Curious about generative AI and how you can use it in your everyday life? This beginner-friendly course is designed for everyone, from students to working professionals, interested in learning about generative AI and applying it in their work and daily routines. No prior AI experience is required.
Build a strong foundation in generative AI and understand the models that power it, including large language models (LLMs). You’ll explore the fundamentals of generative AI and how it has evolved, with additional readings and expert insights offering a deeper look at its history and advancements. Discover how generative AI creates text, images, audio, video, code, and more, and explore popular tools and models such as ChatGPT, GPT, DALL·E, Stable Diffusion, and Synthesia.
See how generative AI is transforming industries across IT, finance, healthcare, education, entertainment, and human resources to understand how organizations are using these technologies to solve problems and improve their work.
Go beyond theory with hands-on practice. You will experiment with generative AI tools through interactive labs using IBM Generative AI Classroom and tools such as ChatGPT. Learn from industry practitioners, explore real-world scenarios, and reinforce your knowledge through interactive activities. Put your knowledge into practice in a final project where you generate and refine AI outputs across multiple formats.
By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Explain the fundamentals of generative AI and distinguish it from discriminative AI.
- Identify real-world use cases and understand how generative AI is being applied across industries.
- Explore popular generative AI tools and models for creating text, code, images, audio, and video.
- Recognize opportunities to apply generative AI in your work and everyday life.
Join over 490,000 learners who have enrolled in this course and earn a shareable certificate to showcase your new skills on LinkedIn, your resume, or your CV.
Status: Generative AI
Generative AI
Status: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML)
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML)
Beginner·Course·8 hours
Featured reviews
5.0
·Reviewed Mar 3, 2024
A good introduction to the capabilities of generative AI, I recommend this to anyone that is curious or interested in the subject of generative AI and its real world applications
5.0
·Reviewed Jul 28, 2024
This was such an amazing course. This course changed everything I knew about the AI. After this course my knowledge with regards to AI and it capabilities changed significantly.
5.0
·Reviewed Jan 21, 2025
Very good Into to AI, with in depth descriptions of GenAI tools and their fields of application. Hands on exercises to consolidate knowledge and create contextual text, audio and video.
5.0
·Reviewed May 14, 2024
I definitely appreciated that this didn't cover just text-to-image tools. I feel that even if someone is not new to AI, they might do something during this course that they haven't done before.
5.0
·Reviewed Mar 15, 2024
Generative AI was practically broken in bits for us to really comprehend .
You just have to pay attention so you don’t mix the tools and their functions up.
Thank you Coursera 🙏🏼
Jennifer MGBEKEN
5.0
·Reviewed Aug 14, 2026
Excellent course for beginners. It explains Generative AI concepts in a simple and easy-to-understand way with practical examples. I learned a lot and would recommend it to anyone interested in AI.
5.0
·Reviewed Feb 1, 2025
Great Material, simple to learn . Will provide you with the introduction concepts of Gen AI to be applied in the framework. If you like tech. You will find it very easy to digest.
5.0
·Reviewed Jan 26, 2026
This was a great course and really gives you a great look at AI, and the practice labs where great, 5 stars for me, i feel it will get dated soon so i hope they update it or do a bolt of refresher
5.0
·Reviewed Dec 18, 2024
The course delves deep into the capabilities nd process of AI models. It was interesting learning. Very thankful to the faculty for providing good insights into AI models.
5.0
·Reviewed Sep 27, 2025
Very detailed about generative and agentic AI, and also introduces other, less-known forms of AI that assist with video generation, audio production, and coding.
5.0
·Reviewed Jul 26, 2024
This Course gives you a solid knowledge of some of Ai Application and how it will affect various fields of our daily life, because it hands on lab it make it an exciting journey highly recommended .
5.0
·Reviewed Aug 16, 2026
A helpful and well-structured course that provides a clear introduction to generative AI, its applications, and practical use cases. The content is easy to understand and relevant for beginners.
All reviews
Showing: 20 of 1,080
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N
Nicholas
1.0
·Reviewed Jan 24, 2024
The content of this course is incredibly simple to the point of uselessness, it is essentially stating that generative AI exists and listing a bunch of example models. It lists endless use cases, many of which are highly questionable (using synthetic data to train predictive models for instance) and the exercises are mostly guiding you step by step through opening chatGPT and writing a prompt or similar.
Most of the quiz question essentially boil down to "what kind of tool would you use to generate an image":
1. An image generator.
2. A text generator.
This course is included as part of the Generative AI for Data Scientists Specialization, but I would strongly recommend any Data Scientists thinking of taking this Specialization to at least skip this course and for something more useful.
M
Marc
1.0
·Reviewed Sep 14, 2024
Would give it 0 if it was a choice... Really low quality AI generated content.
Have you ever read a textbook that was nothing but lists of facts with no background, context, story, or anything? Now imagine if it was read to you by an AI voice. That's exactly what you would get. Some of the knowledge is there, however, there are so many mistakes and inconsistencies...
This course would benefit from actual interviews of people discussing HOW and which tools they used in Generative AI in their field than just listing a giant laundry list of apps. Also, it feels like they are trying so hard to put IBM's WatsonX tool up there and keep pushing IBMs other tools, which aren't really seen as industry leaders in the GenAI field. Honestly this course was such a disappointment and waste of time. I don't recommend it to anyone unless they fix these things, make it more engaging, and actually teach people how to use the tools.
C
Chase
1.0
·Reviewed Aug 15, 2025
so much of this information is out of date. In some cases, the exam was updated but the lecture was not. Bard is spoke about many times in the lecture though it doesn't really exist anymore. But the exam was updated to reflect Gemini being googles umbrella GenAI client
D
Daniel
2.0
·Reviewed Apr 2, 2024
dont like the way the videos are narrated.. it may as well be an AI reading slides. It is a breathless wall of bullet points read at breakneck speed. I am looking for a generative AI program that feels more like it is being taught by a human.
O
Oriol
5.0
·Reviewed Jan 21, 2025
Very good Into to AI, with in depth descriptions of GenAI tools and their fields of application. Hands on exercises to consolidate knowledge and create contextual text, audio and video.
K
Karalea
3.0
·Reviewed Nov 17, 2023
Good content and very informative. Would have been better if some of the interactives worked properly and the speaker on the videos talked a bit slower; it was rushed.
A
Alexander
1.0
·Reviewed Sep 20, 2025
Very basic; first module basically useless videos and a waste of time; nice to have some practice modules; quizzes can be passed without any understanding of AI at all
S
Sebastian
5.0
·Reviewed Feb 2, 2025
Great Material, simple to learn . Will provide you with the introduction concepts of Gen AI to be applied in the framework. If you like tech. You will find it very easy to digest.
B
Bill
4.0
·Reviewed Apr 2, 2024
The information in the class is really helpful. However, the narrator talks VERY fast like he is just reading from a script. People creating a class need to realize that others will be hanging on every word and need to speak slowly. I had to turn down the speed of the narration just to keep up with notes.
K
Karun
2.0
·Reviewed Feb 19, 2024
Nothing useful
C
Carlo
5.0
·Reviewed May 15, 2024
I definitely appreciated that this didn't cover just text-to-image tools. I feel that even if someone is not new to AI, they might do something during this course that they haven't done before.
S
Stephen
5.0
·Reviewed Mar 3, 2024
A good introduction to the capabilities of generative AI, I recommend this to anyone that is curious or interested in the subject of generative AI and its real world applications
A
Aram
2.0
·Reviewed Aug 18, 2025
Overall Course Content:
The course provided comprehensive information and a concise overview of everything related to generative AI, which is good. However, most of the lessons' information could easily be found by simply asking ChatGPT for a helpful summary of generative AI.
Lack of Visual Aids:
The presentations did not include images for some of the concepts mentioned, such as image-to-image translation techniques, which made it difficult for me to understand what was being discussed. I had to search for them on Google Images to understand more.
Narration and Presentation Style:
The lesson presentations/videos were narrated by a person with an AI-like voice. I wouldn’t be surprised if this voice was generated by converting a person’s voice to readable text. This was disappointing because I found this method of explanation boring, and I would have preferred a real person explaining rather than a robot reading it. The narration was fast, and I had to pause it several times.
Repetitive Information and Expert Opinions:
Some videos presented repetitive information. I found the expert opinions to be one of the most disappointing parts of this course. They repeated each other’s words and previous videos, which made me feel like I was wasting precious time going over points multiple times. With all due respect, some of the participants’ English was unclear, although I must give credit to the course facilitator for providing a written transcript of each speaker’s words, which made it easier to understand what they were saying. Some experts sounded as if they were reading from a paper or screen rather than speaking from their expertise. In fact, some sounded as if they were advertising themselves or their company.
Strengths of the Course:
The most powerful aspect of this course was breaking down the information into digestible chunks. The glossary concept table was extremely helpful, and the tests were excellent and helped consolidate the knowledge given in the course. Finally, the lab exercises we applied in the course were very useful.
Suitability and Target Audience (who would benefit from this course):
This course is useful and suitable for anyone who has never used AI before in their life and doesn't have mush background on the subject, but it won’t be useful for anyone who has already started experimenting with platforms like ChatGPT or image generative AI applications like Midjourney, as the course won’t offer anything significant for them.
R
Richard
5.0
·Reviewed Mar 30, 2024
I appreciated the thoroughness and attention to details from this course. I learned a great deal of concepts and tools, especially in Lesson three Glossary.
G
Greg
5.0
·Reviewed Dec 24, 2023
This is a great, comprehensive introduction to generative AI and the media it affects.
G
gonzalo
2.0
·Reviewed Sep 24, 2025
too basic
B
Brent
1.0
·Reviewed Sep 16, 2025
Coursera is a total scam. If you complete a course during your free trial, they won't provide you a course completion certificate if you don't then immediately end your free trial and start paying for a subscription. In other words, there isn't a point in signing up for a free trial so don't bother doing it.
J
Jeremy
1.0
·Reviewed May 11, 2024
Too much overview of too many of the systems and tools for GEN AI which made it hard to know what to focus on in preparation for the test.