyone to give you a clear answer to the question I'm constantly posed.

Now I know you're probably reading this and thinking “oh God please stop writing so much and just tell me what I should do.”

So that is exactly what we are going to do today.

While I'm not gonna give you a clear 100% "this is the course to rule them all", what I will do is share a selection of choices.

How I assessed these zero-cost AI courses

Okay, here’s the method to my madness with this assessment.

I’ve looked across the market at all of the courses which are tagged with ‘AI fluency’.

There are a lot of free resources on YouTube with a varying degree of quality to consider, but I’ve not included these here because that's really based on your own taste.

This led me to focus my testing on the leading AI and tech companies building the tools we know. The idea is since they’re building these tools, they might just be a good place to learn about their capabilities.

With that focus, I spent the last six weeks completing courses from the following companies:

• Google

• DeepLearning.ai

• Anthropic

• Microsoft

That gives us four courses in total.

You'll notice one big omission here from OpenAI.

I did visit OpenAI's Academy to try and find some resources and courses for the general population. But I found the Academy very difficult to navigate. I didn't really find anything beyond the ability to sign up to webinars, and rather outdated looking help articles.

That's not to say that I dislike OpenAI at all.

I would be more than happy to add them into this once I see an improved offer and can feel confident in recommending that to you.

My recommendations for each course will include:

1. What does the course cover?

2. Who would it benefit the most?

3. What will you tangibly walk away with that you can use the next day?

Now, a disclaimer for you…

The right choice for you is contextual, and depends on the 3 questions I posed in the opening section. I’ll give you my recommendations on which courses are truly worth your time in the sea of the hundreds currently available.

Yet, your choice on which of the 4 is most useful to you is…well, down to you.

You can use these options for your company, too

Long-time readers will know I'm all about the value!

Since I'm not part of the AI bros club (let's be honest my hair is far too fabulous and fashion sense too cool for that), where you get literally nothing outside of "This changes everything" comments, I'm making these recommendations not only for your development, but that of the teams you support too.

A lot of organisations are asking you to lead or play a big support role in adoption of AI.

The good news is once you're confident with the content, you can then use it to your advantage to enable your org to be just as smart with AI (if you want to, of course).

The 4 AI fluency courses I’d recommend for L&D pros

Let's get this show on the road.

This will be the only playbook you need, and I'll do my best to keep it updated as the years roll or until my battery dies (hopefully, not anytime soon).

AI For Everyone by Deeplearning.AI

Funny name for this one because I don't believe it's for everyone.

Of all the courses I share today, this one is the most advanced-ish, so I'd reserve this for those who are farther down the yellow brick road of AI awareness.

Who it's for:

This was one of the first AI courses I came across in mid-2023, although it covers much more than Generative AI. It's taught by Andrew Ng, Founder of Coursera and Google Brain (a deep learning predecessor to the more well known Google DeepMind), and an actual computer scientist.

So yes, this guy legit knows what he's talking about.

While I found this experience great for my inner nerd, it's certainly only for those who want a broader understanding of everything AI, not just LLMs and everything under the generative umbrella.

Maybe one best placed for my fellow learning tech folks.

What it does well:

The course gives you everything you'd need to know about AI without being an engineer.

Talking head videos and resources are clearly explained, and easy to download for your future viewing pleasure.

Where it falls short:

Now, this only falls short depending on your context.

If you're not an engineer or don't care about getting deeper into an AI specialised role, then it will probably fall short for you in many areas with its overwhelm. It is stuffed with lots of info, and most is non-relevant if you just use a standard LLM every day.

I mean, it has no hands-on use of AI tools but I find it hard to see where this could be weaved in with all the Matrix level explanations.

Verdict:

• ❌ Skip, if you're 95% of average AI users.

• ✅ Dive in if you're an engineer, curious nerd or want to make a career pivot to AI as a broader category.

Google AI Essentials

Ok, let’s see what the big G has to offer.

While they came late to the useful LLM party, it can't be denied they're certainly a frontrunner with their abundance of tools and Godzilla-sized ecosystem.

Who it's for:

This is pitched at the pure beginner. If you or your teams look at an LLM and have no clue what's going on, this is the place to start.

Google's team give you an overview of the basics that'll give you a better standing in those workplace conversations.

What it does well:

Like I said, it's framed perfectly for beginners, and in the traditional online course delivery we all know, but maybe don't love. There's plenty of focus on low-level tasks where you can collaborate with AI, and a surprisingly good overview of prompting too.

Where it falls short:

Like most choices on this list, the videos are super corny.

Even more so with these Google ones. I feel like the real humans could be avatars because the delivery is so scripted and robotic which breaks any form of immersion.

If you know the basics and are confident with generic LLM activities, you won't get much from this.

Note: If you want to go to the next level, Google offers a paid professional certificate which bolts on a "How to build with AI" category, which is missing from all of the above. Free to access tools like Google AI Studio are criminally underrated because they're pitched as "developer" tools but are very easy to use once you're set up with some basic knowledge. This course provides that next step in your AI fluency journey.

Verdict:

• ❌ Skip if you've been using LLMs for a few years and know the basics.

• ✅ Dive in if you're at beginner territory and need to build the foundations with understanding and working with LLMs

AI Fluency: Framework and Foundations by Anthropic

I know I said "this isn't a competition with one winner"…but…

This one is my most highly recommended for everyone.

I like this one because it's focused on "how to work and think with Gen AI and LLMs as a category", rather than, "here's how to use our tool". It does a good job on prompting you (pun intended) to think about how you engage with AI and its outputs.

This is more valuable for the long game with AI. The tools will change, but investing in how you think and work with AI won't.

Who it's for:

It's for anyone ready to move beyond tools and templates and start thinking with AI.

So, basically, everyone reading this.

What it does well:

The course gives you a clear fluency framework you can pick up and implement with a few tweaks. The exercises (when you find them) are practical, immersive, and teach you to think about how you're working with AI, not just what you're asking it.

There's a strong breakdown of techniques that improve both AI outputs and your own thinking in the process, and I liked the encouragement to work alongside a LLM to solve the problems the course unpacks.

Where it falls short:

The UX needs work.

Exercises are buried below the fold with no direction to scroll down. I was surprised an instance of Claude wasn't embedded for these. Why not include live demo exercises in the videos to actually model thinking with AI?

There's also a section covering transformers, compute, and tokens. Nice to know, but for most people this isn't the advantage the course frames it as.

Verdict:

✅ Take it. 

It teaches you how to work with AI, not just how to use a tool. That alone sets it apart from 90% of AI courses out there right now.

I can't think of someone who wouldn't benefit from it.

AI Fluency by Microsoft

I know a lot of companies are using Microsoft infrastructure, so it was a no brainer to include this one.

The ultimate assessment of ‘if this is right for you and your teams’, is if you're using Copilot as your go-to company LLM.

Who it's for:

The easy answer is if your organisation's LLM of choice is Copilot and you want to make the most of it across all the popular MS apps.

What it does well:

A comprehensive walkthrough of Copilot that's perfect for any MS powered organisation. If you're using Microsoft tools, you can't go wrong here.

You also get a good overview of AI Fluency (according to Microsoft) and ideas on how to amplify its principles across a team, department and org level.

Where it falls short:

It's painfully long, and stuffed with too much unnecessary content.

When you look at it, it's just poor design. There's some good stuff here but it's buried by mountains of content. It felt like the brief was 'how much can we stuff in?'. This is the biggest problem for this one. If you're a copilot user, it's made for you but you'll be going through a lot of 'nice to know', not 'this is actually gonna help me do better work' content.

I don't like the gamified angle with experience points either.

That might be just me, yet I felt like I was in some 90's retro game at points, and I didn't want to be there.

Verdict:

• ❌ Skip if you're not using Copilot

• ✅ Dive in if you're using Microsoft across your organisation with Copilot but select the parts that make most sense for your work, as you don't need everything on offer here

The elephant in the room

There is a rather oxymoronic angle to all these courses.

We’re being told as an industry that AI will change learning and education forever.

Yet, each of these companies decided to build courses around the traditional module structure with speaker videos and text based exercises.

I would have loved to see more application of AI in teaching AI.

Keep an eye out on my YouTube channel because I’m going to share how some of these could have incorporated the tools they’ve built. You can start with this AI coach I built for one of my courses. More on this soon.

How I would learn about AI if I did it all over again

The biggest takeaway today might be this.

If I was starting all over again as an L&D pro with little understanding of AI, I’d:

1. Take the Google AI Essentials course to build your tech foundation

2. Take the Anthropic AI Fluency Frameworks course to build your "thinking with AI" foundation

3. Create a free Google account to access Google AI Studio, where you can test prompts, build apps and learn about agents in one place.

That’s it.

Google’s AI Essentials gives you everything you need to know about generative AI, and Anthropic’s fluency course builds on this by teaching you how to work and talk to AI without degrading your power of thought. Google’s AI Studio is the cherry on top as it lets you practice everything in one space with free access to top models.

That’s my zero-cost learning plan for you 😉.

Final thoughts

There you have it, friend.

These are my picks of the most impactful zero-cost AI courses worth checking out. Like I said, there's no overall winner, just what works best based on your context, experience level, and goals.

I hope this helps you build your skills and enable those around you with AI too.

Let me know your thoughts on these courses, and any I missed that you think I should check out.

See you next time, human.

→ If you’ve found this helpful, please consider sharing it wherever you hang out online, tag me in and share your thoughts.

P.S. I’m hosting a virtual workshop for L&D pros to become AI Fluent. Mark your calendars for April 23rd, amigos. I’m welcoming 10 L&D pros to work with me for one afternoon in a hands-on session where you’ll get a complete operating system for working with AI in your L&D role. Plus…you’ll get a playbook, access to a private community and office hours session. I might never do this again, so join me while you can (only 4 spaces left!).

 VIDEO THOUGHTS 💾

AI Agents Explained For L&D Teams

In 2025, AI and tech companies kept telling us this was the year of agents.

That never happened.

This year, we’re seeing agentic tools quietly added into the AI tool stacks we’re already familiar with. Claude, with its CoWork and Code features, is an example of this. As is OpenAI with the more ‘in your face’ agent mode and Codex product.

The word agentic gets chucked around a lot.

It’s a stupid word, imo. It just means ‘to take agency’ or in other words, for AI to have agency to do stuff. I’ve no doubt that agentic tools will be a key part of how we live and work. You’re probably blissfully unaware of how many you’re using right now.

In this 5 minute video (yes, that short), I make sense of agentic AI for L&D.

Enjoy 😊.

Till next time, you stay classy, learning friend!

PS… If you’re enjoying the newsletter, will you take 4 seconds to forward this edition to a friend? It goes a long way in helping me grow the newsletter (and cut through our industry BS with actionable insights).

And one more thing, I’d love your input on how to make the newsletter even more useful for you!

So please leave a comment with:

1. Ideas you’d like covered in future editions

2. Your biggest takeaway from this edition

I read & reply to every single one of them!

P.S. Wanna build your L&D advantage?

Here’s four ways I can help:

1. Build your confidence and skills with the only AI course designed for L&D pros.

2. Partner with me on AI Enablement for your L&D team. I’ve worked with 1,000’s of L&D pros’s to build AI Fluency that supports teams with the practical AI skills you need in your L&D role and to enable your organisation.

3. Get a backstage pass to exclusive industry insights, events and a secret monthly newsletter with a premium community membership.

4. Book a 1:1 consulting session with me for support with your product or L&D tech challenges

🙋‍♀️ Want to reach over 5,000 L&D pros? Become a Newsletter sponsor in 2026