Certify by AI New Zealand · Certificate course
What you should know before working with AI.
AI at Work Foundations covers the rules you work inside, what these tools are and where they fail, what they can already reach, and what stays your job. Written for New Zealand workplaces, with a final assessment marked by a person.
$235 + GST per person, with lower rates for teams.
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Why this course exists
"Can they use AI?" is the wrong question.
The question an employer is actually asking is: am I confident this person will use our AI tools responsibly? This course is the knowledge an organisation wants its people to have before it gives them access, and a certificate that says they have it.
"AI skills" has no definition yet.
Job ads ask for it and CVs claim it, with nothing shared underneath. Most training fills the gap with prompt tips and tool tutorials, which date in months and miss the part that matters.
The guardrails come before the tools.
What you may put in, what a tool can reach without you pasting anything, and who to ask when you are not sure. Section 2 of this course, before anyone is taught to get more out of a tool.
The human sent it.
It was not the AI that sent the wrong figure. It was the person who did not check it. Accountability does not transfer, and a signature is not a review.
The course does not prove somebody is good at AI. It proves they know the rules, the risks, and where their own judgement has to stay.
Who this is for
Anyone about to be handed AI tools at work.
And anyone who wants to show an employer they will use them responsibly. Any role, any industry, any level of confidence.
Teams starting an AI programme.
The people who will get a licence in the next few months, and whose employer needs to know it is safe to hand it over. Step one, before the tools are switched on and before any tool training.
New starters and people changing role.
Useful from day one: three questions to ask, a standard you have written for yourself, and a tool request you could actually send.
People applying for roles that ask for AI skills.
A defensible answer when the job ad asks, without a degree or a technical background. Every practical exercise works on the role you are aiming at as well as one you hold.
People who are wary of AI.
Much of the course is about what stays human, what not to hand over, and how to say no with a reason. It is written to work for the person who thinks this is coming for their job.
What it is not.
It is not tool training: there is no click-by-click on Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. That is what the Claude at Work and Microsoft Copilot courses are for, and they come after this one. It is not for leaders setting AI strategy, who want the AI Leaders Course, and it is not technical: no code, no model architecture, no building agents.
How it works
One company, all the way through.
Tasman Fresh is a Nelson food and beverage distributor of 62 people, supplying cafés, restaurants and grocers across the top of the South Island. It buys from a Māori owned orchard and supplies two iwi owned hospitality groups. Microsoft 365, no AI policy, and most of what it knows living in people's heads.
Every section opens with something happening there, beginning on the first Tuesday in March and resolving a quarter later. You watch the company change as you go.
Then you do each practical exercise on your own work, in the job you have or the one you are going for. Not on Tasman Fresh's.
On a Business account
Your own AI Policy, built in.
Upload your company AI Policy and Guidelines, and your staff apply the course frameworks and practical exercises to their own work, inside your rules rather than a sample company's.
- The frameworks are applied to your policy, not a generic one
- Every practical exercise lands on their own tasks
- Nobody is taught one standard and then handed another
The curriculum
Eleven sections, forty six lessons.
The course is linear and nothing is optional. Each section ends in a short quiz, and the next one opens once every answer is right. Retake as often as you need: the feedback explains the principle, not the answer.
Where the work actually goes.
See where your working day actually goes, and why making one step faster changes little unless it is the step where the work waits.
- The day that disappears
- Knowledge stuck in heads
- The copy and paste tax
- Faster is not the same as better
The rules you work inside.
What you may put into a tool, what it can already reach, where your obligations come from, and who to ask when you are not sure. Inside those lines you can move without asking.
- What AI guidelines are for
- The Four Gates
- Commercial risk is not personal information
- Three things that stay true whatever tool you use
- Whose permissions is it using?
- When a gate stops you
- Where the rules actually come from
What you are actually working with.
Explain what an AI tool is and how it fails, using three images you can hold, drawing on Dr Karaitiana Taiuru's Kaupapa Māori AI Framework. And why your knowledge of your own work stays the final check.
- A person, a puppet, a shadow
- Whose hand is on the strings
- A shadow has no light of its own
- Where it fails, and why it agrees with you
- You are the subject matter expert
What the tools can reach.
The kinds of AI you will meet, what ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude and Gemini can already see, who owns what they produce, and which tool and account to use for work.
- The kinds of AI you will meet
- The four you will actually use
- Who owns the output
- The notetaker in the room
- Which tool, and which account
What you put in, and what you sign off.
Decide what to hand to a tool and what to keep, check what comes back against the source, and name who is accountable before anything is sent.
- The Delegation Grid
- Verification at source
- The Three Checkpoints
- It was not the AI that sent it
When AI does things, not just drafts them.
Tell a tool that drafts for you from one that acts on its own, and know the one rule and four questions that keep any of them safe near real records.
- Ask and act, or brief and done
- Prompts, skills, agents and plain old automation
The Org Brain.
Why a tool's answers depend on what your organisation has written down, and the question to ask of any task: what would this need to know?
- Four layers of knowledge
- Layer three is a folder, not a technology project
- What would this need to know?
Context is the job.
Give a tool the context only you have, argue with its first draft, and make sure what you work out does not stay with you.
- The stranger and the friend
- GCSE: Goal, Context, Source, Expectations
- Sense, think, decide, act
- Argue with it
- What you worked out should not stay with you
Cultural sensitivity: whose knowledge is this?
Recognise material you hold but have no right to use, including Māori data and knowledge, and know who should ask and who decides. Te Tiriti o Waitangi taught from its own text.
- Where ownership is not the test
- Māori data and taonga
- The relationship, not the compliance box
- What te Tiriti asks
The value you bring.
Separate the work you can hand over from the judgement that is your job, see what these tools can give back to people working around a barrier, and face honestly what happens to work that goes.
- Delegate the repetition, keep the judgement
- Critical thinking is the moat
- The tool that removes a barrier
- Roles deepen. Some tasks do not survive.
What to ask before you start.
The three questions that show how ready your organisation is, how to ask for a tool in a way an approver can act on, and what to do and say when something looks wrong.
- Your first three questions
- The Tool Case
- When something looks wrong, and what you tell people
The final assessment.
Three workplace scenarios, and you choose the one closest to your own work. Each asks the same five questions: your call, the framework, the sensitive judgement, where it happens in your own work, and where you would push back. Answered in writing, in about an hour, with no clock. You may use AI tools; the answers must be about your own work.
Marked by a named AI New Zealand assessor against a published standard you read before you start. Judgement, reasoning and honesty score. Fluency does not.
Know the rules before you are handed the tools.
Start the courseWhat you leave with
More than a certificate.
Five practical exercises, each done in your own role or the one you are aiming at. By the end, these exist.
Your own AI standardWritten down: what you will not put in, how you decide when you are not sure, and who you ask. The standard you work to until someone writes one for you.
Five tasks on the Delegation GridFive of your own tasks, sorted by whether you could undo the result and whether you could check it.
A six sentence explanationWhat an AI tool is and how it fails, in your own words, tested on somebody else.
Three questions for your managerWhere the source of truth is, where use is registered, and where problems get reported. Booked, not just noted.
A tool request you could send tomorrowWritten as the job to be done rather than a product, so an approver can act on it.
The certificateAI at Work Foundations, issued by AI New Zealand on a human-marked final assessment.
Certified on judgement, not attendance.
Answer every quiz correctly, complete every exercise to the required standard, then pass the final assessment, marked by an AI New Zealand assessor against a published standard. It certifies knowledge and judgement before access. It does not claim to prove skill with any particular tool, and we say so.
Before you start
For yourself, or for your organisation.
Individuals and small teams
Just you, or up to five people.
$235 per person + GST
- Register and pay by card, then start straight away
- Buy up to five seats at once for a small team
- No AI tool, licence or subscription needed
- Self-paced: about four hours, stop between sections and come back
Certificate issued by AI New Zealand after human assessment. Vendor-neutral: not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any AI vendor.
Organisations
Training a team, a workforce or your members.
- Your own course page, under your name and branding, with white label options for larger accounts
- Upload your company AI Policy and Guidelines so your staff apply the frameworks and practical exercises to their own work
- Lower rates from the first seat, and volume pricing that holds when you train in cohorts
- Seats by invitation, one invoice, and a view of who has completed. Answers stay private to each person
Not sure which fits? Talk to us.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions.
Do I need an AI tool or a licence to take it?
No. Nothing in the course needs a paid AI tool, a licence or a policy. It is written for the point before you are given one.
Will it teach me to use Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude?
No, deliberately. It is tool-neutral, so it stays true when the tools change. For hands-on skills, the Claude at Work and Microsoft Copilot courses come next.
How is it different from the AI Leaders Course?
This one is for the person doing the work. The AI Leaders Course is for the person accountable for AI across the organisation: the mandate, the register, the guardrails and the costs.
Is it an accredited qualification?
No. It is a certificate issued by AI New Zealand, resting on a written assessment marked by a person against a published standard. It certifies knowledge and judgement before access, not skill with a particular tool.
Can I use AI in the final assessment?
Yes. The answers must be about your own work, and what scores is judgement, reasoning and honesty rather than fluency. The assessment standard is published so you can read it first.
What if I get a quiz question wrong?
Try again, as many times as you need. The feedback explains the principle the question tested rather than naming the right option, so a retake still needs the reasoning. Each section opens once every quiz in the one before it is passed.
Will my employer see my answers?
No. On a Business account your organisation sees who has completed and the outcome. Your answers stay private to you.
Whose work does it draw on?
Section 3 uses Dr Karaitiana Taiuru's Kaupapa Māori AI Framework, He Tangata, He Karetao, He Ātārangi, and section 9 draws on his position that Māori data is taonga, with his permission and attributed in the lessons. See taiuru.co.nz.
How do I buy it for my team?
Up to five seats can go on a card. From six to 49 people, set up a Business account, invoiced at the lower rate from the first seat. From 50, apply for a Corporate account. Associations can offer it to their members.
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