Individual Course
Agentic AI Foundations: Business Applications and Risks
Explore agentic AI’s impact on work, automation, and collaboration.
Course Length
4 weeks
2–3 hours per week
Featuring faculty from:
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Harvard Online Certificate:
$ 595
Enroll by Oct 1, 2026
Enroll TodayHarvard Online Certificate:
$ 595
Enroll by Oct 1, 2026
Enroll TodayAgentic AI is changing how professionals and teams think about work, automation, and human-AI collaboration, moving us from tools that simply answer prompts to systems that can share in planning, execution, and decision-making.
This course examines how these shifts may change roles, workflows, and organizational structures in the years ahead. Led by Harvard Professor Hanspeter Pfister, this course guides you through the transition from generative AI, which primarily responds to prompts, to agentic AI: systems that can plan steps, call tools, interact with applications, and carry out complex tasks with varying levels of autonomy.
Through expert insights and real-world examples, you will explore the technology behind AI agents. You’ll learn how large language models serve as a foundation for agentic systems, and how agents use reasoning, task decomposition, and tool integration to turn simple prompts into multi-step actions.
You will also learn to identify high-potential uses for agentic AI in your own work while recognizing where human judgment should remain central. Along the way, you’ll consider key challenges such as hallucinations, bias, bad agents, data exposure, and governance, preparing you to evaluate when and how to use AI agents responsibly.
Self-Paced Cohorts
Fixed start and end dates • Learn at your own pace
Harvard Online
Certificates:
- Individual Certificate
- Certificate Program
Industries:
- Technology
- Consumer Products
- Advertising/marketing/public Relations
- Financial Services
Global Learning Community
- Learning Outcomes
Understand agentic AI and how AI agents work
- Learning Outcomes
Evaluate how agentic AI can be applied in business
- Learning Outcomes
Communicate the risks, limits, and governance needs of agentic AI
Syllabus
Agentic AI Foundations demystifies the transition from generative AI to autonomous agentic systems. You will explore the technology behind these systems, the risks they introduce, and how to lead effectively in an AI-augmented professional landscape.
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Faculty
Your Instructor
Hanspeter Pfister
An Wang Professor of Computer Science, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University
Hanspeter Pfister is An Wang Professor of Computer Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. Before joining Harvard, he worked for over a decade at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories where he was Associate Director and Senior Research Scientist. He was the chief architect of VolumePro, Mitsubishi Electric's award-winning real-time volume rendering hardware for PCs. He is the recipient of the 2010 IEEE Visualization Technical Achievement award and the Petra T. Shattuck Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009. He is co-editor of the first textbook on Point-Based Computer Graphics, published by Elsevier in 2007, and was Technical Papers Chair for SIGGRAPH 2012.
Your Instructor
Mahzarin Banaji
Mahzarin Banaji , PhD, is the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University and External Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Professor Banaji is an experimental psychologist who co-developed the concept of “implicit bias” nearly 30 years ago and co-authored the New York Times best-selling book Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People. She is the recipient of seven honorary degrees, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Golden Goose Award from the United States Congress, the Morton Deutsch Award for Social Justice, and the Atkinson Prize from the National Academy of Sciences. Her lifetime contributions have been recognized by APA’s Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution, and APS’s William James Fellow Award for “a lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology”, the Cattell Fellow Award for “a lifetime of applied psychological research” and the Mentor Award. She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
Your Instructor
Edward J. Hall
Norman E. Vuilleumier Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University
Edward J. Hall works on a range of topics in metaphysics and epistemology that overlap with philosophy of science.He believes that philosophical discourse always goes better if the parties involved resolutely avoid any “burden-shifting” maneuvers, and that teaching always goes better if you bring cookies.