Ross Stevenson

Chief Learning Technology Strategist

Build Your Personal AI Research Analyst in NotebookLM

Customise NotebookLM to act as a analyst that informs you of the best insights to create relevant learning experiences.

Set up a research analyst in NotebookLM

Use targeted NotebookLM features to question large reports and uncover hidden insights.

Locate key insights at speed

Turn your outputs into meaningful assets using NotebookLM's studio features inc podcasts, slide decks and videos.

Apply findings to your own context

Gain hands-on mastery of AI research tools and frameworks to deliver trusted insights faster while maintaining the rigor that matters.

July 2026

AI Research Expert | Johns Hopkins PhD

Google

Capital One

Bloomberg

Pinterest

John Whalen, PhD

PhD. O'Reilly author. Host of AI for UX, where I interview AI tool founders.

June 2026

September 2026

The researchers I talk to feel two things at once: overwhelmed by the pace of AI, and watching real possibilities open up that didn't exist two years ago.Both are true. AI lets you run 500 interviews across 12 countries in a week. It surfaces patterns across thousands of sessions. It opens research to teams who never had budget for it. Synthetic users let you pressure-test ideas in hours. These are new ways of working.But how do you trust the output? Which tools deliver, and which produce confident nonsense?That's the shift this course is built around: from doing research one study at a time to orchestrating systems that scale. You'll get hands-on with the platforms researchers actually use (Listen Labs, Coloop, Marvin, Synthetic Users), hear from the founders building them, and build the judgment to know what holds up.This is Course 1 of 2 in the Certified Agentic Research Specialist program — your foundation. Course 2, Agentic AI for Research, builds on it. The researchers pulling ahead are orchestrators — conducting research with more reach, impact, and confidence than before.No hype. Just what works.

Create Customer Insights with AI You Can Actually Trust

Conduct AI-moderated customer interviews confidently

Extract insights from 50+ interviews using AI-powered analysis tools

Develop frameworks to assess new AI tools and know when they actually work

Use synthetic users for rapid testing and validation of ideas before launch

Guide your team or organization in adopting AI research tools and best practices

Connect with practitioners navigating AI research together and sharing insights

You've worked with customer insights in some capacity—whether you've conducted research yourself, collaborated with researchers on your team

Experience with customer research or user feedback

This is a practical course with weekly exercises using AI platforms. You'll need time to experiment and apply what you learn.

Willingness to try new tools hands-on

We use tools and prompting techniques that don't require any coding knowledge. If you can write clear instructions, you're ready.

No technical background required

Researchers seeking to deliver insights faster at scale using AI—while maintaining the quality and rigor that makes their work trustworthy.

PMs and research leaders balancing the need for rapid customer insights with concerns about maintaining quality, rigor, and team standards.

Designers seeking practical AI tools to understand users, test concepts, and make evidence-based design decisions with confidence and speed.

Leave with a working agentic analytics system on your machine, a polished analysis, and the patterns and frameworks to make it all yours.

Principal Data Scientist @ Ontra 

Shane Butler

Principal Data Scientist @ Ontra | Ex-Stripe, Nextdoor, PwC, Appfolio

Data Science Leader |Ex-Microsoft

Sravya Madipalli

Data Science Leader@Superhuman (Prev. Grammarly)| Ex-Microsoft, eBay, Nextdoor

Head of Data @ Ontra AI | Ex-LinkedIn

Hai Guan

Head of Data @ Ontra | Ex-Nextdoor, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Meta

Bootcamp 4

Cohort 5

Anyone can get AI to produce analysis now. The hard part is knowing whether it is right.This is a five week, hands on course where you build an agentic analytics system in Claude Code, and then do the thing almost nobody teaches: prove it works.Weeks 1 and 2 you build. You set up your own environment, write your first skill, design and build a multi agent system, integrate it into a production repo, and connect it to your team's tools through MCP.Weeks 3 and 4 you make it trustworthy. You measure reliability across repeated runs, triangulate a question across independent methods of analysis, build ground truth, align an LLM judge to human labels, trace every answer back to the query that produced it, and engineer the context that makes the system correct on your company's metrics.Week 5 you put it to work. You swap the model underneath it, cross check one model against another, and turn the system into value your company can see.Ten live sessions, two hours each, with three instructors in the room. Every recording is yours to keep. Free course retake. Private AI Builders alumni community. No coding background required, no Python or SQL is ever written by you.

Build AI Analysts that do the work and prove the numbers are reliable. No code.

Build a multi agent AI analyst system from scratch

Integrate your system into a production analytics repo

Build an eval suite that proves your analyst is right

Align an LLM judge for work that has no right answer

Engineer the context that makes the system correct

Swap to open source models and triangulate across them

Product managers who are tired of waiting in the data team's queue. Stop waiting. Analyze it yourself.

Data scientists who want to multiply their output. You know how to do the analysis manually. Now automate it.

Engineers who want to make data-driven decisions without hiring a data team.

Transform from consumer of analytics to independent operator - asking sharp questions, validating answers, shipping decisions.

Cohort 3

Stripe

Nextdoor

PwC India

Ontra

AppFolio

Microsoft

eBay

Grammarly

Superhuman

LinkedIn

Cohort 2

Cohort 4

As AI reduces the value of deep domain silos, the people who thrive will be the ones who can work across disciplines and ship. Analytical independence - the ability to validate your own ideas and make data-informed decisions - remains the missing skill in most builders' toolkits.AI can conduct the analysis, but it can't tell you what to ask or whether the answer makes sense. That requires analytical judgment.This course teaches you to think like a senior Product Data Scientist. You'll learn the frameworks used at FAANG companies to frame problems, choose the right metrics, diagnose root causes, execute the analysis, and turn insights into decisions.-&gt; <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://join.slack.com/t/dataneighbor/shared_invite/zt-3ox4drc3r-3g0ptSthytkgv0sD6ovvqg">Join AI Builders Slack Community!!</a> &lt;-What makes this different: No SQL. No stats lectures. Five weeks of hands-on real scenarios. You'll build end-to-end, metric specs, deep dives, experiment plans, stakeholder readouts.The result: You become analytically self-sufficient. The last dependency removed from your toolkit. Make data-informed decisions in hours, not weeks.

Ask Better Questions, Make Faster Decisions - with AI as Your Analyst

Frame Problems Like a Senior Data Scientist

Design Metrics That Actually Drive Decisions

Diagnose Root Causes Without Guessing

Design Experiments That Ship

Turn Analysis Into Action With AI as Your Copilot

Synthesize Insights and Prioritize for Impact

Product Managers, engineers, and operators who need analytical independence and frameworks to measure success and drive decisions.

Designers and researchers stepping into strategy roles who need to quantify impact, run experiments, and influence with data-driven insights

Data professionals who want to frame better questions, delegate technical execution to AI, and drive impact with agentic analytics tools.

Turn information overload into a Knowledge Engine that talks back. Go from drowning in unread PDFs to shipping high-fidelity AI artifacts.

Solutions Architect & AI Educator

Thoughts Brewing

HubSpot

United Way

MANTECH

Damien Griffin

Solutions Architect & Co-Founder at Thoughts Brewing, LLC

Cohort 11

Cohort 12

This course is for AI-curious professionals who are tired of LLMs hallucinating about their own business data. You’ve used the big bots, but you’re ready for a tool that stays grounded in your specific files, not the entire internet.You should pull up a chair if you are:<ul><li>An overwhelmed researcher or lead sitting on a pile of unread PDFs and half-baked notes.</li><li>A solutions-oriented builder who needs to turn raw data into interactive podcasts, briefing docs, and infographics without the usual tech headache.</li><li>A busy professional who has played with NotebookLM but wants a structured way to master the non-intuitive interface and see what else it can actually do.</li></ul>We are looking for active builders who already have a basic handle on how to talk to a bot. We won’t be covering "Prompting 101" here, we are diving straight into building a Knowledge Engine that actually talks back.This is not for the AI absolute beginner or anyone looking for a tool to browse the web for generic answers. This is for the person who wants to tame information chaos and turn their personal library into a competitive advantage.

Master NotebookLM: Turn Data Chaos Into Precise AI Artifacts in a Weekend

Build a grounded Knowledge Engine

Transform raw data into executive-level artifacts

Generate custom Audio Overviews for hands-free learning

Visualize complex info with Mind Maps and Infographics

Navigate the 3-panel interface like a systems pro

Pressure-test your mastery with AI-generated Quizzes

You should have experience using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to ensure we can focus on NotebookLM-specific workflows.

Proficiency in AI Prompting

A personal or Google Workspace account is required to access the NotebookLM platform during the live sessions.

Active Google Account

Access to a desktop computer (preferred) and a stable Zoom connection for the live interactive portions of the weekend.

Standard Tech Setup

Leaders &amp; Project Managers needing reliable AI. Build a grounded system that uses your data to automate workflows.

Founders synthesizing research fast. Turn private notes and transcripts into professional audio and text reports.

Operators &amp; Researchers managing massive document libraries. Extract precise insights and summarize complex data without manual effort.

Agentic AI

Coding with AI

AI Workflows

Claude Code

OpenClaw

Vibe Coding

AI Evals

AI Transformation

RAG & Search

AI for PMs

AI for Engineers

AI for Designers

AI for Marketers

AI for Founders

Product Sense

Product Discovery

User Research

Prototyping

Growth

Analytics

Tech Foundations

Strategy

Influence

Leadership

Career Growth

Machine Learning

LLM Ops

Context Eng

Security

System Design

Figma

Design Systems

Visual Design

Design Strategy

Automation

Content Marketing

Demand Gen

Go-to-Market

Product Marketing

Positioning

Social Media

Brand

B2B Marketing

SEO & AEO

AI for Leaders

AI Governance

Communication

Management

People Operations

Exec Presence

Storytelling

Goal-setting

Personal Brand

Fundraising

Everyone

Operators

Data Scientists

Business Analysts

User Researchers

Customer Success

Project Managers

HR Professionals

Sales People

Lawyers

Finance

Investors

Real Estate

Educators

Creators

The AI-Native L&D Leader

Executives and senior leaders who set strategy, lead teams, and drive organizational outcomes.

Used to tag LLs where we only want company signups

Applying AI tools and techniques to professional workflows — assign alongside more specific AI topics.

Teachers, course creators, and instructional designers building learning experiences.

HR and people operations professionals handling hiring, compensation, employee experience, and organizational development.

Leading organizational AI adoption — change management, strategy, and building AI-ready teams.

Automating professional workflows with AI tools — productivity, operations, and task automation.

HR and people management — hiring, performance reviews, compensation, culture, and organizational design.

Build Your Personal AI Research Analyst in NotebookLM

What you'll learn

Why this topic matters

You'll learn from

Ross Stevenson