Kyle Branchesi Email

AI curriculum

Deciding when AI belongs in the work

Staff had AI tools before there was an AI policy, in a network where every organization sets its own rules. I designed a use guide for deciding when AI belongs in a task, and a ten-course curriculum that teaches it, from literacy to building agents.

AI Foundations and AI for Impact. United Way Worldwide. Informed by the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and OWASP guidance on AI agent security.

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The use guide

Every task gets two questions: what am I giving the tool, and what happens if the answer is wrong? Sort eight everyday tasks the way the guide would, then check one of your own.

Task 1 of 8

Summarize a published industry report for your team

Choose where the guide would put this task.

Right 0 of 0. Safe tasks blocked 0.

Fig. 1 Where each task lands, by what you give the tool and what a wrong answer costs. Example tasks, written for this site.

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Would you deploy this agent?

An agent acts on your behalf, so what matters is what it is allowed to do. This one drafts the monthly update to 200 partner organizations and sends it. Set its permissions, run the test, and decide whether it launches.

Fig. 3 What the agent touches. Grey lines are permissions it does not have. Blue is a person deciding.

What the agent is allowed to do

  • The job needs this
  • The job needs this

Before it launches

Test evidence: not tested yet.

What happened

    Run the test to see what this agent does with these permissions.

    From the agents module in AI Foundations. Agents need an owner, test evidence and a maintenance plan, and the system enforces their limits.

    Course

    AI Foundations

    The first course in the curriculum, designed for all staff. Non-technical staff learn to decide when AI belongs in a task, including the limits for agents that act on their behalf.

    7 minStart with a real task
    12 minWhen a result earns trust
    12 minGreen, Yellow, Red
    9 minUse it, check it, own it
    9 minWorkflows and agents
    9 minFinal practice
    30 minOptional live clinic

    Fig. 4 58 minutes, self-paced, in six modules, plus an optional live clinic.

    Six design decisions

    1. It opens with a piece of real work, not a definition or a product tour.
    2. Every decision comes back to two questions: what am I giving the tool, and what happens if the answer is wrong.
    3. Agents get limits the system enforces, not just the wording of a prompt. Learners practice changing one agent permission at a time, and rejecting a hidden instruction inside a document.
    4. Six skeptic perspectives, including privacy, equity and job security, shaped the activities.
    5. No AI account is required. A learner can show good judgment by deciding not to use AI.
    6. One core course, with an adaptation kit each independent organization can choose to use.

    Curriculum

    AI for Impact

    Ten connected courses that move from understanding AI, to applying it in each function, to redesigning whole workflows and building assistants and agents with set limits. Most staff are meant to take two courses; workflow owners and AI champions go further. The function courses cover learning design, communications, research, fundraising and operations, with a course for people who lead teams.

    Fig. 5 Ten courses in four steps. Each step goes deeper and is meant for fewer people.

    1Understand

    • AI Foundations

    All staff

    2Apply to real work

    • AI Learning Design Studio
    • AI Communications Studio
    • AI Research and Impact Studio
    • AI Fundraising Studio
    • AI Operations Studio
    • Leading Human-Centered AI

    Each function; managers add the leadership course

    3Redesign the process

    • Systems Thinking with AI: redesign the work, not just the task

    Workflow owners

    4Build

    • Build a Useful AI Assistant
    • Responsible AI Agents

    AI champions

    Fig. 6 Every course in the curriculum follows the same six steps, and ends with a reviewed piece of real work.

    Rules the curriculum holds to

    1. Completing a course demonstrates learning. It does not grant permission to use a tool, upload information, or launch an assistant or agent.
    2. Assistants and agents need a named owner, test evidence and a maintenance plan before anyone relies on them.
    3. In the agents course, permissions are enforced by the system, not just requested in a prompt, and nothing is sent out without human approval.
    4. Targets are set after measuring a baseline. Time saved on drafting is not reported as organizational savings on its own.

    Next

    Leadership programs for executives and new CEOs