January 2025

Are your proposed AI solutions high-risk, impractical, or  outside of today’s AI capabilities? Learn the right way to select AI projects.

Kerry Bodine

CEO & Co-author of Outside In

Dan Saffer

Strategic AI Project Selection - DEEP DIVE

Adobe

Intuit

McAfee

MetLife

Nordstrom

Every project team must answer two questions:- What's the right thing to make?- How do we make that thing right? This course answers that first and most critical question for AI initiatives. Customer experience pioneer&nbsp;Kerry Bodine&nbsp;and Carnegie Mellon University professor&nbsp;Dan Saffer&nbsp;will pull back the curtain on all the AI hype — and share a powerful combination of research-driven methodologies so you can select successful AI-driven projects that advance your products, services, and experiences. Please note:This course will take you on an extensive AI project selection journey over 6 weeks. (We'll take a week off for the July 4th holiday in the US.) You’ll complete the videos and readings on your own time, then join Kerry and Dan for weekly 90-minute Q&amp;A sessions and interactive exercises. You’ll also complete weekly homework assignments that are focused on a real-world challenge for your organization — culminating in a capstone project that combines all of your learnings from the course. This cohort has limited spaces to ensure an engaging and interactive learning environment. It’s ideal for those who want to practice applying the key course concepts to the specific needs and constraints of their business —&nbsp;or who seek a more individualized experience. If you're looking to build your strategic AI toolbox in a shorter time or with a limited budget, please check out our jumpstart cohort, which covers the same topics. https://maven.com/bodine/ai-project-selection-jumpstart

Flip your old project selection process on its head.

Business leaders who want to understand the technical AI landscape and leverage AI to meet the accelerating needs of their organizations.

Product managers who want to include AI features in their roadmaps and avoid common pitfalls that lead to AI failures.

Customer experience &amp; employee experience professionals who want to leverage AI to increase revenue, decease costs, and bolster brand image.

Designers who want to lead and collaborate with business and technical teams to develop AI products, services, and experiences.

Creative agency owners who are being asked by clients to recommend AI solutions —&nbsp;and need a solid foundation of AI technology &amp; concepts.

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

Gartner predicts that we're just about at the top of the AI hype cycle —&nbsp;which means we're heading down into the trough of disillusionment. We'll cut through the hype so that you can approach your AI initiatives strategically and with clear, actionable steps.

Distinguish reality from hype

With all the hype, it’s easy to assume that GenAI is the only type of AI that exists today. But "generation" is just one of eight AI capabilities that you have at your disposal. You'll explore how the full suite of AI capabilities can come to life to add value to your business.

Broaden your AI toolkit

Throughout the course, you'll learn a set of new tools —&nbsp;and an end-to-end methodology —&nbsp;to find AI opportunities, de-risk your AI solutions, explore data requirements, and identify potential harms.

Establish — and practice — a strategic AI project selection methodology

Research shows that traditional human-centered design methods for solution brainstorming lead to high-risk, low-value AI initiatives. The methods you'll learn will weed out these ideas early in your process.

De-risk your AI initiatives

We’ll take you through a two-part method to first identify unforeseen consequences (both the good and bad) and then resolve negative consequences where possible.

Identify potential AI harms

Design teams for AI include functional roles and expertise that designers and product managers don't normally interact with. Through course projects and discussions, you'll identify the key players.

Build effective AI design teams

Provide a brief description for each module as a way to sell the value of what students will be learning throughout the course.

First Module

Second Module

Third Module

Course syllabus

What people are saying

Meet your instructors

We know you're busy! We assume that you'll have watched all of the videos (20-ish minutes) before each live session. You may also wish to spend more time on the additional reading.

Videos & readings

Mondays: 90-minute live discussion & exercises

After week 1, your homework will be tailored to a real-world challenge for your organization. Assignments will build on each other, culminating in a proposal for a low-risk AI initiative that drives value for your business. Your homework time commitment will increase each week.

Weekly homework assignments

Course schedule

This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects

Active hands-on learning

You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams

Interactive and project-based

Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you

Course completed by

About this course

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