Introduction
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the way institutions, governments, and businesses operate, reshaping professional roles, decision-making processes, organizational structures, and the skills required to navigate an increasingly digital environment. Alongside these opportunities, the growing use of AI also raises important questions around responsible governance, privacy, accountability, and the effective alignment of AI systems with institutional and societal objectives. For professionals across sectors, developing a practical understanding of AI and its implications has therefore become an increasingly important competency for effective leadership, responsible governance, and professional adaptability.
The Certificate on Artificial Intelligence and Professional Skills is a fully online, live-delivered programme designed to provide participants with a practical and multidisciplinary understanding of how AI is transforming professional environments. Through a series of expert-led sessions, the programme examines both the opportunities created by AI and the governance, organizational, and human challenges associated with its growing adoption.
The programme begins by exploring responsible AI governance, moving from high-level principles to their practical implementation within organizations and institutions. It then examines the future of work, focusing first on how AI is changing professional tasks, responsibilities, and roles, and subsequently on the skills, capabilities, and organizational readiness required to adapt effectively to these transformations. The programme concludes by addressing AI privacy and alignment, providing participants with an understanding of key considerations related to data protection, responsible AI deployment, and ensuring that AI systems operate in accordance with intended values, objectives, and safeguards.
With an emphasis on real-world applications rather than technical development, the Certificate is accessible to participants from diverse professional backgrounds. Through interactive discussions, practical examples, case studies, and expert insights, participants will strengthen their ability to critically assess the use of AI, identify its implications for their professional environments, and contribute to its responsible and strategic adoption.
The Certificate will be delivered fully online in synchronous mode, enabling participants to engage directly with experts and peers throughout the programme.
Key Information
- Course Modality: Online
- Course Workload: 4 days, part-time
- Course Fee: 800USD
PROGRAMME DATES
- Dates: 6 November 2026 - 27 November 2026
Content and Structure
The programme will run across four (4) weeks, with one three-hour session per week (four sessions in total). The sessions will cover:
- Module 1 — Responsible AI Governance: From Principles to Practice – Friday 06 November
- Module 2 — AI sovereignty and data flows– Friday 13 November
- Module 3 — AI and the Future of Work: Changing Tasks and Roles – Friday 20 November
- Module 4 — AI and the Future of Work: Skills and Readiness – Friday 27 November
Learning Objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to;
- Understand core principles of responsible AI and their application in policy and institutional settings.
- Apply responsible and ethical approaches to AI
- Address AI-related risks and privacy challenges.
- Assess ethical considerations related to AI use, including bias, accountability, and responsible deployment.
- Identify professional tasks that can be supported, augmented, or partially automated through AI
- Assess how the integration of AI may reshape professional roles, responsibilities, and workflows
Meet our experts
Dr. Aïda Darouichi is a researcher, lecturer, and advisor specializing in governance systems, strategy, innovation, and technology governance. Her work explores how emerging technologies reshape institutions, decision-making, and governance at both organizational and global levels. She focuses on evidence-based approaches that help leaders design more effective policies, governance frameworks, and resilient decision-making systems.
Adina Gray is a Canadian AI educator, consultant and founder of PurpleOwl AI, with two decades of experience in higher education teaching and leadership. Her work focuses on AI literacy, workforce readiness and the future of work, with international speaking and teaching engagements across the Americas, Europe and Asia. As a contributor to working groups under the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiative, her work includes people-centred AI adoption and the future of work and skills. Her broader international engagement includes the 2026 India AI Impact Summit and Stanford’s 2024 AI+Education Summit. Adina was a finalist for the 2025 Women in AI North America Awards and received the 2025 AI Innovator Award at the AI Show @ ASU+GSV in San Diego.
Andrea Cavallaro is a Full Professor at EPFL where he leads the Laboratory for Multimodal Intelligent Systems (MINTS). He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the International Association for Pattern Recognition, and a Fellow of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems. His research focuses on machine learning for multimodal perception, computer vision, machine listening, and information privacy. He has received numerous awards, including a Research Fellowship with British Telecommunications, the Royal Academy of Engineering Teaching Prize, a Turing Fellowship, and four paper awards. He also served as an IEEE Signal Processing Society Distinguished Lecturer, as Chair of the IEEE Image, Video and Multidimensional Signal Processing Technical Committee, and as member of the Technical Directions Board of the IEEE Signal Processing Society. Andrea has published over 350 scientific papers, a monograph on video tracking, and three edited books covering topics such as intelligent multimedia, multimedia content analysis, and multi-camera networks.
Participant Testimonials
As legal practitioner and an advocate for AI literacy, the UNITAR Certificate on Artificial Intelligence and Professional Skills was an absolute game-changer for me. Besides sharpening my AI skills, it gave me fresh insights into how AI can transform real-world workflows: from strategic decision-making to enhancing communication and even in diplomatic initiatives. The hands-on practical sessions were my favorite, especially learning to harness AI models, even for my everyday legal work, responsibly of course! The course also helped me tackle head-on the risks of AI reliance, arming me with effective strategies to manage them
~Mr. Patrick Herbert, Artificial Intelligence Legal Practitioner and Advocate in Nigeria
The program offered plenty of chances to interact with experts and collaborate with other participants through engaging group activities. The hands-on learning opportunities were particularly effective. I found the sessions on AI for negotiations, AI for communication, and the Metaverse session to be especially insightful, greatly expanding my knowledge in these areas. I highly recommend this course—it’s a fantastic way to gain valuable insights in a short amount of time.
– Mr. Thanuki Goonesinghe, Technology-based lawyer in Sri Lanka
Amazing training if you want to think and feel like a pro using AI and technology. We had 6 sessions, each conducted by different mentors. The most interesting part is that the trainings were engaging and we were allowed to participate, ask questions, and even do breakout sessions with peers using real scenarios. This course gives you different use cases which you can easily incorporate into your work situations. If you are into diplomacy or simply run a business, this course is definitely helpful. I am personally going to implement the concepts into my healthcare ventures in Bangladesh and globally. I truly enjoyed vibe coding, understanding security, ethical AI, and learning from great minds who have lots of experience in this field. As an entrepreneur in healthcare, I take this opportunity to implement solutions for accessibility and to improve systems in my ventures.
– Dr. Ismail Zakaria, Healthcare Entrepreneur
The UNITAR Certificate on Artificial Intelligence and Professional Skills was an inspiring and practical learning experience. The programme deepened my understanding of how AI can enhance diplomacy, negotiation, decision-making, and productivity. The expert-led sessions and hands-on modules provided me with valuable AI tools that I can apply directly in my research and professional work.
– Mr. Shahzad Hikmati, PhD Researcher
Target Audience
The certificate programme is aimed at students, professionals, practitioners, diplomats and international civil servants seeking a deeper understanding of Artificial Intelligence. No prior knowledge of AI is required, making it accessible to everyone from all levels and sectors.
Technical Requirements
UNITAR will not provide refunds for customers who face technical issues beyond UNITAR's direct control. UNITAR recommends that all prospective participants test Zoom for free at Zoom.us prior to confirming their payment.
Basic system requirements:
- Stable internet connection
- Speakers and a microphone
- A webcam or HD webcam
- Or, a HD cam or HD camcorder with video capture card
Additional Information
Kindly note that the certificate programme will only take place if the minimum number of participants has been reached and the times and dates are still to be confirmed.