If the last several years of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution have shown anything, it’s that AI skills make you a better worker. Utilizing the technology can lead to enhanced efficiency, proficiency, and innovation—and eventually higher salaries and an enhanced career. However, understanding how to use generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT is one of the biggest barriers to building your skill set.
Google is attempting to address this challenge with a new AI course called Prompting Essentials, which is launching today on Coursera—and has been shared exclusively with Fortune. The course aims to teach individuals how they can use generative AI to do mundane tasks like summarize lengthy documents into a few bullet points, brainstorm ideas for a new project, and create visualizations from data.
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Prompting Essentials centers around a five-step framework to help users build the right prompts for AI: “Thoughtfully Create Really Excellent Inputs” with the first letter of each word connecting to “Task, Context, References, Evaluate, and Iterate.”
While the number of ways to learn AI skills continues to expand, Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda says the topics covered in the new course can truly put individuals ahead of their peers.
“If people just did this: Set the task, provide the context, provide any references, evaluate the answer, and then iterate, they’re already gonna be 90 to 95% ahead of everybody else—at least all the people that I talk to,” says Maggioncalda.
Why is learning how to make AI prompts important?
If you’ve ever used an AI chatbot, you’ll quickly realize that you get out what you put in—meaning if you are not specific, it won’t be either.
The technology also learns from you, and the more you use it, the more it will understand your tone and objectives. Lisa Gevelber, founder of Grow with Google, highlights that individuals can learn to create their own personalized AI agents that can serve roles like personal tutors, career coaches, or even personal trainers—but only if you know how to properly prompt.
“Becoming good [at] prompting is really essential for unlocking AI’s potential,” explains Gevelber. “Obviously not only can it deliver better results, but when you become good at prompting, you can actually really automate repetitive tasks because you can reuse your prompts once you set them up.”
The proof of AI prompting demand is in the data. Google search trends for “how to prompt AI” hit an all-time high in 2024, and it is only expected to increase. Gevelber says that conversations she has with companies of all sizes—from small businesses to multinational corporations—share a common theme: they all desire for their employees to use AI, but there is a lack of simple, hands-on training.
Google experts will show you how to prompt
The new Prompting Essentials course was designed by experts who work on Google AI projects like Gemini and Deepmind, and it consists of four modules. The estimated completion time is less than 10 hours.
The cost is $49, and people who complete the course will receive an industry-recognized certificate from Google. Gevelber says many partner organizations like universities, chambers of commerce, and nonprofits will get free access.
“We all know that AI has the potential to create incredible new levels of productivity. and economic opportunity and growth, and we as Google are really committed to making sure that everyone has access to those opportunities,” she adds.
Rocket Companies and Siemens worked with Google to beta test the course and have committed to providing access to their employees.
Nearly 85% of Rocket employees who engaged in the learning say they now have a better understanding of how to write effective AI prompts, and 100% said it gave them the skills and knowledge to gain confidence to use generative AI tools for work tasks, says KimArie Yowell, chief DEI and learning officer at Rocket Companies.
“We are passionate about the power that AI will have on not just our company, and how we can best help our clients,” says Yowell.
How can you learn to prompt an AI engine?
Outside of Google’s five-step framework, Maggioncalda highlights a concept from the course that he believes is especially impactful: Chain-of-thought prompting. If users prompt AI to explain its reasoning or to describe, step-by-step, understanding how it got to a specific result can help individuals think and communicate more clearly.
Asking deeper questions like this is even how he interacts with generative AI on a daily basis in his role as CEO.
While Maggioncalda admits there are other ways to learn about AI prompting, including on Coursera, he says Google’s offerings remain popular due to their brand respect and course quality. Google’s AI Essentials course is the most popular generative AI course on the platform.
“There are tons of videos out there that you can watch to learn about AI, but really a thoughtful pedagogical approach to how to tell you and teach you about these things, show you and then have you practice it, that is very unique,” Gevelber says.
Learn more: These 6 prompt engineering courses can help you optimize your use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools.
Frequently asked questions
What is AI prompting?
AI prompting is the interaction with AI technology, typically generative AI chatbots, to yield specific results from certain inputs. Individuals must provide enough context and resources for it to achieve desired results as well as be mindful of the ethical and legal limitations.
Is AI prompting a skill?
Yes, AI prompting is a skill. To be most efficient with generative AI technology, you must know how to properly interact with it—meaning the communication of specific desired outcomes and a realistic way to achieve said task. As many experts will share, workers with the proper AI skills are the ones who may replace those who do not.