Read Part A in full, then follow the route that matches your intended work. Each route ends with something you should be able to demonstrate.
| Your goal | Reading route | Evidence of capability |
|---|---|---|
| New to AI at work | Part A, 5 | A documented thirty-day task experiment with a baseline and a measured result |
| Use AI in your current role | Part A, 5–7, 19–20, 27 | Complete a useful task with checked evidence and appropriate data handling |
| Automate a repeatable process | Part A, 5–9, 10, 13, 15–18, 22, 28 | Run a bounded workflow that handles errors and records its actions |
| Build an AI application | Part A, Part B, Part C, 27–28 | Deliver a small service with authorized retrieval, evaluated output and controlled tools |
| Design or secure production AI | 3–4, 8, 11–22, 25–26 | Trace identities, data and authority through a failure or attack |
| Work on models | Part A, 8–9, 17–18, 23–26 | Explain and measure the effect of a model or training change |
| Work on platforms or hardware | 9, 21–26 | Size and profile an inference workload against a service requirement |
Choose your depth deliberately
Know means you can explain the concept and recognize its consequences. Use means you can apply it to a real task and verify the result. Master means you can diagnose failures, evaluate alternatives and design for others. Mastery is a role-specific investment, not the entry price for using AI.
The guide follows one company as it moves from policy questions to a controlled employee service. Software, analytics and contract examples show where the same principles lead to different designs. Use the five labs in chapters 27 and 28 to test understanding. The glossary and references are at the end.
For a short first session, read "Read this first" and chapter 5. Choose one task you already understand well enough to judge. Your next step should be an observable improvement in that task, rather than a longer list of technologies to study.
Read this part in full. It takes about twenty-five minutes and it is the foundation for every other route through the guide.
- Read this first
- 1 Understand what you are using
- 2 What is actually happening when it answers
- 3 Know where your data goes
- 4 Judgement, overreliance and the fluency trap