AI Strategy: Stay Competitive with AI

This course can be applied toward the UBC Micro-certificate in AI Development of Interactive Experiences and the UBC Certificate in Artificial Intelligence in Digital Media. 

This course combines implementation strategy with a critical thinking approach for immediate application in your current work.

Gain the tools and strategic insights needed to drive growth and competitiveness for your businesses in the ever-changing landscape of artificial intelligence (AI). Learn to leverage its tools and capabilities to enhance efficiency, innovation and customer experiences, and evaluate the potential risks and challenges associated with AI adoption.

Delve into the ethical and legal implications of AI and gain a comprehensive understanding of the regulations and guidelines surrounding these technologies. Through case studies, hands-on exercises and instruction from industry experts, you will quickly gain AI skills you can apply in your business or organization.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Understand the basics of AI and its applications across industries
• Recognize how AI can drive business growth and efficiency 
• Identify key areas where AI can be implemented in business operations, such as content creation, distribution and personalized marketing
• Develop strategies for integrating AI in current business operations and processes
• Understand the ethical and legal considerations of using AI and develop an ethics framework
• Identify potential risks and challenges of implementing AI and develop mitigation strategies
• Evaluate the performance of AI strategies from a business growth perspective
• Gain knowledge of the latest AI technologies and tools for companies using digital media
• Develop an AI-driven business plan and identify the potential ROI of specific AI strategies

Technical and coding skills are not required. The course includes activities that build confidence in developing strategies, applying core concepts and implementing practical “no-code” platforms and tools. Platform and tool selection varies and is regularly updated to reflect current industry trends, and has included Perplexity, Notion, Jira, n8n, Gumloop, Customer GPTs and Airtable.

Course outline

Week 1: Develop AI-powered Business Strategies

Week 1 lays the groundwork for identifying and prioritizing high-impact AI opportunities through a business-first lens—focusing on practical value rather than technical complexity.

Week 2: AI agents for decision-making and risk management

AI agents have emerged as a strategic game-changer, enabling organizations to automate complex decision-making and operations at scale, offering early adopters a powerful edge in efficiency, innovation and market responsiveness, even without deep technical expertise.

Week 3: Building trust and competitive advantage with ethical AI

This week focuses on how Responsible AI has become a strategic imperative, enabling organizations to build trust, drive adoption and ensure sustainable growth by embedding ethics, transparency and compliance directly into their AI initiatives.

Week 4: Performance evaluation and identifying trends and opportunities

This week, we shift focus to sustaining your competitive edge by measuring AI performance and tracking emerging trends. You’ll learn how to build strategic evaluation frameworks and future-ready practices that ensure your AI initiatives continue to deliver value while adapting to a fast-changing landscape.

How am I assessed?

You will be assessed on successfully completing weekly activities, including your contributions to discussion posts, exercises and applied case study projects (based on real-life scenarios). These activities are marked using a proficiency scale, and your instructor provides you informal feedback during live online sessions.

While you are not assessed on your attendance of the live online sessions, we encourage you to attend so you can learn and interact with your instructor and other participants. All sessions are recorded in case you miss one.

This course operates on a pass/fail basis. You must achieve an overall grade of 70% or greater to pass and be eligible to earn the UBC Micro-certificate in AI Development of Interactive Experiences.

Expected effort

Expect to spend five to seven hours per week completing all learning activities, including attending the live online sessions.

Technology requirements

To take this course, you need access to:

• an email account
• a computer, laptop or tablet
• the latest version of a web browser (or previous major version release)
• a reliable internet connection
• a video camera and microphone

Course format

This 100% online program is instructor supported with weekly online classes.

Outside of class, you can access online materials on your own time. Each week, review readings and videos, and apply your knowledge in exercises, assignments and case studies. Contribute to an online discussion board and connect with other students.

One business day before the course start date, we’ll email you step-by-step instructions for accessing your course.