Most employees already work alongside AI, often without knowing it. It sorts their email, suggests the next word, flags an unusual invoice, and plans delivery routes. This beginner course explains what is going on inside those tools in plain language, so trainees can use them with realistic expectations. In three live, instructor-led sessions, trainees learn how AI differs from ordinary rule-based software and how machines learn from data. They see why AI gives probable answers rather than certain ones and where its mistakes come from. They find the AI hidden inside the tools they already use, sort fact from myth (including what really happens to the things they type into a chatbot), and learn the five ways employees use AI today. Throughout, people keep the final say on decisions. Hands-on labs use fictional Massachusetts employers such as Bayside Precision Parts in Worcester County and run in the employer's approved tool or on paper. Trainees leave with a how-AI-works explainer card, an inventory of the AI in their own tools, and an AI role and responsibility chart for their job. Built on Laurence Lars Svekis's book AI Literacy for All Employees (chapters 1 to 5), updated with 2026 research. No technical background is needed.
What you will be able to do
By the end of the course, trainees will be able to:
- Explain in plain words how AI differs from rule-based software, and classify at least 10 of 12 workplace systems correctly as rule-based automation, predictive AI (machine learning), or generative AI.
- Describe how AI learns from data (training versus use; supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning) and name four reasons AI output can be wrong.
- Find the AI inside at least five tools they use at work and record, for each, what the AI does, what data it sees, and what a person still decides.
- Replace six common AI myths with accurate statements and a workplace example, including what does and does not happen to the text typed into an AI assistant.
- Place workplace AI uses on a five-rung assistance ladder (inform, suggest, draft, act with approval, act alone) and name who holds decision authority and what the person checks.
Who this course is for
Office and administrative support; Customer service representatives; Production and warehouse workers and leads; Sales and retail associates; Front desk, scheduling, and patient access staff; Bookkeeping and accounting clerks
Before you start
None beyond basic computer use (email, web browser, word processor). No prior AI use is needed. Open to every W-2 employee, from the shop floor to the front office.
Hands-on activities
- Rules, prediction, or generation? Pairs classify 12 systems at fictional Bayside Precision Parts and explain one of them back to a partner.
- Teach the machine: a card-sort game that shows supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning with shop-floor examples.
- AI Spotter hunt: trainees inventory the AI built into the tools at fictional Merrimack Freight & Logistics, then in their own job.
- Myth or fact? Teams debunk six myths and check one claim live in the approved tool.
- Assistance ladder: trainees place 10 workplace AI uses on the ladder and name the person who decides.
How your learning is measured
- Attendance at all three sessions (start and end check).
- Lab worksheets W1 to W3 scored complete / incomplete against written criteria.
- Pre/post knowledge check from the 48-item quiz bank; gain reported per trainee; 80% on the final draw to meet.
- Final W4 AI role and responsibility chart scored Meets on every rubric criterion (one resubmission allowed).
- Pre/post confidence survey (reported, not graded).
