Overview

Google, IBM & Meta Certificates – 40% Off

One plan covers every Professional Certificate on Coursera.

AI agents are transforming how we solve problems. They are changing the way scientists make discoveries, physicians care for patients, engineers design new technologies, entrepreneurs build new ventures, educators create learning experiences, and artists bring ideas to life. AI agents represent one of the most important advances in artificial intelligence, and the students who understand them today will be the innovators who shape what comes next. This Honors AI Agents course is designed for motivated high school students who want to prepare for that future. Whether you already know what you want to study in college or are still exploring your passions, understanding AI agents will provide a foundation that will serve you in virtually every discipline. From medicine and engineering to law, business, science, and the arts, AI agents are becoming a new way of approaching complex problems and creating entirely new possibilities. In this course, you'll develop a rigorous understanding of AI agents from the ground up. You'll explore the fundamental ideas behind how AI agents work, how they combine generative AI with tools and actions, and how they can be designed to accomplish meaningful goals. Rather than simply learning how to use today's AI tools, you'll build a conceptual understanding of the architectures and ideas that make AI agents possible, giving you a foundation that will remain valuable as the technology continues to evolve. You don't need to know today whether you'll become a physician, scientist, entrepreneur, engineer, lawyer, artist, educator, or computer scientist. AI agents are becoming a new way of solving problems across every discipline. The next breakthroughs won't come simply from people who know how to use AI—they'll come from people who combine deep curiosity, creativity, and expertise in their chosen fields with a strong understanding of how to design intelligent AI systems. This course is designed to give you that foundation. The students entering college today will build the generation of technology that comes after today's AI. They'll discover new medicines, launch new industries, rethink education, transform scientific research, and solve problems that seem impossible today. Understanding AI agents is one of the first steps toward becoming one of those innovators. By completing this Honors AI Agents course, you'll earn a Vanderbilt University certificate through Coursera that demonstrates your commitment to rigorous study in one of the defining technologies of your generation. Whether you're preparing for admission to a highly selective university or simply challenging yourself to explore AI at a deeper level, the course demonstrates intellectual curiosity, initiative, and a commitment to rigorous learning beyond the traditional high school curriculum. More importantly, you'll begin building the foundation to help create the future of AI.

Syllabus

Agentic AI Concepts

This module explains how to design agentic AI interactions that are reliable and goal-directed. You’ll learn about the flipped interaction pattern, in which agents ask questions and guide the next steps; how multimodal inputs like screenshots can improve diagnosis; and when to use step-by-step execution versus ahead-of-time planning. The module also covers how to make agents work safely in real environments by providing the right context, constraining behavior with tools and actions, and using clear tool names, informative results, helpful error messages, and in-context examples to guide consistent performance.

Overview of Custom GPTs

This module introduces custom GPTs as a practical way to build agentic AI applications without traditional programming. You’ll learn how to shape model behavior using instructions, tone, background knowledge, and guardrails; how retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) brings in current or domain-specific information without retraining; and how custom GPTs combine instructions, knowledge, and capabilities to create reusable AI tools.