9 Free Microsoft AI Courses to Upgrade Your Skills & Career

Microsoft is offering a wealth of free AI courses, often paired with LinkedIn Learning, allowing you to earn a certificate or badge of completion—no payment required. This is the perfect time to master the tools and concepts shaping the future of technology.

1. Career Essentials in Generative AI (Microsoft & LinkedIn)

This is often presented as a Professional Certificate when completed via LinkedIn Learning/edX, which may require a free trial or specific partnership access to claim the certificate. Click Here.

• Key Focus: How generative AI works, ethics, responsible AI, and the impact on modern careers.

• Goal: Provide a foundational understanding of the GenAI landscape.

2. Generative AI Productivity Skills (Microsoft & LinkedIn)

• Key Focus: Practical application of AI tools to enhance professional productivity.

• Goal: Learn to write effective prompts and use AI for data analysis and organization to work faster.

3. Artificial Intelligence for Beginners (GitHub/Microsoft)

• Key Focus: Comprehensive 12-week curriculum covering core AI concepts.

• Goal: Deep dive into NLP, Deep Learning, and Neural Networks, with practical coding labs and exercises (often found on the Microsoft Learn GitHub repositories).

4. Transform Your Business with Microsoft AI

• Key Focus: Strategic, high-level guidance for business leaders.

• Goal: Learn to plan, scale, and lead AI initiatives responsibly within an organization.

5. AI for Managers

• Key Focus: Applying generative AI tools directly to management tasks.

• Goal: Use AI to streamline coaching, feedback, and explore best practices for responsible AI deployment in a team setting.

6. Using Azure OpenAI Service

• Key Focus: Deep dive into Microsoft’s platform for deploying OpenAI models.

• Goal: Understand Copilots, LLMs, and Bing Copilot, and master advanced prompt design for enhanced AI output.

7. Build Apps with Azure & Power Virtual Agents

• Key Focus: Hands-on development of AI-powered applications.

• Goal: Create AI apps using Azure AI services and design functional chatbots with Microsoft Copilot Studio (formerly Power Virtual Agents).

8. Create Custom Machine Learning Models

• Key Focus: The end-to-end process of building, training, and running ML models.

• Goal: Work with your own data to run ML solutions using Microsoft’s guided resources and tools like Azure Machine Learning.

9. Adopting Copilot for Microsoft 365

• Key Focus: Practical use of Microsoft’s flagship AI assistant in daily work.

• Goal: Learn Copilot’s key features to simplify communication, content creation, and data handling across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams.