Microsoft’s First Generative AI Certificate Is Available for Free

On June 28 2023, Microsoft and LinkedIn launched the AI Skills Initiative certificate program, a library of free videos for professionals who are beginners in generative AI. The program aims to teach participants how to apply generative AI to their work.

As of December 2024, Microsoft expanded its library to form the AI Skills Navigator portal.

What are the Career Essentials in Generative AI program by Microsoft and LinkedIn?

The Microsoft AI Skills Initiative, developed with LinkedIn, consists of five modules. Every module includes a video, and some are supplemented with quizzes, a workbook file, or both. Completing all five modules gives the learner a Professional Certificate in Generative AI to display on LinkedIn Learning.

The content presented in the AI Skills Initiative certification skews toward Microsoft’s Copilot instead of its major rival, Google’s Gemini.

The Professional Certificate on Generative AI training will be available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese and will be free through 2025.

SEE: Learn how generative AI is transforming cloud security. (TechRepublic)

“We have the opportunity to provide foundational information to everyone, everywhere, to help us all stay ahead of the skills gaps and harness its creativity to retrieve helpful information,” said Naria Santa Lucia, general manager of digital inclusion at Microsoft, in an email to TechRepublic. “As we are learning, the technology is learning from us, too, and we have the power to shape how the technology can best support us.”

SEE: 2025 was the year of agentic AI.

The LinkedIn training course is part of Microsoft’s Skills for Jobs program, which includes a training module for teachers, trainers, and facilitators exploring artificial intelligence. Note that some of the material focuses on Microsoft Azure and Azure OpenAI.

Generative AI skills are among companies’ top three training priorities

More than 75% of companies plan to adopt AI in the next five years, according to the World Economic Forum. Training employees to use AI and big data is the third-highest company skills-training priority companies plan to focus on over this period, as highlighted in the WEF Future of Jobs 2023 report. That statistic includes generative AI and related technologies, such as machine learning, which fall under the same umbrella.

The importance of AI in the workplace is further underscored by Microsoft’s May 2024 Work Trend Index, which found that 75% of knowledge workers use AI at work. However, 53% of people surveyed who use AI at work worry that using it makes them look replaceable.

Additionally, some workers (45%) are still concerned they will lose their jobs to AI. On the other hand, a proportionate number of hiring leaders (55%) say they’re concerned about not having enough talent to fill roles in 2025.

In last year’s Work Trend Index, 49% of people were concerned about AI making their jobs obsolete.  At the same time, 70% are open to the possibility of delegating some tasks to AI to reduce their workloads.

To address these challenges and opportunities, Microsoft proposes upskilling in AI to remediate imbalances. One element of skills training somewhat unique to generative AI is the practice of prompt engineering.

“Unlike other enterprise software, generative AI tools require the user to train the tool itself,” said Shravan Goli, chief operating officer at Coursera, in an email to TechRepublic in 2023. “Without good prompts, the tool won’t be able to help employees boost productivity in a meaningful way, and increasing productivity is one of the most promising components of generative AI for workers today.”

SEE: This customizable prompt engineer hiring kit from TechRepublic Premium

He also noted that generative AI skills training requires ethical oversight, which Coursera considers in its own free training modules.

“As with any emerging technology, society is still navigating its broader implications and managing guardrails,” Goli said. “In order to leverage this incredibly powerful tool while still ensuring responsible use by employees, I believe organizations need to carefully outline ethical guidelines.”

Note: This story was originally published in 2023 and updated for 2024.