New OpenAI Academy courses for the next era of work

What happened

At OpenAI, we view learning as part of deployment. We build the models and products and work closely with organizations applying them across their businesses. OpenAI Academy turns those insights into practical learning that helps organizations build AI fluency across their workforce and shorten the distance between deployment and value.

“We welcome initiatives such as OpenAI Academy that help professionals build practical AI skills and better understand how to apply these technologies in their everyday work,” notes Elena Alfaro, Head of Global AI Adoption at BBVA.

OpenAI Academy is shaped by teams across AI research, product, safety, and deployment. The curriculum can evolve alongside our models and products, incorporating new capabilities, updated safety practices, and lessons from how organizations put AI to work. For enterprises, this creates a consistent learning standard grounded in the technology employees use every day.

Learners who complete a course receive a certificate of completion that they can share with their teams and networks. Certificates give companies a simple way to recognize participation, celebrate early adopters, and connect learning to practical work already underway. They can also help champions find peers who are building new workflows and encourage teams to share what is working across the organization.

Organizations can use the courses for employee onboarding, enterprise learning programs, or broader AI adoption initiatives. They provide a common foundation for teams getting started and help more experienced organizations turn individual use into workflows that can be shared and improved across teams.

Why it matters

Today, we’re introducing three new courses on OpenAI Academy⁠(opens in a new window): AI Foundations, Applied AI Foundations, and Agents and Workflows. Together, they give teams a shared path from understanding AI, to applying it to recurring work, to directing more structured workflows with agents.

OpenAI Academy courses are built around a simple idea: people learn how to use AI best by practicing on work that matters to them. As part of this effort, we are working with partners including BCG, Accenture, and BBVA to help organizations build practical AI skills and apply them in their day-to-day work.

AI Foundations introduces the core concepts and practices for using AI effectively in everyday work, including prompting, giving context, output review, and responsible use. Learners leave with the foundations they need to apply those habits and improve routine tasks such as drafting, summarizing, planning, and meeting preparation.

Applied AI Foundations teaches how to turn effective prompts into structured, repeatable workflows. Learners understand how to develop a workflow plan that defines the right inputs, models, tools, checkpoints, and human review, while balancing quality, speed, and cost.

Agents and Workflows focuses on how to direct agent-assisted work by providing context, defining outputs and boundaries, and reviewing results. Learners leave able to run and refine a reusable workflow while identifying where human judgment and oversight are required.

Together, the courses take learners from improving one everyday task, to building a repeatable workflow plan, to practicing an agent-assisted workflow they can apply to future work.

What to watch

“Scaling AI adoption is not just about giving people access to technology. It requires the learning systems, confidence, and new ways of working that help people apply AI every day,” said Dr. Lan Guan, Chief AI and Data Officer at Accenture. “OpenAI Academy is an important part of how we are helping our people build the practical skills, workflows, and habits to use AI responsibly and effectively. ”

These courses are the beginning of a broader OpenAI Academy learning roadmap. We will continue updating them as our products evolve, expand reporting capabilities for organizations, and introduce new learning paths for additional roles and use cases.