Meridian AI announced today the launch of an open-enrollment Certificate in AI Literacy, a non-credit professional development program designed for people who work with or alongside AI systems but do not have a technical background in machine learning. The program is offered online, self-paced, and priced at $499 — significantly below comparable offerings from peer institutions.
The certificate covers four modules: (1) How AI Systems Work: intuitions without the math; (2) Evaluating AI Outputs: when to trust, when to verify, when to escalate; (3) AI in the Workplace: procurement, governance, and change management; and (4) Responsible AI: fairness, bias, transparency, and your organization's responsibilities. Each module takes approximately six hours and includes case studies, interactive exercises, and a short assessment.
Content was developed by faculty from the School of Societal and Governance AI, with instructional design support from Meridian's academic technology team. The curriculum draws on real AI system evaluations, regulatory guidance from the EU AI Act, and case studies from healthcare, legal, finance, and public sector contexts.
"There is a massive population of professionals — lawyers, doctors, HR managers, journalists, policymakers — who are making consequential decisions about AI adoption without a foundation for evaluating what they are being sold," said Dr. Chioma Adeyemi, who led curriculum development for the program. "This certificate is designed to give them that foundation."
The program does not require any programming knowledge or mathematics background beyond basic numeracy. Upon completion, participants receive a digital credential issued through Meridian's learning management system.
Applications are open immediately. The first cohort cap is 2,000 students; demand has already exceeded initial projections with over 1,400 registrations in the first week following the soft launch announcement on social media.