Artificial Intelligence

Upcoming schedule for instructor-led, live, online courses.

• Generative AI in Business: Applications, Challenges, Ethics and Governance: August 24, 26, 21, Sept. 2, 2026
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Course Overview:

Open to all. No prior experience required.
Certificate of Completion is given at the conclusion of class.

This course is designed to explore the emerging field of Generative AI (GenAI) with a focus on its application in data analytics. We will delve into the fundamental concepts of generative models, such as GPT, BERT and diffusion, and examine their capabilities in various domains including translation, classification, text and image generation, and more. Additionally, the course will cover critical discussions on the governance and ethics of GenAI systems, addressing the societal, ethical, and regulatory implications of these technologies. This course is offered in a 2 or 4 virtual half day format. The longer version will dive deeper in to prompt engineering and agentic workflows.

Course Outline:

1. Introduction to Generative AI
   • Understanding Generative AI (GenAI)
   • Evolution of AI models
   • Overview of Generative Pretrained Transformers (GPT) and Their impact
2. Foundational Concepts
   • Transformer models: Encoder, Decoder, and Attention Mechanisms
   • Introduction to Tokenization
   • Vector databases
3. Generative AI Applications
   • Text Generation
   • Summarization
   • Translation and Classification
   • AI in Creative Arts: from Text to Images
4. Models and Platforms
   • Overview of Current Generative AI Models (ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Perplexity, Llama, etc.)
   • Opensource models: Introduction to Hugging Face and the Open LLM Leaderboard
   • Comparative analysis of GenAI platforms
5. Prompt Engineering and Applications
   • Zero-shot and few-shot learning
   • Chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting and Tree of Thoughts (ToT)
   • Role-based and temperature settings in AI prompts
   • Advanced Prompt Engineering for Complex Scenarios
6. Agentic Workflows
   1. Understanding Agentic Workflows and AI Agents
   2. Introduction to Agent-Driven Workflows
   3. Creating Multi-Step Automated Processes with Generative AI
   4. Survey of Agentic AI tools
7. Governance and Ethics of Generative AI Systems
   • Understanding the Ethical Implications of GenAI
   • Governance Frameworks for AI
   • Ethics, Privacy, Bias, and Fairness in AI Models
   • Regulatory and Societal Impacts
8. Demonstrations and Hands-on Sessions
   • Various GenAI Tools
   • Data Analysis
   • Integrating GenAI in Workflow (Copilot - Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
   • Building Custom GPTs/Agents for Specific Tasks
9. Business Use-Case Examples
   • Discussion and Demonstration of Projects That Apply Generative AI Techniques to Real-world Data Analytics Problems
   • Practical Implications of GenAI Technologies
10. Conclusion and Future Directions
    • Reflection on the Potentials and Limitations of GenAI
    • Discussion on the Future Trends in AI Technology

Jeffrey Shaffer, Director of AI Strategy, Carl H. Lindner College of Business

Jeffrey Shaffer is the Director of AI Strategy and, the Kirk and Jacki Perry Professor of Analytics, and Assistant Professor-Educator at the University of Cincinnati in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business, where he was awarded the 2025 Michael L. Dean Excellence in Classroom Education and Learning Graduate Teaching Award. He previously served as the Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of IT and Analytics at Unifund and Recovery Decision Science. He is one of thirty people in the world inducted into the Tableau Visionary Hall of Fame, hosts the award-winning podcast Chart Chat, and is the co-author of The Big Book of Dashboards and Dashboards That Deliver.