Online learning platform Udacity publishes Artificial Intelligence course for business executives

Udacity have released a new training module titled: AI for Business Leaders which is specifically targeted at educating business executives on the benefits of artificial intelligence in transforming business processes.  To create this course it partnered with BMW and a statement was released during a visit to BMW Group in Munich.  Part of the program involves a capstone project, during which students are required to develop and implement an AI based strategy for their own business.

Udacity’s announcement to release a course specifically for business leaders, follows similar offerings from other universities and cloud based learning platforms such as the World Economic Forum, Coursera and Stanford.

AI has become an important theme for businesses in recent years.  Shell recently reported that it is offering Udacity’s AI training to around 2000 of its employees in a hope to make costs savings and transform business operations.  This follows a yearlong pilot in 2019 in which 250 Shell employees completed courses from Udacity on topics such as developing machine learning algorithms and advanced data visualisation.

“Udacity is unique in its approach to creating technical education with global corporate partners. This partnership with BMW is the latest, and one of the most important, given the disruptive and innovative power of AI,” Gabe Dalporto, CEO of Udacity

Udacity is an online learning platform that offers a range of technology based courses and nanodegrees.  Stanford instructors Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig started the company by way of an experiment when they released an artificial intelligence course for free.  Enrolment was in excess of 160,000 students from over 190 countries.  In its current form Udacity offers courses on topics such as machine learning, data visualisation and self-driving vehicle engineering.  An important part of the process is forming a partnership with industry experts and creating real world practical activities which make it relevant to the workplace.

Further information on the course is available here: https://www.udacity.com/course/ai-for-business-leaders–nd054