UC Berkeley Engineering Announces “The AI-Forward Professional” Microcourse to Help Working Professionals Outpace the AI Displacement Gap

New five-week intensive focuses on “builder-first” productivity, allowing non-technical professionals to design AI workflows and build functional applications without coding.

BERKELEY, CA — February 1, 2026 — The UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) today unveiled its latest executive education offering, The AI-Forward Professional. This five-week online microcourse is specifically engineered for ambitious professionals—including product managers, designers, and operators—who want to move beyond generic AI curiosity and master the practical workflows used by the industry’s top performers. Launching March 18, 2026, the program offers a direct response to the growing competitive gap between those who merely use AI and those who lead with it.

While headlines often focus on AI-driven job displacement, a new class of “AI-forward professionals” is emerging—individuals who use advanced AI systems to work faster, think better, and deliver higher-quality results. This course provides a structured path for professionals to join this elite group by teaching them how to redesign their daily workflows, eliminate bottlenecks, and build functional AI-powered web applications from the ground up, all without writing a single line of code.

The curriculum is hands-on and project-based. Over five sessions, participants transition from identifying AI leverage points to building a personal “AI System Library” and a production-ready AI workflow. Unlike theoretical courses, this microcourse focuses on modern tools currently used at the cutting edge of tech, such as Cursor, Claude Code, and N8N.

“Companies today aren’t looking for AI theorists; they are looking for people who can translate AI capabilities into measurable business impact,” says Sepehr Khosravi, Program Instructor and Machine Learning Platform Engineer at Coinbase. “We’ve designed this course to be builder-first. By the end of five weeks, participants won’t just know about AI—they will have built a working system that proves their value in any organization.”

Khosravi, a former Product Growth leader at Tesla and an award-winning Berkeley lecturer, brings a wealth of Silicon Valley experience to the classroom. His teaching style is focused on real-world application, ensuring that every participant leaves with a demonstrable project and a UC Berkeley-backed certificate that validates their practical, job-ready skills.

“This was definitely one of the most useful classes I’ve taken at Berkeley,” says former student Ashu Jain, an ML Intern at Tesla. “It gave me a completely new perspective on my career and the tools I need to succeed in the age of AI.”

Enrollment for the March 2026 cohort is now open with rolling applications. Professionals looking to future-proof their careers and increase their organizational leverage can find more information at the AI-Forward Professional program page.

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Contact Details

Enrollment Inquiries:

Kristina Susac

UC Berkeley Professional Education Advisor

Email: susac@berkeley.edu

Website: scet.berkeley.edu