AI Agents course
Build intelligent systems that act autonomously
- FoundationsStart from absolute basics with no coding experience required.
- SecurityEvery module includes proper security controls and threat awareness.
- CPD120 CPD credits with certificates and assessments.
This course has six stages that build on each other. Move through them at your own pace, but I recommend following the order. Security is woven throughout, not bolted on at the end.
⏱️CPD timing
CPD timing
Time estimate (transparent)
I publish time estimates because CPD needs to be defensible. The goal is honesty, not marketing.
Guided learning
120h
Core levels, structured learning
Practice and consolidation
3h
Summary, drills, revisits
Notional range
80 to 180 hours
Quick: core concepts and one exercise per module. Standard: all exercises and reflections for CPD evidence. Deep: extra projects, portfolio artefacts, and peer review.
How I estimate time
I use a notional learning hours approach and I keep the assumptions visible. Where modules are content heavy, I add practice so the hours are earned, not claimed.
- Reading: 225 words per minute, multiplied by 1.3 for note taking and checking understanding.
- Labs and practice: about 15 minutes per guided activity, including at least one retry.
- Reflection for CPD: about 8 minutes per module for a short defensible note and evidence link.
- Assessments: about 1.4 minutes per question for reading, thinking, and review.
If you study faster or slower, your hours will differ. What matters is that the method is consistent and the activities are real.
🧪Assessment blueprint
Assessment and practice assessment
AI Agents assessment blueprint
Each stage has a timed assessment and a practice assessment. I expand the question bank continuously and keep the marking transparent.
Foundations
mixedUnderstand the core ReAct, tool, and memory patterns.
Core concepts
mixedReasoning loops, tool contracts, and memory design that stand up under pressure.
Practical building
mixedBuild and orchestrate agents with safe tool use and reliable workflows.
Security and ethics
scenarioThreat modelling, prompt injection defence, and responsible deployment.
Advanced mastery
mixedScale, reliability, and evaluation for production grade agent systems.
Capstone
scenarioEnd to end delivery, governance, and documented operational readiness.
Design rules
- Every tier must align to behaviour, safety, and observability trade-offs.
- Questions will reward answers that surface assumptions, risks, and verification plans.
📚Standards and certifications
Standards and certifications
The map we anchor to
I map each course to reputable standards so your learning is defensible at work. I also show common certifications and how their language differs.
Important: This content aligns with these standards and certifications for learning purposes. This is guidance, not endorsement. We are not affiliated with certification providers unless explicitly stated.
Primary anchor standards
- OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025OWASP
The definitive guide to security threats in LLM-based systems, including prompt injection, insecure output handling, and supply chain vulnerabilities.
Official reference - OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026OWASP
The emerging standard specifically for autonomous AI agents, addressing agentic-specific risks like unbounded tool use, memory poisoning, and multi-agent coordination vulnerabilities.
Official reference - NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0)NIST
A practical way to talk about AI risk, governance, and controls across the agent lifecycle.
Official reference - ISO/IEC 42001ISO/IEC
The emerging standard for AI management systems, providing governance structure for AI deployments.
Official reference - EU AI ActEuropean Union
Regulatory framework for AI systems in the EU, classifying AI applications by risk level and mandating compliance requirements.
Official reference - UK NCSC AI Security GuidanceNCSC
UK government guidance on securing AI systems, particularly relevant for UK-based deployments.
Official reference
Certification routes
This course is not endorsed by certification bodies. It is built to prepare you honestly, including where exams simplify reality.
- specialistNVIDIA Agentic AI ProfessionalNVIDIA
The first dedicated certification for AI agent development, covering LLM orchestration, multi-agent systems, and production deployment.
- practitionerMicrosoft AI Agents Professional CertificateMicrosoft/Coursera
Comprehensive Azure-focused certification covering agent development, deployment, and enterprise integration patterns.
- specialistCertified AI Security Professional (CAISP)Industry
Security-focused certification covering OWASP LLM Top 10, prompt injection defence, and secure AI system design.
- foundationMicrosoft AI-900 and AI-102Microsoft
Azure AI concepts provide useful context for cloud-deployed agents and enterprise integration.
- foundationCompTIA Security+CompTIA
Security fundamentals are essential for building secure agents, covering many of the same threat categories.
- practitionerJohns Hopkins Agentic AI CertificateJohns Hopkins University
University-accredited programme covering agent architectures, reinforcement learning, and research-grade implementation.
Organisations and resources
These are the kinds of organisations professionals reference. If you learn how to use them properly, you become harder to mislead.
- OWASP
What it is: A global community that publishes practical application security guidance, including LLM-specific threats.
Why it matters: The OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications is the closest thing to an industry standard for agent security.
- Anthropic
What it is: Creator of Claude and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) standard.
Why it matters: MCP is becoming a standard for agent-to-tool communication. Understanding it is essential for modern agent development.
- LangChain and LangGraph
What it is: Popular frameworks for building AI agents and multi-agent systems.
Why it matters: Widely used in industry. Understanding these frameworks is practical job preparation.
🧾Terminology translation
Terminology translation
Agent architecture and security
AI agents introduce new vocabulary and new threat categories. Understanding these terms is essential for building and securing agent systems.
Agent, LLM, Chatbot
Plain English
An LLM is the brain. A chatbot uses an LLM to generate text responses. An agent uses an LLM to perceive, reason, and act using tools.
How standards use it
Industry practice
The key distinction is agency: agents can DO things, not just say things.
Common mistake
Treating chatbots and agents as interchangeable. They have fundamentally different risk profiles.
My take
If it cannot call tools, it is a chatbot. If it can modify state or access external systems, it is an agent.
Quick check
What makes an agent different from a chatbot?
Prompt injection (direct and indirect)
Plain English
Direct injection is when a user tricks the agent with malicious input. Indirect injection is when malicious instructions are hidden in content the agent processes.
How standards use it
OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications
Prompt injection is the number one threat to LLM applications. It cannot be fully prevented, only mitigated.
Common mistake
Thinking prompt injection can be solved with better prompts alone.
My take
Defence in depth is essential. Assume injection will happen and limit the blast radius.
Quick check
Why is indirect prompt injection more dangerous than direct?
ReAct pattern
Plain English
Reasoning and Acting. The agent thinks about what to do, executes a tool, observes the result, and repeats until done.
How standards use it
Academic research and industry practice
The standard pattern for most modern AI agents. Interleaves reasoning with action.
Common mistake
Letting agents skip the observation step, leading to hallucinated results.
My take
If your agent does not ground its answers in tool results, it is just guessing.
Quick check
What are the three steps in the ReAct loop?
🤖Course stages
Stage 1: Foundations
No technical experience required. Build your understanding from the ground up.
Stage 2: Core Concepts
Build deep understanding of how AI agents work under the hood.
Stage 3: Practical Building
Hands-on implementation of real-world agent systems.
Stage 4: Security and Ethics
Critical understanding of AI security threats and responsible deployment.
Stage 5: Advanced Mastery
Expert-level techniques for production AI systems.
Stage 6: Capstone and Certification
Demonstrate mastery through a comprehensive project.
📦What you will build
Throughout this course, you will create practical artefacts that demonstrate real competence. These are not toy examples but working systems you can show to employers and clients.
🧩Module coverage matrix
Coverage matrix
Module-level coverage
This matrix makes the course defensible: each module is tied to an outcome focus, the anchor standards, and the evidence you can produce.
| Level | Module | Outcome focus | Domains | Alignment | Assessment | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foundations | 1 Understanding Ai agents-1-1-understanding-ai Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | Understanding AI systems and capabilities | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Foundations | 2 Llms To Agents agents-1-2-llms-to-agents Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | LLM behaviour and limitations | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Foundations | 3 Command Line agents-1-3-command-line Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | AI agent design, safety, and deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Foundations | 4 Environment Setup agents-1-4-environment-setup Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | AI agent design, safety, and deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Foundations | 5 First Ai Interaction agents-1-5-first-ai-interaction Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | AI agent design, safety, and deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Core Concepts | 1 How Agents Think agents-2-1-how-agents-think Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | AI agent design, safety, and deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Core Concepts | 2 Tools And Actions agents-2-2-tools-and-actions Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | Tool calling and action execution | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Core Concepts | 3 Memory And Context agents-2-3-memory-and-context Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | Memory architecture and context management | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Core Concepts | 4 Design Patterns agents-2-4-design-patterns Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | Agent design patterns and architectures | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Core Concepts | 5 Architecture Fundamentals agents-2-5-architecture-fundamentals Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | AI agent design, safety, and deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Practical Building | 1 Building First Agent agents-3-1-building-first-agent Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | AI agent design, safety, and deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Practical Building | 2 Multi Agent Systems agents-3-2-multi-agent-systems Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | Multi-agent coordination and orchestration | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Practical Building | 3 Workflow Automation N8n agents-3-3-workflow-automation-n8n Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | Workflow automation and integration | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Practical Building | 4 Model Context Protocol agents-3-4-model-context-protocol Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | AI agent design, safety, and deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Practical Building | 5 Integration And Apis agents-3-5-integration-and-apis Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | AI agent design, safety, and deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Security Ethics | 1 Threat Landscape agents-4-1-threat-landscape Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | AI agent design, safety, and deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Security Ethics | 2 Secure Implementation agents-4-2-secure-implementation Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | AI agent design, safety, and deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Security Ethics | 3 Ethics Responsible Ai agents-4-3-ethics-responsible-ai Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | Responsible AI and ethical deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Advanced | 1 Fine Tuning Models agents-5-1-fine-tuning-models Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | Model customisation and fine-tuning | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Advanced | 2 Enterprise Architectures agents-5-2-enterprise-architectures Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | Enterprise architecture for agents | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Advanced | 3 Production Deployment agents-5-3-production-deployment Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | Production deployment and monitoring | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Advanced | 4 Research Frontiers agents-5-4-research-frontiers Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | AI agent design, safety, and deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Capstone | 1 Capstone Project agents-6-1-capstone-project Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | Practical application and project work | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
| Capstone | 2 Peer Review Certification agents-6-2-peer-review-certification Anchors: OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026, NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act, UK NCSC AI Security Guidance | AI agent design, safety, and deployment | - | - | Practice + timed | Template + rubric |
🛠️Further practice
Studios and labs to make agent development concrete.
📚How to use this course
- Start with Stage 1: Foundations even if you have some experience. The terminology and mental models matter.
- Follow the stages in order. Each builds on the previous one.
- Complete the practical exercises. Reading alone will not make you competent.
- Pay special attention to Stage 4: Security. This is where most real-world projects fail.
- Record your learning for CPD evidence. Brief notes after each module work well.
- Revisit earlier stages after completing the capstone. You will notice things you missed.
🏁Certification assessment
Each stage has a timed assessment with detailed feedback after submission. You need an account to start. Certificates help your career and help keep this site free.
📚CPD
Log minutes as you study and practise. Your records stay in this browser. Use the export view when you need a clean summary for your CPD system.
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