AI looks different on a hospital unit, a machine shop floor, an insurance desk, and a job site. This instructor-led course is delivered by industry: each offering serves one Massachusetts sector of scale, selected by enrolling employers, from healthcare and life sciences, advanced manufacturing, financial services and insurance, construction and trades, retail and hospitality, or logistics and distribution. Trainees learn where AI is already used in their industry, which uses are mature and which are hype, and the rules that apply, such as HIPAA, Massachusetts data security regulations (201 CMR 17.00), insurance and lending fairness rules, and safety documentation requirements. Labs are hands-on and industry-specific: manufacturing trainees turn a messy machine log into a maintenance summary and draft a work instruction; insurance trainees summarize a fictional claim file and draft a coverage explanation; construction trainees convert a site walk into a punch list and safety talk; healthcare trainees build a patient education handout and a shift handoff template without PHI. Labs run in general AI tools (Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) plus a review of AI features in common industry software. Each trainee completes an industry use-case brief describing one AI application for their workplace, its benefit, its risks, and how it would be checked.
What you will be able to do
By the end of the course, trainees will be able to:
- Describe three current, real AI applications in their industry and classify each as mature, emerging, or unproven.
- Name the main regulations and data types in their industry that limit AI use, and apply them to a lab scenario.
- Complete four industry-specific AI-assisted tasks using the approved tool, each with a documented check.
- Write an industry use-case brief: task, AI method, expected benefit, risks, controls, and how success would be measured.
Who this course is for
Production supervisors and quality technicians; Claims adjusters and underwriting assistants; Construction project coordinators and site supervisors; Healthcare unit coordinators and clinical support staff (non-PHI tasks); Hotel and restaurant managers; Dispatchers and warehouse supervisors
Before you start
Currently employed in the selected industry. FAST-01 or FAST-02 recommended.
Hands-on activities
- Industry landscape sort: cards with AI use claims sorted into mature, emerging, or hype, with evidence.
- Four sector labs per track (see industry tracks).
- Regulation-to-rule exercise: translate an industry rule into a do/don't list for AI use.
- Use-case brief pitch and peer critique.
How your learning is measured
- Attendance at all four sessions.
- Four sector lab outputs scored Meets / Not yet.
- Regulation-to-rule list reviewed by instructor.
- Final industry use-case brief scored against rubric and presented to cohort.
