Practical AI skills to increase productivity—regardless of your job title

Hello!

By this point, you’re probably somewhat familiar with the value of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) skills. This week, we’re delighted to share that now, when you enroll in a Google Professional Certificate, you can get access to Google AI Essentials. This course was designed for people across roles and industries to gain practical AI skills that stand to boost productivity.

What are “practical” AI skills?

There are two ways to think about AI skills. One is to think about them in the technical sense, for example, developing machine learning algorithms or training large-language models (LLMs). These are the types of skills engineers and developers tend to need.

The other way to think about AI skills is in a practical sense, for example, identifying the right tools for your needs and using AI to enhance your productivity. Practical AI skills are more widely applicable to jobs across fields and industries.

If your goal is to work in an engineering or development field, then you’ll want to focus on your technical AI skills. Now more than ever, this type of expertise is in high demand and it’s only expected to grow. Consider learning programs such as Stanford and DeepLearning.AI’s Machine Learning Specialization or the IBM AI Developer Professional Certificate.

If you have any other career goal—data analytics, project management, marketing, business development, UX design, human resources, or truly any other career goal—it’s worth adding practical AI skills to your toolkit.

Why is that? Because even if the job you want doesn’t explicitly require AI skills, incorporating AI into your workflow can lead to increased efficiency, which can then lead to improved outcomes. From the employer perspective, this is an attractive quality in a job candidate. According to Microsoft and LinkedIn’s 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report, 66 percent of leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills.

Identifying your practical AI skills

In order to fully understand how you can integrate AI into your regular workflow, it helps to understand how AI works and familiarize yourself with common AI tools, including GenAI tools.

If you’ve been with us for a while, you’ll likely recall us mentioning GenAI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, as well as some tips for using those tools (to enhance your resume or prepare for interviews, for example). These are, essentially, chatbots. A more technical term for these tools is large-language models, or LLMs.

In simplified terms, an LLM is basically a predictive text tool. The AI is trained on large amounts of data, which makes it really good at stringing together long series of words in response to your prompt. It’s similar to the way Google can predict your query as you type it into the search bar or the way an iPhone suggests words as you type out a text message. The difference is that these GenAI tools do this on a much, much larger scale. For a more sophisticated explanation, watch this short video from DeepLearning.AI’s Generative AI for Everyone course.

However, as you know, predictive text features don’t always predict your intended text with total accuracy. Similarly, neither do GenAI tools, which is why it’s important to continue using your critical thinking skills any time you use these tools. With that in mind, hopefully it becomes a bit easier to see that AI isn’t likely to fully replace most jobs in the near future. More likely, it’ll just change the way jobs are done.

Now that you have a basic understanding of these tools, you’re better prepared to determine the practical ways you can use AI at work. As Coursera co-founder and AI expert Andrew Ng explains, GenAI tools are most successful at reading, writing, and chatting tasks. So, think about your weekly workflow. What tasks do you regularly spend time on that require you to summarize, draft, or brainstorm?

Showcasing your practical AI skills

The good thing about GenAI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini is that they’re designed to be intuitive. If you know how to communicate in digital spaces, then you are in a good position to learn how to use these tools.

Typically, the best way to learn how to use these tools is to jump right in. Practice using them for your reading, writing, and chatting tasks, note the inputs that tend to produce the best results for your needs, and iterate your processes until they feel fluid. (If you’re using these tools at work, remember to check with your employer regarding privacy and security concerns before inputting sensitive information.)

When it comes to highlighting your expertise with potential employers, here are a few actions you can take:

Add resume bullets to your experience section noting your improved outcomes. For example, if you’re a social media manager, you may add a bullet detailing your increased customer response rate and decreased average response time after integrating AI messaging capabilities.

Add AI tools to your skills and tools section. These tools may be specific to your job function or general use tools, like ChatGPT.

Add AI courses to your education or certificates sections. If you complete an AI course on Coursera, be sure to add your certificate to your resume and LinkedIn profile. This way, potential employers will see the initiative you took to future-proof your expertise.

If you haven’t taken an AI course yet, but would like to, here are some popular picks:

• Google AI Essentials (and, again, right now, when you enroll in any Google Professional Certificate, you can get access to Google AI Essentials at no cost!)
• DeepLearning.AI’s Generative AI for Everyone
• IBM’s AI Foundations for Everyone Specialization

Leave any lingering questions and share your practical AI tips in the comments below!

Have a career question you’d like us to answer next? Share it below. And, as always, we welcome YOUR advice and experience in the comments.