AI Automation track · Build & Govern
The AI Automation track
AI that takes actions: built to be depended on, then governed. Its own entry point; no AIDC credential needed.
Tools change. Professional judgement shouldn't.
A separate track, not a third AIDC path. Both credentials are planned: not on sale, no pre-order and no deposit. Rates are published when each opens.
Two credentials: build it, then govern it
- Certified AI Automation Practitioner Build AI-enabled workflow automation people can depend on.
- Certified AI Automation Lead Make an organisation able to trust and scale automation.
Certified AI Automation Practitioner
Planned · AI Automation · Build · 7 modules · 33 topics
“I can design, build, test and hand over an automation an organisation can trust.”
- For
- People who run a process and want to automate it: operations, finance, HR, IT service, sales support and public-service staff, analysts and early-career technical staff.
- Prerequisite
- Open entry. No coding and no AIDC credential needed; digital fluency assumed.
- Duration
- About 95 guided hours, plus 20 to 40 hours on your own capstone process.
You will be able to
- Map work as a workflow and judge what is worth automating.
- Put a language model inside a dependable workflow.
- Use the orchestration patterns real automations take.
- Connect safely to tools, systems and data, with least privilege.
- Build automation that survives failure: tested, observable, recoverable.
- Take one real process from scope to handover, and defend it.
Modules
- A00 Language Models for Automation 4 topics
- A01 Automation Foundations 5 topics
- A02 Language Models as System Components 4 topics
- A03 Orchestration Patterns 6 topics
- A04 Tools, Connectors and Data 5 topics
- A05 Building Dependable Automation 5 topics
- A06 Ship an Automation (Capstone) 4 topics
How it is assessed
- Knowledge checks: every topic; formative, never certifying
- Written exam: A00 to A05
- Lab evidence packs: A01 to A05, from exported records
- Capstone gates: A06, pass or fail
- Capstone defence: A06, before a panel
Not certified here
- Machine-learning engineering.
- Governing an automation portfolio: that is the Lead.
- Any named platform or tool: the credential is vendor-neutral.
Where it leads
- Workflow automation and process improvement
- Operations, finance and service-desk automation
- Junior automation engineering
Certified AI Automation Lead
Planned · AI Automation · Govern and scale · 5 modules · 25 topics
“I can make an organisation trust and scale automation.”
- For
- People who own, buy or govern automation: programme and operations leads, heads of digital or IT, risk, compliance and audit, public-sector and donor programme managers, and Practitioners moving up.
- Prerequisite
- Requires Certified AI Automation Practitioner, including one earned through the Practitioner Challenge. There is no direct challenge into the Lead.
- Duration
- About 70 guided hours, plus workshops on your own organisation; typically 4 to 6 months part-time.
You will be able to
- Prioritise an organisation's automation portfolio, and defend it.
- Decide build, buy or orchestrate, and cost the exit first.
- Secure systems where a model reads untrusted content and acts.
- Run automation as a service: service levels, cost, observability, change and continuity.
- Make named people accountable for automated decisions, and prove what happened.
- Specify, select, roll out and govern a real programme, and defend it.
Modules
- L01 Automation Strategy and Operating Model 5 topics
- L02 Security and Trust Boundaries 5 topics
- L03 Reliability, Economics and Operations 6 topics
- L04 Governance, Accountability and Assurance 5 topics
- L05 Governed Automation Programme (Capstone) 4 topics
How it is assessed
- Knowledge checks: every topic; formative, never certifying
- Written exam: L01 to L04
- Programme artefact gates: L05, pass or fail
- Programme artefact rubric: L05, competent on every criterion
- Panel defence: L05, decisions explained under challenge
Not certified here
- Building the automation: that is the Practitioner.
- Infrastructure engineering.
- Legal advice: it certifies the reasoning, not the statute book.
Where it leads
- Automation programme lead
- Head of automation or digital operations
- AI governance and assurance
- Procurement of agentic systems
The artefact gates. The defence certifies.
You are assessed on your own work. Objective gates make you eligible; a defence before a panel awards the credential. A written exam sits alongside.
Each part is passed on its own; nothing is averaged. However your artefact was produced, if you cannot explain it, you do not pass.
The evidence rule
- Design: I can reason about it
- Build: I can make it work
- Test: I can prove it works
- Break / Recover: I understand how it fails
- Defend: I understand why I built it that way
The AIDC paths
Technical and Commercial both start from Certified AIDC Professional. Neither is needed for this track.