Overview
AI is changing everything. Your humanity sets you apart.
The speed, scale, and quality of AI is mind-blowing.
Strategies, posts, videos, reports, analyses, and even complex interactions can now be generated rapidly and often flawlessly. The barrier to creation has dropped to almost nothing.
Which sounds great…until everyone’s doing it.
In a world flooded with AI, speed alone won’t set you apart.
Your edge is still your humanity.
This course is about keeping it. As one of the few AI courses online focused on ethics and humanity, you’ll learn AI from scratch in a way that aligns with your values.
You’ll examine its strengths, limitations, and real-world applications across operations, marketing, management, and beyond. Facilitated peer conversations provide fresh perspectives and new approaches to challenges in AI ethics across industries.
Most importantly, you’ll learn how to integrate AI in ways that align with your values, protect human well-being, and consider the broader societal impact.
Over four weeks, we’ll cover:
- What AI really is and how to distinguish between different technologies.
- Where AI comes from, including the data and assumptions behind the algorithms.
- Where AI is used now and where it’s heading next.
- How to evaluate AI ethically, applying moral frameworks to guide responsible use.
By the end, you’ll be able to:
- Assess the capabilities and limits of AI tools.
- Evaluate AI-related claims in the news and from experts.
- Identify and reduce ethical risks in AI applications.
- Propose AI uses that align with both organizational goals and societal good.
This isn’t just an AI literacy course. It’s a leadership course and an AI business course that connects the dots between technology and real-world decision-making. You’ll gain the insight, skills, and confidence to ensure AI works for people, not the other way around.
What sets UVM apart
Top 3% in Research Excellence
Join a trusted educational leader. UVM has achieved the highest level of research activity according to the Carnegie Classification (R1 status).
Peer Discussions
You’ll discuss AI with other course members. Peer interaction is one reason over 100k+ students globally have advanced their education and career with UVM Professional and Continuing Education.
Learn from AI Leaders
Taught by faculty with deep expertise in AI ethics, philosophy, and technology, ensuring you gain both practical skills you can apply and a critical perspective.
The need for values-based AI leaders is growing
- 78% of orgs reported using AI in 2024, up from 55% the year before.
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Research shows an ethics gap No shared standard exists for testing AI ethics.
As AI adoption accelerates without clear standards, human judgment is the best guardrail, and this course helps you build it.
Source: 2025 Artificial Intelligence Index Report by Stanford’s Human‑Centered AI initiative
Admissions
Built for leaders who want to use AI responsibly
This program is for you if you’re a mid-career professional, manager, or business leader who wants to harness AI without losing sight of ethics, equity, and human impact. If you’ve searched for resources to learn AI from scratch but need something focused on leadership and application, this course will meet you where you are. No previous AI experience is necessary to participate in this course.
Professionals in healthcare, government, customer service, insurance, banking, business, education, and more will benefit.
By the end of the course, you’ll be able to evaluate AI tools and claims, integrate AI into your organization with confidence, and ensure your strategies align with your values and societal good.
There are no prerequisites beyond a willingness to engage in discussion, explore real-world case studies, and apply your learning to your own professional context.
“AI won’t replace humans — but humans with AI will replace humans without AI.”
—Karim Lakhani, Harvard Business School professor
Curriculum
Designed for busy professionals
This 4-week, fully online program is built to fit around your schedule, so you can keep working while you learn. Weekly modules combine short, engaging lectures with real-world case studies, guided discussions, and hands-on exploration of AI tools. You’ll get practical insights you can apply immediately, without the burden of heavy technical prerequisites.
The curriculum covers the essentials of AI literacy, its ethical dimensions, and its role across sectors through a human-centered lens. You’ll explore:
- What AI really is, and when and how to use various types.
- Where AI comes from, including the data and assumptions behind the algorithms.
- How AI is used now, and where it’s headed next.
- How to evaluate AI ethically, applying moral frameworks to guide responsible use.
- A brief history of AI
- The symbolic approach vs. machine learning
- Neural networks, deep learning
- LLMs and foundation models
- AI vs Artificial General Intelligence vs Artificial “Superintelligence”
- Sources of training data
- Reinforcement learning with human feedback
- AI training and resource consumption
- Synthetic data
- Consumer choice patterns
- Behavioral patterns
- Text summary
- Information summary
- Image recognition
- Text (etc.) generation
- AI and the epistemic environment
- The future of work
- The future of available data
- How AI affects individuals and interpersonal relationships
“For leaders, the biggest hurdle can be deciding how to implement AI in ways that align with their company’s values while ensuring equity and ethical compliance.“
—Randall Harp, Ph.D., Instructor
Conversations about AI
A conversation with a poet, a philosopher, and a roboticist
We, Robots
This conversation began with garden snails. I was reading a philosophy paper on the conjecture that simple-brained snails might be conscious. In 1974, Thomas Nagel famously asked, “What’s it like to be a bat?” The philosophy paper followed Nagel’s question, wondering if snails have some dim sense of self. Is there something it’s like to be a snail? Which got me thinking about the explosive development of artificial intelligence. Could AIs become conscious?
Instructors
Career Impact
Future-proof your leadership
AI is no longer optional. And it’s not enough to just take a ChatGPT course. As adoption accelerates across industries, leaders who can navigate AI confidently (and ethically) will stand out. This course positions you as one of them.
The market signals are clear:
- 4 out of 5 people want to learn more about how to use AI in their profession, according to LinkedIn’s 2024 Future of Work report.
- Most leaders aren’t ready. Only 20% of executives say their organizations are highly prepared to meet today’s AI skill needs, according to Deloitte AI Institute research.
After you complete the Human-Centered AI Professional Certificate from UVM, you’ll have the insight, confidence, and credibility to guide AI integration in ways that set you apart as a leader who protects human values while delivering AI efficiencies.
—Jenna Alexander, Talent Centre of Excellence (TCoE) Leader for Global Internal Talent Acquisition at Randstad. Source: LinkedIn 2024 Future of Work Report.
FAQs
Learn about options for discounts, grants, loans, scholarships, and more on our tuition and financial aid page.
No required textbooks. All readings and materials will be accessible in Brightspace.
No. Non-credit courses do not currently qualify for tuition remission.
No, we do not have payment plans, you must pay in full by credit card when you register.
If a student needs to cancel their attendance, they must notify us via email at learn@uvm.edu or call us at (802) 656-2085 at least 10 business days prior to the start date of the course to receive a 75% refund. No refunds will be issued for cancellations made after this deadline.
The course is four weeks long. There are four main modules, each spanning one week. Each module starts on Mondays at 9:00 AM ET and ends on Sundays at 11:59 PM ET.
Deadlines for discussion elements are on Thursday and Sunday nights, and activity/assignment deadlines are on Sunday nights.
If you are a non-credit student seeking accessibility support, please email access@uvm.edu and the UVM Student Accessibility Services team will be able to assist. In your email, please include that you do not have a 95 number/NetID.
Have questions about taking an online or distance education course? Visit the Online and Distance Education FAQ page
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Have more basic questions about Professional and Distance Education? Visit our About Us and FAQs pages.
Advising and Student Support
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