51ĀŅĀ×

51ĀŅĀ×ā€™s College of Business has taken a decisive step in strengthening its leadership in online and professional education with the launch of its Online Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate. Introduced in Summer 2025, the fully online, nine-credit program emphasizes both an understanding of artificial intelligence and the skills needed to apply and manage it across the full lifecycle in business contexts. 

Responding to the growing demand for AI skills 

AI is reshaping industries at a rapid pace, and the demand for .

ā€œAI is among the areas where weā€™ve seen the highest interest from every corner; employers, our advisory boards, our online program partners, and prospective students,ā€ said Gabriel Giordano, Associate Dean for Graduate and Professional Programs in the College of Business. ā€œEveryone wants to know how they can be prepared for this world-changing transformation. Our goal is to help anyone who joins the Bobcat community be a leader of change rather than a follower.ā€

Giordano noted that the interest driving the program comes from both excitement about AIā€™s potential and an urgency to keep pace.  

ā€œWhen you see a change this big, itā€™s a mix of excitement and fear. People donā€™t want to be left behind. But the response weā€™ve seen so far makes it clear this is not just fear driven,ā€ he said. ā€œLearners are ready to embrace AI in business, and they want to do it with the right preparation.ā€

Leveraging OHIOā€™s College of Business expertise to teach real-world AI-driven skills

The artificial intelligence program draws directly on 51ĀŅĀ×ā€™s existing expertise in analytics and business technology education. The College of Business has long offered advanced certificates in business analytics, advanced analytics, and analytics leadership. Those programs laid a foundation that made AI a natural next step.

ā€œAnalytics has been one of our most built-out areas and a clear strength,ā€ said Giordano. ā€œAI and analytics are deeply connected, so we saw an opportunity to build on what we were already doing well. We also wanted to keep our approach consistent, accessible to motivated business professionals, rigorous in its expectations, and immediately applicable to real challenges.ā€

Practical online education in AI tools and applications 

51ĀŅĀ×ā€™s certificate emphasizes practical application from the start, introducing students to tools, techniques, and integration in real-world contexts. The curriculum covers supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning, along with advanced methods such as graph neural networks, natural language processing, and recommender systems. Students gain hands-on experience with tools like , a high-level, general-purpose programming language, and , and study the database foundations required to support AI models.  

ā€œWe wanted to move quickly past the stage of ā€˜What is AI?ā€™  to ā€˜How do I actually do this?ā€™ā€ said Giordano. ā€œThatā€™s what differentiates this program. We cover the technologies that enable AI, but we also cover how to manage it across the entire lifecycle. How do you integrate models into business systems? How do you monitor them over time? How do you make sure theyā€™re delivering value? Those are the real business needs, and thatā€™s where we want our graduates to excel.ā€ 

Teaching hands-on AI projects for business impact 

Students also work through case studies of AI in business and build a custom AI workflow agent, an AI-powered tool designed to automate and connect steps in a business process. This project allows them to see how AI moves from concept to practical results. 

ā€œThat hands-on element has been one of the most positively received parts of the program,ā€ said Giordano.  

Maintaining relevance in an evolving business AI environment

A key challenge in teaching AI is keeping pace with change. For OHIO, that reality is embraced rather than avoided. 

ā€œIn any technology field, you reinvent your class every year,ā€ Giordano explained. ā€œThatā€™s especially true in business technology, where the question is always: how does this make a difference right now? Our faculty expect that continual renewal. Itā€™s part of what keeps our programs fresh and our reputation strong.ā€ 

Strengthening 51ĀŅĀ×ā€™s reputation in online AI education 

The Online Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate meets market demand and reinforces 51ĀŅĀ×ā€™s reputation as a forward-thinking institution in online education.  

ā€œFrom the business side, few programs give students a hands-on understanding of the entire AI system lifecycle,ā€ said Giordano. ā€œThatā€™s what makes this program distinctive and ahead of the curve. Itā€™s also stackable with our MBA or our Master of Science in Management, which means students can add a powerful differentiator to a fully recognized graduate degree. That makes both the certificate and the degree more valuable.ā€

By offering an applied, rigorous program in a pivotal moment for AI, 51ĀŅĀ× provides professionals with skills that meet todayā€™s business demands and anticipate tomorrowā€™s challenges. 

ā€œWeā€™re not showing businesses how to dabble in AI,ā€ said Giordano. ā€œWeā€™re showing them how to build it into real operational systems that can make a difference right away.ā€