Applied Agentic AI

The Applied Agentic AI Certificate is a one-week, in-person program that teaches you how modern AI agents think, plan, communicate, and take action. You will learn by doing through instructor-led sessions, guided activities, daily office hours, a dedicated project-build day, and a final Showcase Day where you present the project you built yourself.

This program is ideal for beginning learners from any background. If you are curious about AI, interested in automation, or want to understand the fast-moving world of agentic systems, this course gives you the tools and confidence to participate in real AI work using Claude Desktop.

No coding experience is required. The entire course is taught inside the Claude Desktop app — there is no Python and no terminal setup required but you are free to code if you like.

Designed with you in Mind

Agentic AI is transforming how businesses and organizations operate. Customer service teams are building autonomous support agents. Creative teams are using AI to research and generate ideas. Operations teams are automating workflows with intelligent agents that can retrieve information, draft content, troubleshoot issues, and complete tasks.

This course was created for learners who want to:

• Understand how agentic AI works without needing advanced math or programming
• Learn practical skills that support AI strategy, design, evaluation, and communication
• Build a simple AI agent they can use in their portfolio or workplace
• Explore career paths that involve human and AI collaboration
• Upskill quickly through a short and immersive program

If you are new to AI or simply want a clear explanation of how these systems function, this program meets you where you are and helps you build forward.

What You Will Learn

By the end of the Applied Agentic AI Certificate, you will be able to:

• Understand how modern AI agents work
  • Explain the core ideas behind reasoning, planning, memory, and tool-use.
• Design and prototype AI agentic work without writing code
  • Use the Claude desktop app to create workflows, prompts, skills, and behaviors that guide how an agent interacts with you and your information.
• Evaluate and improve workflow performance
  • Test and refine agentic behavior for accuracy, safety, reliability, and responsible use.
• Apply human-centered and ethical design principles
  • Create agent interactions that support user needs, reduce confusion, and promote transparency and fairness.
• Build and present a agentic workflow
  • Develop an agentic workflow that solves a real problem you have and present it to the class on Showcase Day.

Meet Your Instructors

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Victor Palacios serves as the Director of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Partnerships at the University of San Francisco, where he develops strategic industry collaborations and supports applied AI innovation across the Data Institute. He holds three graduate degrees: an MS in Information Science from Nagoya University in Japan, an MS in Data Science from USF, and he is currently completing a third master's in Computer Science.

Why This Program Matters

Demand for AI literacy is growing across every industry. Research from the World Economic Forum, Deloitte, and McKinsey shows that organizations plan to train a large share of their workforce to work with generative AI tools and agentic systems. Yet only a small percentage feel confident that their teams understand these technologies well enough to implement them responsibly.

This certificate helps close that gap by offering a fast, approachable, and practical pathway into agentic AI. You will learn real skills that support AI-enabled work, including prototyping, testing, and communicating with multidisciplinary teams.

Located in the center of San Francisco’s AI innovation ecosystem, this course gives you access to experienced instructors, industry perspectives, and hands-on learning that connects directly to the future of work.

Women in Data Science at USF

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WiDS at USF proudly supports this program and encourages participation from individuals of all genders, with a focus on increasing the participation and leadership of women in data science and AI. The program is led by an expert female practitioner in the field.