12+ Best AI Courses Online: Learn How to Become an Expert in Artificial Intelligence

In the past few years, artificial intelligence has taken center stage among emerging technologies. From self-driving cars to generative systems and everything in between, AI is not only spelling out the rise of the machines, but also making the lives of humans easier with its advancements.

Whether you are a scientist, an artist, or a business owner, learning more about AI can help you unlock new opportunities, prepare for the future, and stay on par with the evolving expectations of the world. No matter if you want to elevate your skills, explore new abilities, or optimize your operations, welcoming AI into your life can provide you with a slew of perks.

But with various subsets, algorithms, and use cases for AI, doing so is easier said than done. When you have several sources of information and a plethora of ways to know more about them, choosing a single option can be quite challenging. Once you consider the possibilities of building your own AI systems, the path becomes even more difficult.

That is where looking into the best AI courses online can go a long way. These courses come from popular online education platforms, which adds to their credibility and reliability. At the same time, the variety of topics that they cover ensures that there is something for everyone in terms of knowing more about AI and integrating the technology into their regular activities.

To support you through this learning curve, here are 10 online courses for AI that can help you master the use of this technology for your field of interest.

What are The Best AI Courses Online?

• AI for Everyone
• Artificial Intelligence A-Z™: Learn How To Build An AI
• Professional Certificate in Computer Science for Artificial Intelligence
• Artificial Intelligence: Reinforcement Learning in Python
• Artificial Intelligence for Business
• The Beginner's Guide to Artificial Intelligence (Unity 2022)
• IBM Applied AI Professional Certificat
• Deep Learning Specialization
• Learn With Google AI
• CS50's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python

1. AI For Everyone

Available at Coursera, the AI for Everyone course is designed for those who do not have extensive expertise in tech, but who want to know more about AI anyway.

The course describes AI and its many functions in layman terms and allows beginners to understand how AI works, what functions does it serve, and what types of applications can it be used with.

In addition to acquainting you with AI, the course also lets you understand how you can make AI a part of your day to day processes. With it, the course focuses on putting you in the shoes of AI experts and lets you get an idea of what it looks like to build AI projects all by yourself.

But what makes it one of the best AI courses online is its expansion into the topic of ethics and responsibility in the segment. This allows you to comprehend the risks of using AI in your regular activities and also lets you determine ways to utilize the technology without harming anyone in the process.

Altogether, the topics covered in the course take approximately 11 hours to complete. This means that if you spend a little over two hours on the course everyday, you can complete it before hitting your weekend plans.

The course has a 4.8 review rating with over 37,000 votes. Its material includes videos and quizzes to help you engage with the syllabus and also test your knowledge after you are done with a topic. This makes sure that you are able to understand the subjects at hand without any compromise. The course is available through free enrollment at Coursera with a monthly fee.

Who Is It For?

• Non-tech people who want to learn about AI.
• Business owners who plan to explore the options to adopt AI.

2. Artificial Intelligence A-Z™: Learn How To Build An AI

Offered through Udemy, the Artificial Intelligence A-Z™: Learn How To Build An AI course is a comprehensive answer to your queries about AI. The course is built for those who want to know more about AI and build applications using the technology.

Considered one of the best AI courses online and on Udemy, the Artificial Intelligence A-Z™ course takes you through a journey that covers various subjects of AI. These lessons start from helping you understand the logic behind AI and go all the way to assist you in building your own AI applications.

The course focuses on AI build, which means that by the time you are done with the program, you will have an idea of how AI works in applications such as video games and self-driving cars. From there, you can put this knowledge to good use and build your own AI applications for these segments.

Once you move beyond these examples, you can also learn more about the usage of AI in real world applications and how you can utilize advanced AI models to make your own AI-powered solutions. The course also gives you the chance to familiarize yourself with Q-Learning and A3C.

All of this is taught through 17 hours of video and 19 articles for self-paced learning. The course has a 4.4 review rating with nearly 22,000 votes. This course is available at $129.99.

Who Is It For?

• Programmers who want to elevate their skills.
• Automotive engineers who need to learn about self-driving AI powered vehicles.
• Employers who want their employees to learn how to build AI applications.

3. Professional Certificate in Computer Science for Artificial Intelligence

The Professional Certificate in Computer Science for Artificial Intelligence is available at edX. Offered by Harvard, the certification is ideal for those who are planning to do a deep dive in AI and learn about the different categories of this technology.

As a detailed certification program, the course acts as your comprehensive guide to AI as well as its subsets. It includes the respected CS50’s Introduction to Computer Science as well as CS50’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence With Python.

This includes the knowledge to apply AI under the rules of computer science and programming, while also learning about its many facets including but not limited to machine learning and reinforcement learning.

Known as one of the best AI courses online, Professional Certificate in Computer Science for Artificial Intelligence stands out for multiple reasons. Besides helping you understand the different branches of AI, the course also guides you through the process of building your own AI systems.

In order to help you put your knowledge to good use, the course also assists you with the process of using AI in Python programs. This gives the course an edge over many other online options that barely touch upon the subject and don’t give you the chance to truly know about the ins and outs of it.

The aim of the course is to help you know more about AI, while also giving you enough knowledge to build your own AI systems with the use of AI subsets, libraries, and principles. This gives you an insight into the reason why the course is one of the most popular undergraduate certifications at Harvard.

Since it is a certification program, the Professional Certificate in Computer Science for Artificial Intelligence spans over 5-7 months with over 7-22 hours spent per week. However, the course is self-paced and gives you the flexibility to complete it at your own comfort. This course is available for $348.

Who Is It For?

• Engineers who want to advance their careers with the knowledge of AI.
• Companies that plan to equip their employees with the ability to use AI.

4. Artificial Intelligence: Reinforcement Learning in Python

Available at Udemy, the Artificial Intelligence: Reinforcement Learning in Python course acts as a guide to reinforcement learning. Through this course, you can get a firm grasp on the process of building stock trading and online advertising applications.

Since reinforcement learning is a sought after aspect of modern AI, this course gives you a detailed overview of this side of artificial intelligence. With it, it also lets you learn more about the facets of dynamic programming, temporal difference learning, and approximation methods.

When put together, this equips you to build applications for a variety of use cases such as AI systems that can play games and drive cars. In order to help you master these goals and test your own AI, the course takes you through popular practices such as the multi-armed bandit problem and the Markov Decision Process (MDP).

This is one of the many factors that lands Artificial Intelligence: Reinforcement Learning in Python on the list of the best AI courses online. What further adds to the positives of this course is how it teaches you to use OpenAI Gym, which is an environment to develop and build modern AI systems.

In turn, this course becomes a 101 on understanding reinforcement learning as well as AI mechanics, while also guiding you through the aspects of creating new AI systems all by yourself. This makes it a sought after course for those who want to go a step further in their pursuit to understand and employ AI in their own processes.

The Artificial Intelligence: Reinforcement Learning in Python course comprises video lessons that are over 14 hours long. It requires you to be proficient in calculus, probability, Python coding, Numpy coding, as well as other aspects of programming. The course also puts a focus on university-level math and goes beyond the superficial materials of many other courses in AI. It holds a 4.6 rating from 9,400 reviews. This course is available at $79.99.

Who Is It For?

• Programmers who want to understand and practice reinforcement learning.
• Students who plan to elevate their skills through advanced classes.
• Professionals who desire to elevate their skill set by learning AI techniques.

5. MIT Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy

The MIT Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy course is available with GetSmarter. 

This 100% online course seems best suited to those with a fair amount of work experience, with just over 70% of students having participated in the workforce for over 15 years. According to MIT, this course is ‘designed to prepare those with strategic decision-making responsibilities — such as aspiring managers, current managers, and high-level executives.'

This course offers a dual perspective from two MIT schools:

• The MIT Sloan School of Management
• The MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

…so that students receive a ‘practical grounding in artificial intelligence (AI) and its business applications' to help students apply AI management to their organization's operations.

The course lasts six weeks (excluding orientation), and prospective students should plan to dedicate around six to eight hours a week to it. 

You'll have to undertake a series of practical online assignments and meet the requirements outlined in the course handbook. 

Then, you'll receive a certificate from the MIT Sloan School of Management upon completion. 

At the time of writing, this course costs £2,510.00.

Who Is It For?

Middle managers (and above) and decision makers that want to start implementing AI into their business.

6. Oxford Artificial Intelligence Programme 

The Oxford Artificial Intelligence Programme is also available via GetSmarter.  

This entirely online course is best suited to the following people:

• Managers and business leaders interested in understanding AI’s potential 
• Those looking to develop a foundational understanding of what AI is and how it works
• CIOs, IT managers, and business analysts that want to know how to implement AI

It's also worth noting that this course doesn't require coding or technical know-how. 

Participants will learn:

• How to identify the possibilities for AI in your organization and outline its implementation
• Information about the technologies fuelling AI, including machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, and algorithms
• AI's social and ethical implications
• AI's context, history, and evolution to help you forecast AI's future use

Students can complete the weekly modules at their own pace but should expect to spend around seven to ten hours a week working through the course. 

Students will learn alongside like-minded professionals located all around the globe. 

You’ll receive a certificate of attendance from Oxford Saïd upon completing the program. 

To successfully finish the course, you'll be assigned a series of practical assignments to complete online, and you’ll also need to meet the requirements outlined in the program handbook. 

At the time of writing, this course costs £2,200.

Who Is It For?

This course is best for professionals and managers looking to fuel their professional development and/or implement it in their organizations.

7. AI For Business

Available via Udemy, Artificial Intelligence for Business is a popular course that lets you understand AI through a business owner’s perspective. The course is focused on helping you learn the general practices of AI and implement AI-based processes that let your business become more efficient.

Through the AI for business course, you can learn about how an AI framework can be implemented within a business environment, how it can lend you thinking power that is based on analytical processing, and how it can help you make informed decisions based on hard data. Through these actions, you can optimize your operations, automate day to day activities, and improve the efficiency and output of your organization.

What adds to the AI For Business course’s status as one of the best AI courses online is its ability to provide you with a learning framework and give you the lessons to implement your own AI systems. With various ways to implement AI into the workplace, the course lets you minimize ongoing problems such as the risks of human error and allows you to elevate your overall processes.

The Artificial Intelligence for Business course also focuses on Deep Q-Learning that saves your AI systems from going through redundant training. With it, you can learn to use other practices such as Thompson sampling and regret analysis to make your AI systems more powerful, adept, and capable of pulling off advanced tasks.

The AI for Business course has 16 hours of video lessons and 16 articles. When you have completed the lessons, you can become more proficient at building your own AI systems as well as being able to help your organization use AI on an active basis. This makes the course a popular option among business owners who plan to take their operations to the next level through the use of AI. The course has a 4.5 rating from over 3,300 reviews. This course is available for $109.99.

Who Is It For?

• Business owners who want to learn more about AI.
• Organization heads who plan to implement AI for their operations.

8. The Beginner's Guide to Artificial Intelligence (Unity 2022)

Available at Udemy, The Beginner's Guide to Artificial Intelligence (Unity 2022) is a targeted course for building non-player characters (NPCs) in games. The focused approach of this course makes it relevant for a niche segment, but the level of detail that it offers makes it one of the best AI courses online for its chosen field.

The course’s topics cover aspects that help you learn how you can program your NPCs for games using C# in the Unity Game Engine. These subjects cover AI programming for waypoints, graphs, vehicles, and navigation. This lets you enhance your NPC and improve the gaming experience for your end-users through the principles of AI.

The Beginner's Guide to Artificial Intelligence (Unity 2022) also lets you hold a firm grasp over creating a finite state machine. This process leads you from creating a state class to building the AI class. This results in helping you build AI functionality for actions such as in-game chases.

The course also touches upon aspects such as crowd simulation, moving agents, as well as behavior trees. This gives you a comprehensive understanding of the aspects that you need to build strong NPCs that add value to your game, while also following the principles of AI to emulate real-life experiences.

In addition to these topics, the course assists you in adopting goal-oriented action planning for your NPCs. This lets you explore the creation of complex behaviors and gives you the opportunity to create memorable characters even if they are non-playable.

The course has 30 hours of video and 17 articles, as well as approximately 128 downloadable resources. But the course remains self-paced, which adds to your convenience. This makes the course a highly sought after option for game programmers who want to have in-depth knowledge of using AI for their NPCs. The course has a 4.7 rating from over 2,280 reviews. This course is available for $19.99.

Who Is It For?

• Game developers who want to create their NPCs with AI.
• Programmers who plan to learn how AI is utilized in games.

9. IBM Applied AI Professional Certificate

Offered through Coursera, the IBM Applied AI Professional Certificate is an extensively detailed certification that helps you acquaint yourself with different aspects of AI. Considered one of the best AI courses online, the certification offers a credit that is eligible at select university programs, namely at HSE University and the University of London.

The course is an all encompassing guide to AI, where it takes you from understanding the basics of AI to creating your own AI systems all by yourself. Whether you are looking to tell the difference between machine learning and deep learning or want to build chatbots for your website, you can count on the course to fulfill your goals.

The IBM Applied AI Professional Certificate is focused on letting people understand and adopt AI without having to go through extensive coding. In turn, it offers you access to tools such as IBM Watson AI services, Python, and application programming interfaces (APIs), while also helping you utilize them with minimal coding.

The course stays true to this goal throughout its 6-month duration and guides you towards building AI solutions such as chatbots and virtual assistants without putting in the work through extensive coding. This gives you ideal flexibility to adopt AI through renowned applications, even if you are not masterful at coding languages.

The IBM Applied AI Professional Certificate also lets you utilize custom image classification models that let you create unique AI applications to specifically cater to your needs. This gives you a dependable way to use AI for your unique requirements.

The course is available at a self-paced approach that spells out convenience for your schedule. It takes 6 months to complete at a pace of 3 hours per week, but you can adjust it further according to your needs. At the end of the course, you are offered a digital certification badge from IBM, which is one of the many reasons why it stands out in this list of the best AI courses online. This course is available through free enrollment at Coursera with a monthly fee.

Who Is It For?

• Entry-level programmers who want to acquaint themselves with AI.
• Professional programmers who plan on building quick AI-based applications with minimal coding.

10. Deep Learning Specialization

Accessed through Coursera, Deep Learning Specialization gives you an insight into machine learning and deep learning. The course is focused on outlining different techniques to build, train, and utilize AI systems that could cater to your goals for enhancing your knowledge and elevating your professional profile.

The course offers different ways to utilize the AI subsets of machine learning and deep learning, which in turn gives you the ability to create neural networks for your needs. This helps you work with complex parameters in an easy-to-understand manner, while giving you the power to apply detailed AI rules to your applications.

Since the course is targeted on building AI programs, it covers the topics of creating your own test sets, using suitable optimization algorithms, and training your AI through proficient system architecture practices. This lets you harness the strength of AI across different fields in order to fulfill your goals on an ongoing basis.

The Deep Learning Specialization also covers generative AI, which has become one of the most popular aspects of artificial intelligence in the past year alone. Through the use of different machine learning and deep learning approaches such as tokenizers and natural language processing (NLP), you can finetune your AI system’s training to get your ideal results from the practice.

These approaches make this program one of the best AI courses online. Since many other programs do not offer the same level of hands-on learning experience, it further adds to the course’s popularity as well as its real-world benefits.

With all its offerings to help you gain practical experience with the usage of AI, the course offers a self-paced approach while being spread across a general period of 5 months. You can complete your course during this time if you spend around 8 hours per week on it from the day you start with the program. This course is available via free enrollment at Coursera with a monthly fee.

Who Is It For?

• New programmers who want to learn about AI.
• Experienced programmers who need to expand their skills.

11. Learn With Google AI

Available through Google, the Learn With Google AI program is a comprehensive path to acquainting yourself with artificial intelligence. Segmented into different sections by the skill set and occupation of its participants, the program is one of the best AI courses online that does not come from a designated learning platform.

The program holds a mix of offerings that include but are not limited to guides, podcasts, charts, and interactive content. You can also go through specific courses that are focused on different facets of AI in order to allow you to understand the emerging technology in an easier manner.

Through the Learn With Google AI program, you can start at the very basic level of AI as a student of the practice. This includes introduction to machine learning and deep learning as well as other subsets of AI. But if your extent of knowledge surpasses these introductory topics, you can turn towards learning more complex concepts such as problem framing, feature engineering, and clustering.

With the option to access sample code as well as tutorials and code labs, you can depend on the Learn With Google AI program to get a detailed look into how different AI systems are built. This gives you the proficiency that you need in order to advance in the field of AI yourself. With it, the program also offers you information about the ethical practices of using AI.

Besides providing you with crucial knowledge about AI, the Learn With Google AI program also gives you the chance to build, train, test, and debug your AI systems. This provides you with an all encompassing path to progress from the initial steps of AI learning and master the skill of building your own applications.

The program has different offerings for students, software engineers, business owners, and data scientists, which are all accessible through the portal’s customizable search filters. This makes it a breeze to find learning materials that truly cater to your needs and sets this program as one of the best AI courses online. This program is available for free.

Who Is It For?

• Programmers who want to enhance their skills.
• Students who need to learn more about AI.
• Business professionals who want to make beneficial decisions about adopting AI.
• Data scientists and researchers who require up to date information on AI trends.

11. CS50's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python

Delivered through edX, the CS50's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python is an introductory program to using AI with the popular programming language. The course focuses on machine learning to help you familiarize yourself with this subset of AI.

Since CS50 is one of Harvard’s most popular free courses, this program by the creator of CS50 comes with a certain sense of reverence attached to it. The course does not falter on fulfilling the high expectations that it has set for itself and goes on to offer detailed information about the topic at hand.

The introductory course starts by offering you insights into the usage of machine learning. It then moves forward with outlining more detailed concepts that include but are not limited to probability theory, Markov models, logical interference, and constraint satisfaction. This level of detail and how it delivers this information makes it one of the best AI courses online.

The CS50's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python stays true to its name and puts Python front and center of its materials. Whether you are learning about neural networks or NLP, you can rest assured to also know more about utilizing these practices with Python. This makes the program a sought after course for programmers who want to use Python to build next-generation AI applications.

The course is available through video lessons and lets you peer into the topics of AI and machine learning from the lens of a programmer. It is also a self-paced course that lets you set your own schedule and allows you to gather the knowledge that you need while prioritizing your comfort as well as academic and professional commitments.

The course is available at a 7-week duration if you want to dedicate 10-30 hours per week to it. But you can change the pace according to your own liking. This course offers free registration but has an optional upgrade option.

Who Is It For?

• Students who want to learn more about using Python with AI.
• Programmers who need to use their Python skills with AI applications.

How to Choose Between the Best AI Courses Online?

Even after having a comprehensive list of the best online AI courses in front of you, making a decision can seem like a tricky task. But keeping a key rule in your mind can bring your desired ease to the process: The best online course for AI is not only determined by its general popularity, but also by its overall suitability for your specific needs.

For instance, if you are looking for a program that revolves around functional machine learning, a sought after course that focuses on conceptual self-aware AI may not be suitable for you. Similarly, if you want to program in C+, a course that outlines Python as its default programming language may not be compatible with your skills.

Cost is another factor that influences your choice among the best AI courses online. Many of the most popular online courses are free, while others come with a certain fee to unlock additional materials and features. Whereas, some start with an upfront cost in order to attend the course in the first place. If you are on a budget, yearning at the latter would keep you from participating in the former options.

You should also keep in mind that higher costs do not directly translate to the overall proficiency of a course or its instructors. In fact, some of the highest-rated courses in AI are free, which means that you should focus on reviews, convenience, and your learning requirements instead of the price tag as a judge of the course’s quality.

By being mindful of these factors, you can progress further with choosing a course that checks all the boxes for your AI learning needs. From there, you can learn more about this rapidly evolving technology that is all set to be the next big thing in various industries as well as our daily lives.