Cohort 5

Build AI Agents & Workflows that 10× Your Productivity—in 4 Weeks

James Gray

Former CIO, CPO, and Microsoft Leader

Hands-on AI for Leaders

Microsoft

Google

Amazon Web Services

GitHub

Capital One

🌟 RECENT TESTIMONIALS: 4.8/5 🌟 📣 "Hands-on AI for Leaders" was a transformative experience that elevated my AI expertise through practical applications and is possibly the best pound-for-pound learning experience I've had. James is an excellent facilitator and guide to unlocking AI's potential!" 📣 "This course exceeded my expectations. James does an excellent job of tailoring the live sessions to the specific needs and interests of each cohort, ensuring that every student gets the most out of the experience." 📣 "An exceptional journey into practical AI as a non-programmer driven by curiosity, I was amazed by how accessible James made the world of AI. This course delivered far beyond basic assistant usage - we learned to create workflows and build agentic systems that solve real problems. What sets this course apart: - Perfect balance of theory with extensive hands-on practice." WHO THIS COURSE IS FOR “Who should join? Busy managers, leaders, product leaders, and professionals who aren’t AI experts but want to harness AI to work smarter and innovate processes and products. For leaders who must plan strategically AND exhibit technical acumen to get hands-on building prototypes and collaborate with AI engineers to make vision a reality. If you’ve been curious about using and building with popular AI tools, you will gain experience with no-code platforms and developer tools that write code for you. WHAT WE WILL FOCUS ON Throughout the course, we will focus on building AI solutions to accelerate personal productivity and business process scenarios while learning cutting-edge AI tools. As a seasoned UC Berkeley ExecEd instructor, I have learned that leaders and professionals must understand AI practically and quickly to create value. Leaders who blend business savvy with technical expertise will lead the intelligence economy. Over four weeks of live, hands-on training and office hours, you'll learn how to: 1. Master AI assistants to boost productivity. I'll show you how to use the latest cutting-edge AI tools and prompt patterns to get personalized, high-value responses that accelerate your productivity and impact. 2. Build AI workflows to automate work. We'll build systems where LLMs and tools are orchestrated through predefined workflow steps to automate scenarios and achieve outcomes. You will get hands-on experience with multiple tools (assistants and platforms) to strengthen your knowledge and skills. 3. Build multi-agent systems to achieve an outcome autonomously. I will demonstrate how to build agent systems where LLMs dynamically plan and execute strategies with tools to accomplish a goal. You will design, build, and deploy a multi-agent system with no-code and pro-code approaches. 4. Vibe-code using AI to write code. I will show you how to build AI prototypes and solutions using cutting-edge tools that generate code from your requirements. This will expand your creativity and accelerate the translation of your vision into working prototypes. 5. Strengthen your AI technical expertise. I will demystify technical concepts and share the latest platforms, patterns, and trends so that you lead with authority. You can connect the dots and engage with technical stakeholders at a deeper level. 🙌 This hands-on course allows you to practice the concepts and learn how to integrate AI into your work and business. 🧰 Sample of tools in the course: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot Studio, Cursor, LangGraph, CrewAI, OpenAI APIs, OpenAI Agents SDK, MCP, Python. Bring your favorite tool as well! WHY THIS COURSE 🤖 Assistants type, Agents think and act—leaders who can orchestrate them will outpace those who only prompt. ✅ AI lessons and assignments for leaders and non-technical professionals, not engineers. Many AI courses are too technical for leaders and, therefore, not a good use of their time. Leaders do not need to understand concepts at a technical depth, just as engineers do.&nbsp;This course focuses on building solutions quickly to accelerate productivity and impact. ✅ Practical applications of AI. Leaders must cut through the AI hype and understand what is possible through proven technical frameworks and tools explained at the right altitude and in a business context. Given its design for hands-on learning, this course is not for those seeking AI theory. ✅ Guidance from a seasoned technology leader and B-school instructor. Leaders need timely and practical answers to their questions about AI concepts and technologies, not more hype videos. This course is designed by a technical leader for leaders with technical and non-technical backgrounds. ✅ Personalized feedback and coaching (limited to 20 students). Since most people have different levels of knowledge and unique interests, I purposely limit the cohort size to provide cohort members with the personalized guidance they need. This creates a safe and collaborative space to maximize learning. ✅ Office Hours. Each week, there are two hours of open time to focus on your questions and work, applying the course concepts to your scenarios. ✅ Evergreen content. The course material is refreshed monthly and accessible on shared Google Drive. ✅ Hands-on AI for Leaders Community: Learning continues after the course with a private LinkedIn group and events to share the latest tools and techniques for accelerating innovation. WHY LEARN FROM JAMES 🔷 Technology and Business Mix: James has a unique mix of technology and business experience, including over 20 years of building data and AI platforms and products at leading companies, including Microsoft. He has held technical roles as a data scientist and IT leader (Microsoft) and executive roles as a Chief Product Officer, Chief Information Officer, and Chief Data and AI Architect.&nbsp; 🔷 Seasoned Berkeley Instructor. As a Berkeley Haas Data Strategy and AI Strategy course instructor, he has instructed over 3,000 students worldwide. James is well-known for translating technical topics into easy-to-understand concepts for a business audience. 🔷 Data and AI Practioner. Ex-Microsoft data scientist and product manager practitioner with hands-on expertise in building data and AI products. Earned a Master of Information and Data Science from UC Berkeley. 🔷 Coach-like Learning. As a certified leadership coach, James brings a coach-like style to learning experiences by understanding each person's unique needs and meeting them where they are. James has coached hundreds of tech pros and leaders at top companies, including Microsoft, AWS, and GitHub. AFTER THE COURSE 🤝 Hands-on AI for Leaders Community. After the course, learning will continue with a community and events to share knowledge, prototype solutions, and sustain experience to lead with authority in the intelligence economy. ♻️ Evergreen course content. Quickly access new and refreshed course content published monthly on Google Drive to continue your learning.

Automate Work with AI Agents and Accelerate Your Leadership Impact

Leaders and professionals who believe in “learning by doing” by using cutting-edge tools and building prototypes&nbsp;hands-on.

Leaders who must understand the latest AI capabilities to&nbsp;drive an AI-powered business strategy credibly.

Professionals who must boost their AI technology acumen to strengthen collaboration and influence with technical stakeholders.

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

Learn the latest AI concepts, frameworks and tools to clarify your understand and speak with authority.

Accelerate your AI expertise and confidence

Learn and practice proven prompt patterns, features, and techniques to boost productivity and creativity using popular AI assistants such as OpenAI ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude, Perplexity, Google Gemini 2.0 and NotebookLM, and Microsoft Copilot.

Use cases for cutting-edge AI assistants to maximize AI performance, derive insights, and generate content.

Learn patterns and techniques for automating E2E workflow scenarios using AI assistants and APIs. You will implement AI Workflows with leading AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, OpenAI APIs, OpenAI SDK, LangGraph, and CrewAI.

Build AI workflows to automates tasks, boost productivity, and save time.

Learn the end-to-end process for building, deploying, and monitoring an AI Agent using popular frameworks and tools to achieve your goal. You'll practice building and deploying an AI agent for your use case.

Build, deploy, and monitor an agent to achieve a goal autonomously. 

Get technical guidance and coaching from an industry expert so that you can accelerate your technical acumen and impact as a leader or non-technical professional. You will leave with a foundational understanding of leading AI tools and frameworks.

Leave with stronger AI technical acumen as business technology leader

I update the course content after each monthly cohort that is accessible on my Google Drive to stay current and learn new concepts. I also host monthly Zoom sessions for past cohort members to share and learn.

[BONUS] Evergreen course content to sustain and expand your expertise

The Lab is a community to continue learning technology, building solutions, and sharing experiences.

[BONUS] Hands-on AI Lab - community for sharing expertise and building solutions

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 on LinkedIn

Data and AI Leader | Berkeley Haas Data and AI Strategy Instructor

Each week, there will be two live sessions that include instruction and hands-on workshop to implement the concepts. There are two sessions per day - select the one that works best for your schedule. All sessions are recorded.

Tuesdays & Thursdays


Optional office hours offer an opportunity to discuss the course topics, troubleshooting solutions, and unique scenarios. There is a lot of learning that happens here!

Office Hours - Wednesday / Saturday


Outside the live sessions, you will be able to practice using the tools and frameworks to build small working prototypes of your AI solutions.

Weekly projects

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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