Microsoft Unveils Artificial Intelligence Course for Government

Microsoft unveiled a curriculum in its Artificial Intelligence Business School this week that is specifically tailored for government decision-makers.

“The fact is that government workers across the board—and especially decision-makers—don’t necessarily have that familiarity or depth on AI,” Anthony Salcito, Microsoft’s vice president for government, said in a statement. “This new learning path is a way to get them introduced to the concept and to understand why it’s important in the context of government work.”

The tech giant launched its AI Business School in March to help executives and other business leaders better understand how to implement the technology through a free online master class. Now that more than 140,000 people have gained practical guidance from the AI course material to date, the company is offering a new path that is designed especially for government agencies.

Through various course modules, government insiders can learn about the components that comprise a strong AI strategy, principles to guide responsible AI adoption, lessons on fostering an “AI-ready” culture and other insights around using the tech to better serve their constituents.   

The course content also includes a case study demonstrating how a city in Finland has integrated AI to more efficiently serve citizens and a demo that showcases how the government can utilize intelligent bots to help constituents access needed resources, among other materials and a video lecture.

Microsoft is also expressly gearing the curriculum to governments of all sizes and Salcito said the new learning path is motivated by Microsoft’s “key priority,” which is to help the government serve its constituents through cloud services.

“We believe this course is valuable for government decision-makers at all levels — from small municipalities to large cities,” Salcito said. “The beauty of artificial intelligence technologies is their scalability.”