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Learn AI by Building Something Real
Every industry is changing because of AI. Most professionals are still figuring out where they fit.
A new course from Furman University is for the individuals who want to stop guessing.
Applied AI for Professional Practice launches June 1 as an eight-week hybrid certificate course. Graduate students can enroll as an elective toward Furman’s Master of Science in Innovation and Leadership program. Community members can enroll to earn a standalone professional certificate.
Meet the Facilitator
Lelia King is the CEO of Build Carolina, a nonprofit focused on technology talent development across South Carolina. With a background in communications, she started her career during the rise of social media. She says that era taught her to stay curious about what’s emerging and proactive about what’s coming next.
What the Course Actually Is
Each week, Lelia will bring in professionals from around the Upstate to talk about how AI is shaping their work. Speakers will come from diverse sectors such as marketing, manufacturing, finance, nonprofits and government. Students will move beyond theory to learn practical AI applications from local leaders navigating real challenges.
“This Applied AI in Professional Practice truly means just peeling back these layers to understand practically what these words and concepts mean and how it is working in these different industries today,” said Lelia.
Students won’t get lost in technical deep dives. The focus stays on practical literacy of what AI can and can’t do, accountability and responsibility, understanding the differences between generative and predictive AI, and automation versus augmentation.
By the end of the course, every student presents a finished, portfolio-ready project. Students will be able to use the project to focus on an idea or challenge from their own organizations. That project could be a new product concept, a process improvement model, an insight tool or a personal workflow system. Students will not only design the project but test it and present it, building both a work product and the confidence to stand behind it.
Who Should Enroll
This course is built for working professionals, recent graduates and career changers who want to bring AI fluency into whatever they already do well. Even skeptics will find value as the course is designed to explore the possibilities of AI while taking the risks seriously.
“Our ultimate goal is that as people go back into their professional context, they demonstrate what they already are experts in and they’re able to apply a fresh perspective, with a little bit of knowledge about how our current AI tools might be able to improve the industry they are experts in,” said Lelia.
Next steps
Applied AI in Professional Practice runs June through July 2026 in a hybrid format, with in-person sessions held at Flywheel Coworking in Greenville. Successful completion of the certificate also awards three graduate credits toward Furman’s Master of Science in Innovation and Leadership program.