Rafael Pierre

Build Your First Agentic AI App with MCP

Hugging Face

Databricks

O'Reilly Media

ABN AMRO

Rafael Pierre, MSc.

Founder & Principal Gen AI Engineer @ weet.ai, ex-Hugging Face, Databricks

Learn the business case and technical advantages of MCP for modern AI apps

Why MCP matters now

Connect the components of MCP to real-world applications you can build

Map MCP architecture

Create your first working MCP-powered AI application step by step

Build live, in real-time

🚨🚨Note: This course is an independent offering and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or related to the instructors' current or past employers. ⛳ The only prerequisite: you should have coded at least once in your life. The course includes low-code assignments, and even folks who hadn’t touched code in over 15 years have found it approachable and rewarding. That said, a basic understanding of coding really helps you get the most out of it — and of course, there’s AI to assist you along the way. The course is built for everyone, whether you’re a Product Manager, Architect, Director, C-suite leader, or someone seriously exploring agentic AI. Agentic AI or AI systems capable of operating with some degree of autonomy, is transforming how we interact with technology. In the coming years, most software systems will integrate AI agents to enhance their capabilities. This shift will drive a growing demand for professionals who can move beyond surface-level understanding and apply AI effectively to solve real business challenges while navigating practical constraints. This course focuses on practical AI agent development, covering key usage paradigms such as workflow agents, integrating RAG/retrieval components, autonomous agents, and fine-tuning—all with a strong emphasis on real-world applications. Instead of just explaining "what" these techniques are, we’ll explore "when" and "how" to use them, equipping you to make informed, business-driven AI decisions. ⛳ What Makes This Course Unique Solving Real Enterprise Challenges, Not Just ConceptsWhile most courses stop at teaching tools and frameworks, this course goes further by focusing on solving real-world business problems. You’ll tackle practical constraints like cost, scalability, latency, and performance, learning to design AI solutions tailored to real use cases that deliver value. Participate in Weekly Enterprise Use-Case Workshops with PeersAll content will be recorded and available for async viewing. Each week, we’ll have team workshops to discuss real-world business use cases that can be tackled using the concepts covered that week, along with any challenges we encounter. Hands-On Product DevelopmentYou’ll build a real-world agentic product from scratch (low code options available). Our tutorials will guide you through creating your own Perplexity (Agentic search system), giving you practical experience with application techniques. Collaborative Team WorkshopsExperience what it’s like to solve a business problem in a real-world setting. In a collaborative workshop, you’ll work with others to design and develop solutions, simulating how teams take AI projects from 0 to 1.&nbsp; Capstone ProjectLearn how to connect cutting-edge research with real-world applications. For the capstone, you’ll use our curated list of the latest research papers to design and implement solutions for practical business use cases. ☕ Weekly Chai &amp; AI Sessions with Our Problem-First CommunityJoin optional weekly sessions during the course where we discuss the latest AI developments, their impact on enterprises, and what they mean in practice. We bring in guest speakers, including AI practitioners, industry leaders, founders, and VCs for AMA sessions, along with deep dives into research and hands-on workshops to bridge theory with real-world applications. Guest Lectures from Industry ExpertsWe believe in learning from practitioners who have built and deployed real AI solutions in the enterprise—not just talkers, but doers. Our past cohort guest lectures have featured leaders who drive AI adoption at scale, including:Aman Khan – Director of Product, LLM @ Arize AIDoneyli De Jesus – Principal AI Architect @ SnowflakeJayeeta Patatunda – Director, AI CoE @ Fitch RatingsWe aim to bring many more industry leaders in future cohorts, ensuring you learn from the best in the field. 🫨🫨🫨The Biggest Advantage! (Lifetime access to future cohort material)AI moves fast, and staying ahead means continuous learning. That’s why all students get lifetime access to the latest AI material from all future cohorts—no extra fees, no outdated content. You’ll always have access to latest cohorts lecture recordings and reading materials, incorporating the latest model updates (like reasoning models currently), emerging techniques, industry shifts, and best practices. This is your one-stop learning hub—no need to keep signing up for new AI courses. New Concepts Coming to the May 2025 Cohort:Reasoning Models – A full module on when, how, and why to use themMCP &amp; Agentic Apps – Building agentic applications using MCPAgent Evaluations – Methods and best practices for assessing agentsAgent Architecture Breakdown – Deep dive into popular agents like NotebookLM, Deep Research, and potential architectures 🙌 Plus, top students get lifetime access to our Chai &amp; AI community sessions and in-person meetups, where they can dive into deep discussions, network with top industry professionals, and gain exclusive insights straight from the frontlines of AI. ❌ Who This Course Is Not For For Those Who Have Already Deployed Gen AI in Enterprise: This course is designed as an applied foundations course for enterprise AI with only basic Python as a prerequisite and no ML background required. If you’re already familiar with deploying AI systems, you won’t gain much from the core content. However, if you're looking to network and refine best practices, you're welcome to join. Those Seeking Heavy Theoretical Knowledge: This course emphasizes applied learning and practical problem-solving, not deep dives into theoretical topics like transformer architecture, pre/post-training optimization, inference techniques, or alignment. Those Who Have Never Coded Before: While we provide low-code options, this course assumes you have some coding experience. It’s not suitable for those who have never written or worked with even basic code. Individuals Expecting Deep AI Research Focus: While we’ll cover cutting-edge techniques, this course is centered on applying AI to business problems, not research-heavy exploration. Scaling and Ops Enthusiasts: This course does not focus heavily on scaling or operational aspects (i.e., LLMOps). Deployment will be covered at a high level, but not in-depth.

Design and build impactful agentic AI systems to solve business problems.

Course syllabus

Recorded Lectures, Weekly Office Hours, Live Guest Lectures, Team Workshops and Live Chai &amp; AI Sessions

Weekly projects

Course schedule

Software/AI Engineers, Strategists, Data Professionals, Solution Architects and Consultants who want to master AI system design

Business Leaders and Product Managers seeking to gain the technical understanding needed to make informed decisions &amp; lead AI initiatives

Entrepreneurs looking to understand common generative AI use cases and learn how to develop and implement AI-powered solutions

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

Learn applied generative AI techniques like prompt engineering, RAG, agents, and fine-tuning, with a focus on applying them effectively to real-world business scenarios. Understand how to navigate constraints like cost, latency, and performance constraints in AI systems.

Master Applied Generative AI Concepts
 

While learning applied AI concepts, we’ll put them into action by building a Perplexity-like AI-powered search system through detailed, hands-on tutorials that demonstrate their practical application (Low code options will be provided)

Apply Concepts to Build an Agentic Search System

Participate in brainstorming sessions and team huddles to approach hypothetical business problems. Learn to identify the right AI solutions for specific use cases, leveraging low-code options where applicable.

Tackle Business Use-Cases with AI

Gain a deep understanding of key challenges in building AI systems, including handling hallucinations, adversarial attacks, security, privacy issues etc., and learn best practices to evaluate AI solutions comprehensively

Understand Challenges and Effective Evaluation
 

You’ll design and demo a solution for a hypothetical business problem, integrating insights from relevant research papers in my curated list, hand-picked for enterprise relevance. This project will also involve addressing challenges and evaluation methods.

Final Capstone Project
 

The course includes guest lectures from industry experts, AMA sessions, and our Chai &amp; AI discussions, culminating in a final in-person meetup in the Bay Area. You'll have plenty of opportunities to network and become part of our community.

Access to the Problem-First AI Community

Learn to make decisions tailored to business constraints, understand when & how to apply AI effectively & build an application from scratch

Aishwarya Naresh Reganti

Tech Lead | Lecturer | Advisor | Researcher | Speaker | Investor

Kiriti Badam

Member of Technical Staff @ OpenAI | AI Advisor | Ex-Google

March 2025 Cohort

May 2025 Cohort

NOTE 1: The price shown on this page is in _USD_.NOTE 2: There are not many live sessions in this bootcamp and the majority of your interaction with us will be through 1 on 1 calls with the teaching staff (5 of us).NOTE 3: Check out the incentive program on this page for ways to save money. 🟢 WHAT WILL I BE ABLE TO BUILD IN THIS COURSE?You’ll build a functional application powered by LLM agents to automate a workflow of your choice. Along the way, you'll learn to design agent workflows, and integrate required tools. By the end of the course, you'll have a working MVP ready to showcase in a public demo. You can see this playlist for examples of what previous students built: https://tinyurl.com/llm-agent-demos 🟢 HOW WILL YOU HELP ME BUILD APPS LIKE THESE IN JUST 7 WEEKS?This course is all about learning by doing. You do a real project, applying concepts you learn about AI agents with our expert guidance. Specifically:👨🏽‍🏫 1:1 sessions with the instructors to help you think through bigger picture questions👨‍🎓 Async and sync sessions with a dedicated TA for constant support, code reviews, and real-time feedback We also provide the "agents playbook" a step by step guide for building agentic systems with lots of hints, tips, and resources. 🟢 OK! THAT DOES SOUND FUN, BUT HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE THE PRE-REQUISITES AND I'M READY FOR BUILDING?That's the most common question we get! The best way to assess is to check out the "agents playbook" we provide for free and get a sense of what you need to do, and also check out the resources we curated. Here: https://maven.com/p/b0756d/agents-playbook 🟢 I SEE! SO, I'LL DO MY PREP BEFOREHAND, THEN WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT TO HAPPEN DURING?Think about it like this (since we're developing a product here, eh?): This is a 3-sprint product dev + 1 week of prep for the public demo.🖌️ SPRINT 1 - DESIGN (weeks 1 &amp; 2)🔨 SPRINT 2 - DEVELOP (weeks 3 &amp; 4)🚢 SPRINT 3 - DEPLOY (weeks 5 &amp; 6)🎭 PUBLIC DEMO (week 7)In each sprint, you communicate your progress or blockers on Slack, you collaborate on your designs / code on GitHub, you show up to provide weekly project updates and get feedback, and finally you do an end of sprint demo. 🟢 OK! HOW WOULD I KNOW IF I'M MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?You will get feedback async via Slack and other platforms we use, and also you join weekly group office hours, and when you need you can book the teaching staff for a 20 min 1:1 call. In addition, each sprint will wrap up with a "sprint demo" where you can show what you've done up to that point, and your peers and the teaching staff will provide feedback. We also will invite guest experts for each of the demos to provide additional feedback:🖌️ SPRINT 1 - Sr. AI Product Experts🔨 SPRINT 2 - Sr. ML Engineers🚢 SPRINT 3 - Sr. MLOps Engineers🎭 PUBLIC DEMO - Investors, Experienced Founders, Corporate Directors 🟢 WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE A PROJECT IDEA?We will have a default project (most probably related to Deep Research) that you can participate in. If your goal is to better internalize the concepts rather than working on a specific idea, you can join that project. We commonly see that people re-take the course in the future to further develop specific ideas they have, and focus on building the foundations the first time they take the course. 🟢 COOL! I'M EXCITED TO GET STARTED, AND A DISCOUNT WOULD REALLY SWEETEN THE DEAL!Glad to hear that! There are a few options:🧑🏿‍🤝‍🧑🏼 You can find a buddy or colleague and sign up together. (20% off 2-9 seats&nbsp;|&nbsp;25% off 10+ seats)✴️ We often share discount codes with communities (including AISC members - reach out to community@ai.science if you're not part of our slack). So, check in with the communities you are part of.📆 We regularly hold events and info sessions where we share flash sales discounts valid for a day or two. Join the mailing list on this page to receive notifications about those.👨🏽‍🏫 You can apply to our Inventive Program that provides up to 75% refunds (not discounts). Apply here: https://forms.gle/YnvsoREuEX35DAxv8

Mentorship Program to Help You Build an Agent-based MVP

We will have group discussions and guests lecturers on Thursdays, and project office hours on Sundays.

Thursdays & Sundays

Course will run for 7 weeks in January and February. You will have access to reading / watching material, instructor, and hands-on teaching assistants.

Jan. 13, 2025 - Mar. 1, 2025

There will be a project that you will do alongside the course material with weekly milestones.

You want to build an agentic MVP to demonstrate your skills for career progression purposes.

You want to build an agentic MVP to test the feasibility of your startup idea.

You want to build an agentic MVP to explore the new feature you want to add to your existing product

This course is for you if...

At the end of this course you will ...

Grasp how multiple LLMs can collaborate with each other, get feedback from or assign tasks to humans, ad use tools to tackle complex problems

Understand the core principles of multi-agent LLM systems

Bridge the gap by crafting strategies to seamlessly integrate LLMs with existing products, boosting user experience, productivity, and business metrics.

Integrate LLMs with existing product offerings to enhance user and customer experience

Learn what it takes to build robust multi-agent LLMs. Understand security best practices and ensure system reliability.

Understand key considerations for securing, robust, and reliable LLM systems

Design, develop, deploy, and demo an LLM agent application in 7 weeks!

Cohort-2505

Amir Feizpour, PhD

10 yrs in NLP, Founder of AISC - Community of 5k AI devs and founders

Abhimanyu Anand

Cohort-2501

Cohort-2507

The challenge: most people do not understand the reasons why products like ChatGPT, Claude, or Cursor respond the way they do. Because of this, they also don't understand how to get what they want and need out of AI tools. Even power users who constantly talk to AI products every day aren't necessarily getting everything out of it. And as the world of work and productivity change, as AI becomes ever more agentic and capable of taking over our systems, processes, and tasks, it is essential to become excellent at its use to get and stay ahead. Every user needs to understand not just "prompt engineering," as you've heard described elsewhere.It's more fundamental than that. It's...• An understanding of how modern language models are influenced by even the slightest change to your prompt• The nuances of how different tools are 'packaged' (using ChatGPT is very different from using GPT-4.5 integrated in a third party product)• The incredible power of reflective techniques – the best outputs are 5 to 7 messages after your initial prompt This 3-day intensive will cover the above, and so much more, with the outcome of getting you to become fluent in talking to AI systems, including large language models and other generative AI modalities (like image &amp; video generation). And when I say "fluent," I mean something very specific. Just as language fluency isn't about memorizing phrases from a travel guidebook, AI fluency isn't about collecting prompts from Twitter. True fluency means understanding the deeper patterns of interaction -- knowing when to push, when to pivot, and most importantly, why. Consider this: most courses teach you what to say to AI. This course teaches you how to think about AI conversation. It's the difference between learning to order coffee in French versus understanding why French speakers structure their thoughts the way they do. We'll cover:• How to consistently and easily judge new models as they're released for task-specific competence• Nuances between reasoning, agentic, task-based, and primitive models• Current power rankings based on real-world application (not biased evals) We'll play with advanced uses of:• Foundational SOTA models, like GPT 4.5, o3, 4o-mini, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Grok 3, Claude Sonnet 3.7• Open source models like Llama 4 and DeepSeek-V3• Agentic tools like Replit, Manus, GenSpark, and Devin• Wrapper tools like Gamma, Napkin, and Perplexity• My cheat code apps to 10x your workflow, both in ease and speed I'll share my theory on the future of work.And the OSD Framework I've developed to help people get ahead of the curve.You'll learn about the 3 core muscles I believe every job will distill down to:• Orchestration, the architect of AI-enabled systems• Supervision, the human-in-the-loop steering or polishing outputs• Delivery, the last-mile getting AI value to its end-user Day 1Mental Models &amp; Mechanics• What AI knows versus what it can do; how AI reads, thinks, and speaks, + biases and limits• The hidden landscape of latent space, embeddings, and vectors - what does it all mean for your usage?• Differences in AI paradigms, LLM models, genAI models, and the applications that sit on top of them Day 2Conversations &amp; Debugging• Ask the unaskable: form questions that inspire LLMs to answer you; learn the DRIVE context framework• Use layered prompting and multi-turn conversations for your most advanced queries and topics• Get AI to "think out loud," giving you more data, more insights, and the ability to iterate over time Day 3Advanced Applications• Use reflective and agentic techniques + products to get AI "working for you" - soon, you'll have a team• Get multi-modal - combine models, model types, and apps to generate fast, impactful outputs• Learn how to use non-AI workflow applications to move dramatically faster and make advanced AI use 10x easier for yourself• &amp; more: analysis, tools, fine-tuning, hallucinations, ethical considerations, and real world use And more• retrieval augmented generation (RAG), code use, integration + extensions, voice-based nuances• chain of thought, reflection, context windows, and other AI concepts explained• how do apps make use of LLMs, how is AI being integrated by companies across tech At the end of this 3-day intensive, you'll...• be able to transform vague ideas into incredible outputs, whether you're brainstorming, working with data and statistics, coding with AI, using it for workflow, asking it knowledge questions, utilizing it for research, adopting it as a content companion, or using it in an academic setting• troubleshoot and debug AI responses - you'll know when you've hit a real limit versus a bug or user error, unlocking the boundaries of what AI can do before anyone else -- no matter the field you're in• future-proof your skills - because you're going to have a deep understanding of how these products work, you'll remain capable of using them as the models are continuously updated and evolved, even as the rapid pace of AI development continues It's about harnessing the power of this transformative technology to amplify your own creativity, productivity, and impact on the world. Get ready to go beyond "prompt engineering" and embark on a journey to truly master the art and science of communicating with AI. Are you ready to unlock the conversation?

Everything's changing. Become top 0.5% at using AI to future-proof yourself.

3 days of live classes

Can't make it to the live classes or want to watch them again later? We'll make each day's content available same-day for all students.

Access recordings forever

There will be several projects and optional group workshops to turn the content into usable muscle - attend live for instructor feedback, or access projects, examples, and templates at your own pace - including permanent access after the course ends.

Daily projects (optional)

Non-technical or semi-technical professionals (throughout knowledge work) looking to gain an upper hand in this AI moment.

Anyone who has felt the gap between AI's potential, what they hear about what it can do, and their ability to access the upside.

NOT for engineers who already use LLM copilots every day. NOT for people looking for quick prompt templates.

You'll learn about the cognitive architecture that underpins not just LLMs, but the way that products and apps are built around them. These patterns will work across AI models and will continue working as systems evolve.

Instead of AI prompt templates, learn conversational design patterns

It's hard for even the most AI-passionate people to integrate and reliably, consistency use AI products. I'll give you systems, shortcuts, and methods for making it second nature -- we'll build your AI muscle.

Instead of treating ChatGPT like a magic answer box, you'll make it a constant companion

"Why does it hallucinate here, but not there? When should I restart a conversation versus redirect it? Why does it sometimes forget what we just discussed? How does its sourcing work? When is more context good versus bad?" You'll know. And you'll know what to do next.

Instead of getting frustrated, you'll know how to iterate your way to results

You'll master the art of progressive refinement, building complex outputs and systems, and be able to leverage all of this to be top .5% in your field -- whether that's at work, with a hobby, with a side project, or with something personal.

Instead of being left behind, you'll get and stay ahead of the AI curve

Develop a foundational understanding of how AI & LLMs see, hear, and read your input, + how to use them to 10x your output speed and impact.

Cohort 3

Sherveen Mashayekhi

Founder & CEO @ Free Agency; Product Leader @ Stella (AI job matching), Toptal

Cohort 2

Cohort 4

Be among the first leaders globally to master agentic AI—the technology that's transforming how businesses operate, innovate, and create value. This pioneering executive course is led by Google's first Chief Decision Scientist (Cassie), Microsoft's former Global Head of Autonomous AI Co-Innovation (Brian), and McKinsey's former leader of AI &amp; Automation (Pascal), who are now advisors to CEOs and the authors of the first comprehensive book on agentic AI: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (as well as the bestsellers Intelligent Automation and Autonomous Transformation). This course offers unprecedented insights into the technology that's being called "the next major shift after generative AI." Having implemented agentic AI in numerous companies, Cassie, Pascal, and Brian bring a wealth of real-world, hands-on experience, offering both strategic vision and deep, grounded expertise. Why This Course Is Different Unlike theoretical AI courses or generic technology programs, this is the first executive education offering specifically focused on agentic AI implementation and strategy. This course provides you with: • First-Mover Advantage: Learn from the first comprehensive research and implementation experience in agentic AI• Practical Focus: Move beyond theory to understand how to implement and scale AI agents effectively• Strategic Depth: Develop a clear vision for how AI agents can transform your organization• Expert Access: Engage directly with pioneers in the field and learn from their successes and failures• The Full Picture: In addition to Cassie, Pascal, and Brian, this course features world-class guest speakers from companies that have already deployed AI agents, leading AI innovators defining the future of the AI landscape, Agentic AI startups, researchers, a VC partner, a technical developer, and leaders at major cloud players What You'll Learn Through interactive sessions, real-world case studies, and expert discussions, you'll gain: • Strategic understanding of how Agentic AI differs from traditional automation and generative AI• Practical frameworks for identifying and prioritizing agentic AI opportunities in your organization• Understanding of the five levels of AI agent capabilities and their business implications• Leadership strategies for building and scaling AI agent initiatives• Strategic frameworks built-for-purpose for this new era of Autonomous Transformation• Risk management approaches for responsible AI agent deployment Unique Learning Experience The course features: • Live sessions with companies currently implementing agentic AI• Technical deep-dives made accessible for business leaders• Interactive workshops on real business cases• Expert panels with pioneering developers and implementation leaders• Exclusive frameworks and tools not available anywhere else Who Should Attend This course is designed for: • C-suite executives and senior leaders driving transformation initiatives• Innovation and technology officers• Business unit leaders responsible for operational excellence• Strategy and transformation leaders• Investment professionals evaluating AI opportunities Your Instructors Learn from a unique team that bridges the gap between theoretical understanding and practical implementation. Our instructors and guest speakers have: • Led some of the first large-scale agentic AI implementations globally• Pioneered the integration of intelligent automation with modern AI systems• Authored the first comprehensive book on agentic AI• Advised Fortune 500 companies on AI strategy and implementation In addition to Cassie, Pascal, and Brian, this course features world-class guest speakers from companies that have already deployed AI agents, leading AI innovators defining the future of the AI landscape, Agentic AI startups, researchers, a VC partner, a technical developer, and leaders at major cloud players so that students emerge with a full picture of the agentic AI landscape along with the knowledge and frameworks to create value and lead their organization's transformation with agentic AI. The Time Is Now The gap between organizations effectively leveraging AI and those falling behind is widening exponentially. This course provides the knowledge, frameworks, and practical experience needed to: • Drive significant cost savings through the application of Agentic Artificial Intelligence• Create new growth opportunities and markets with Agentic Artificial Intelligence• Lead more impactful transformation initiatives• Accelerate your organization's AI maturity• Position your company for long-term success Join us to shape the future of business in the age of agentic AI. Interested in an enterprise license so your whole leadership team or company can take the course? Please reach out directly to support@brianevergreen.com

Master the Next Evolution of AI: Agentic Artificial Intelligence 

If your events are recurring and at the same time, it might be easiest to use a single line item to communicate your course schedule to students

Tuesdays & Thursdays

Feel free to type out dates as your title as a way to communicate information about specific live sessions or other events.

May 7, 2022

Schedule items can also be used to convey commitments outside of specific time slots (like weekly projects or daily office hours).

For business, technology, and industry leaders who want to win in the era of AI

For seniors managers and managers who believe that unlocking AI for their organization will empower them to reach senior leadership roles

This course is based on real-world Agentic Artificial Intelligence and AI Strategy work at the world's most valuable companies and is design

Understand Agentic Artificial Intelligence, Build and deploy resilient AI agents that solve real business problems
 

Learn how to Identify concrete opportunities for AI to create value in your organization
 

Understand the difference between Traditional AI, Generative AI, and Agentic AI

See real-world examples of AI agents in action

Learn how to align teams around clear AI vision and goals
 

Learn how Autonomous Transformation is different than Digital Transformation and why that matters for leaders

Learn the right ways to develop a vision and an AI strategy built-for-purpose for the AI era

Sharpen your ability to envision the future of your team, organization, or market in the context of AI advancements

Learn how to make Better, Reason-Driven Decisions (evolved from Data-Driven Decisions)

Learn how to use Systems Thinking to create new markets and opportunities in the AI era

Learn how to scale Agentic AI across your organization

Learn how to turn vision and strategy into action with strategic storytelling

Learn how to Lead in an age where your employees are orchestrating and leveraging agentic AI

Network and learn from leaders and fellow participants in a private community

Learn how to increase value and gain competitive advantage by mastering the next evolution of AI.

Lightning Lessons

Build Your First Agentic AI App with MCP