A Complete 15-Week Course to Master AI in 2026

How to learn AI in 2026

The PyCoach

Dec 17, 2025

∙ Paid

Since ChatGPT was released, I’ve taken many courses to master AI

I took courses from Udemy, Coursera, Google, and more.

I put together a 15-week learning plan using the best resources I found, so you can start 2026 off on the right foot.

By the end of this post, you’ll know:

The 15-week course to master AI in 2026 (for non-technical people)
When to pay for AI education (and when not to)
How to join our private community (where you can get advice from me)

1. The 15-week course to master AI in 2026

The learning plan is split into two parts

Part 1: Master ChatGPT (Week 1 - 6)

My ChatGPT video course covers the first weeks of the learning plan.

The first sections of the course contain what every ChatGPT user should know

Get access to my video course by becoming a paid subscriber (click the button below)

AI advances quickly, so I’ve added a list of guides and resources below to keep you updated (they’re a great complement to the video course). I’ll add more as ChatGPT rolls out new updates in 2026

Week 1: The very basics of ChatGPT

OpenAI has a free academy. Good for those completely new to ChatGPT

First ChatGPT Steps: Start your first conversation, ChatGPT models, use cases
Basic Prompts: ChatGPT prompts for any work role
How to Write a Prompt: Simple steps for writing a good prompt and extra tips
Setup ChatGPT: How to set up ChatGPT to stop getting generic responses

Week 2-3: How to write good prompts

The guides below are all about writing prompts that generate better responses

Prompt Principles: Top 10 prompt principles and when to use them
Prompt Formula: A recipe that you can follow when writing prompts
Prompt Engineering: Four techniques used in prompt engineering.

Week 4-5: ChatGPT Features

Basic features:

Voice Mode: Speak with ChatGPT instead of typing
Web Search: A nice replacement to Google search
Image generation & Projects: Create AI images and organize your chats
Study Mode: Use AI to help you learn instead of getting solutions right away

The best advanced features

Deep Research: Let ChatGPT autonomously search and gather information from dozens of sites and create a report for you
ChatGPT Agent: ChatGPT can take web actions on your behalf (go to sites, click buttons, scrolls, etc) and complete multi-step tasks from start to finish
Atlas: A nice replacement to Google Chrome

Week 6: GPT-5

GPT-5 modes: Learn when to use auto, instant, thinking and pro mode
GPT-5 Prompting: Basic and advanced prompting techniques for GPT-5
Optimize your prompts with GPT-5: How to optimize your prompts with ChatGPT

Part 2: Master AI (Week 8-15)

Once you know the foundations of ChatGPT, you have to: increase your AI literacy, know when to use other tools over ChatGPT, and learn how to use AI in your field.

AI literacy (Week 7-10)

AI literacy means knowing enough about AI to use it smartly. This includes: what AI can and can’t do, how to ask good questions, what data/privacy risks exist, when you should not rely on AI, etc

To start developing your AI literacy, pick one of the resources below:

Non-technical free courses:

IBM AI for Everyone: Master the Basics: Learn what AI is by understanding its applications and key concepts (includes a free certificate)
Google Generative AI Course: Intro level course. It covers what Generative AI is, how it is used, and how it differs from traditional machine learning methods (check my notes here)
AI & Career Empowerment: It has two parts: AI in Business (AI literacy, marketing, supply chain, etc) and Career Empowerment (job search in the age of AI, being your own startup, and more). It includes a free certificate
HP’s AI for Business Professionals: A beginner-friendly course for professionals who want to leverage AI for enhanced productivity, decision-making, and career growth (includes a free certificate)
Google’s Generative AI Leader: It covers fundamentals of generative AI, Google Cloud’s gen AI offerings, techniques to improve gen AI model output and business strategies for a successful gen AI solution (the course is free, but to get the certificate, you need to pay a fee)
Google Prompting Essentials Specialization: Learn from Google experts how to use AI effectively by writing clear and specific prompts (check my notes here)

Non-Technical Resources:

Best AI Books: Book selection to learn AI for professionals, leaders and executives
AI as a thinking partner: The one AI skill worth mastering (it never goes obsolete)
LLM Data Privacy Ranking: Incogni report on the privacy ranking of AI platforms
AI Fluency: How to collaborate with AI effectively, efficiently, ethically and safely
Perplexity at work: A guide to working smarter with AI

Technical Resources

IBM Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals: Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning (includes a free certificate)
How AI Works: Anthropic’s “Tracing Thoughts in Language Models” study (here’s my summary)
How ChatGPT Works: An explanation of how ChatGPT works based on OpenAI’s paper

Use these resources as a starting point. Building AI literacy should be an ongoing, never-ending process

Claude: Week 11-12

Only one tool has earned a permanent spot alongside ChatGPT in my core workflow: Claude. I don’t use it as a replacement for ChatGPT, but as a complement

Week 11-12: Learn Claude

Claude Basics: Learn Claude artifacts, projects, skills, and more
When to use Claude over ChatGPT: The four main reasons to choose Claude over ChatGPT
Use cases: Browse practical examples across research, writing, coding, analysis, and everyday tasks

Gemini: Week 13-14

Gemini stands out for the AI tools it powers, which enable features that ChatGPT and Claude don’t offer (or don’t match yet)

Week 13-14: Learn Gemini

Gemini 3: An overview of what you can do with the new Gemini 3
Gemini Prompting: A quick-start handbook for effective prompts
NotebookLM Guide: A research tool that is grounded in your own documents (it hallucinates less than other tools)

Extras: Week 15 and beyond

From this point, you should learn things that are related to your field. Here are resources for some:

AI Images, Videos, and Visuals

Nano Banana Pro Guide: Learn how to use Google’s AI image generator
Sora 2 Guide / Veo 3 Guide: Learn how to create AI videos with OpenAI’s Sora 2 or Google’s Veo 3
How to Create Professional Visuals with AI: Learn how to create infographics, diagrams, and other visuals for your presentations

The Tech Behind AI

Week 15-20: Programming & Data Analysis

How to Learn Python with AI: How I’d learn Python faster using AI
Vibe Coding for Beginners: A guide to vibe coding for beginners
How to Use AI with Excel: From generating functions to complete reports

In my ChatGPT video course, you’ll find a section for programmers and analysts.

2. When to pay for AI education (and when not to)

When I was at university (and had no money), I used to search for free resources all over the internet. Here’s what I learned:

95% of what you want to learn is available for free. The real problem is that it takes a lot of time to find resources that are actually good
The remaining 5% is too new or specialized to ever make it into free resources

Artificial Corner has hundreds of paid subscribers. They have access to:

In-depth video courses (worth $200)
Our private community, where you can get advice from other professionals and me
My complete guides, with step-by-step videos, copy-and-paste prompts, AI workflows and more

If you don’t have the means, learn from what’s free out there (it’ll just take more time)
If you want to get a job or get proof of what you learned, pay for a course certificate
If you’re a busy professional or want to master AI faster, become a paid subscriber👇

Artificial Corner