Meet Iuliia

UBC Micro-certificate in Artificial Intelligence Cloud Solutions Strategy

Iuliia is a FinTech professional with experience in quality assurance, project and development management, and organizational change. She pursued AI studies to expand her knowledge, stay informed as technology evolves and explore practical ways to apply AI in her work. With encouragement and support from her employer, she was able to take the courses needed to expand her skills.

What aspects of the program have been most impactful for you?

The program gave me a clear overview of key AI topics, and I couldn’t have easily done all the research on my own since AI is changing so fast. The instructors were especially helpful in showing where AI stands today, sharing real-world examples beyond familiar tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, which gave me a better understanding of the entire AI landscape. It also made me realize how significantly AI is going to impact society in the future.

Were there any surprises or ah-ha moments?

I was surprised by how powerful AI is and even more by how accessible it has become. Now, anyone can build tools and services without needing extensive technical expertise. This really showed me that AI is no longer just for experts, it’s something everyone can leverage.

How can the knowledge and skills gained from the program be applied in either a professional or personal setting?

At our company we’re taking a careful approach to bringing AI into our daily work making sure we respect things like code ownership and data privacy. Personally, I find AI really useful for tasks like spell-checking and professional writing, but it’s important to keep the human touch. Beyond that, I like to think of AI as a creative partner, to bounce ideas off, get inspiration or dig deeper into research since it often gives you more than just a regular search engine.

Who would you recommend this program to, and why?

These courses are useful for anyone who wants a better understanding of AI and its applications, especially managers at all levels. My company is currently setting up a new AI department and even though I’m not directly on that team, I’ve already seen a lot of AI experiments happening around us. Taking these courses helped me get up to speed on what AI can do and gave me a clearer understanding of the ways it can support our work.