You can earn your Google Al Professional Certificate for free - and I highly recommend it

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET's key takeawaysGoogle's course builds practical AI skills from basics to app building.The hands-on Gemini training is broad, useful, and well-built.Move fast to beat the trial clock and avoid Coursera's fee.After working through the first few modules, I had mixed feelings about recommending the course to earn a Google AI Professional Certificate, mostly because it starts with some inconveniences and annoyances. But after completing the course and considering what you get going through the whole thing, I highly recommend it.Also: Taught by AI pioneers, Stanford's free online course takes you far beyond ChatGPTIn this article, I'll take you through what Google and Coursera are offering and what you'll get from the process. Stay tuned to the end because I'll offer some essential tips for completing the course and getting your certificate for free. I'll also outline some of the annoyances, because they do need to be mentioned. Let's get started. Courses covered The Google AI Professional Certificate is a bundle of individual hour-long courses. Eight of them, to be precise:Al FundamentalsAl for Brainstorming and PlanningAl for Research and InsightsAl for Writing and CommunicatingAl for Content CreationAl for Data AnalysisAl for App BuildingAl for App DeploymentEach course consists of a few video clips by Google staffers, one or two AI-narrated overviews, and some lab time. Solid educational basis From an educational theory perspective, each course is very well-designed. The sequence of courses, as they relate to each other, is also strong, with each building on the previous one. Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development discusses scaffolding in which one bit of learning is stacked on top of another. The idea behind cognitivism is that you build knowledge one bit at a time, stretching yourself slightly as you increase understanding. Each course in this Google certificate program does that. The earlier courses form the scaffolding for the later ones, so by the time you reach data analysis and even app development, nothing comes as a surprise. At that point, you have all the foundational knowledge to absorb the more complex concepts.Also: Got 6 hours? This free AI training from Google and Goodwill can boost your resume todayKey to this is the actualization of another educational theory, constructivism. The idea here is that we learn by doing and that everyone's learned experiences are unique. The more you can engage students by guided discovery and helping them build their own knowledge, the better it will stick. Each course is divided into modules. Each module has one or more lab projects. Lab projects are essentially guided use of Gemini to build or accomplish something. The courseware experience is split into two windows, with Gemini on the left and the course guidance and video on the right. You can follow the prompts provided. Each prompt leaves room for you to add your own interests and subjects, making each use of Gemini in the context of the course unique. Unlike Google's free AI Essentials course from last year, this class is not AI-agnostic. This is a very, very Gemini-centric class. That said, almost all the learning you can take from this course can apply to other AIs. And to be fair, this is a Google AI Professional Certification, not just a generic AI course. Also: The best free AI courses and certificates for upskilling in 2026 - and I've tried them allBehaviorism learning theory states that learning is based on stimulus, responses, and consequences. Quizzes are a classic example of behaviorism in practice, where the question is the environmental situation that requires a response, the student's answers are the responses, and the consequences (and feedback to the student) provide the immediate reinforcement of learning. Up until the app development courses, each course in the Google AI Professional Certificate ends with a quiz that you must pass to continue. I really enjoyed most of the quizzes. I was moderately disappointed that the 'quizzes' for the app development courses at the end of the certificate were open-ended, ungraded questions rather than the more immediate multiple-choice questions of the earlier courses. Advanced learning Here's what impressed me, and why I'm recommending this course so highly. The overall learning process is so well constructed that by the time you reach the data analysis section, you'll have some understanding of how to use AI for complex data analysis. Like the other courses in this certification, the data analysis course only takes about an hour. But the course walks you through using Gemini, Google Sheets, and Canvas to do some fairly powerful unstructured data analysis with enough takeaways that you should be able to use some of it right away. The app development courses are similar. This is not a full-tilt software development course by any means. Google's instructors take you into Google AI Studio to build apps that you wouldn't deploy commercially. But they are apps you could definitely share with your own team and deploy internally. That alone is huge. The class introduces the idea of vibe coding and shows how to construct apps. With the lab experience, you're walked through creating three separate apps you can actually use. A second class considers testing, debugging, and deploying. Again, the hands-on experience means that by the time you're done, you will have actually built some small apps. This progress is what impressed me. The course starts from the absolute basics of generative AI. Yet within about eight hours, assuming you do the work, you'll have a fairly decent hands-on, basic understanding of app development. Also: 7 AI coding techniques I use to ship real, reliable products - fastFor free. Or, at least, free-ish. Free…ish The Google AI Professional Certificate is technically not free. But you don't necessarily have to pay for it. The blue text box says "Enroll for free," but that's enrolling, not learning. In reality, you're signing up for a free seven-day trial on Coursera. This is where things get a little confusing. The promo says "Certificate when you complete after your trial ends." There's a lot of upsell here. For example, when I completed the AI Fundamentals course, I received this message. At the end of every course, I was pitched to pay up to get my certificate early. I think this means each course comes with a certificate as well, but I did not receive them when I completed the full suite. I don't know whether they will be awarded after the trial period or only if you pay up. I did, however, get the certificate for the entire professional certification. Oh, and this, too. There are two other things you should keep in mind before starting this program. First, you must give the provider a credit card number (although it won't be charged until the seven days end). If you sign up for the free trial and decide not to keep the subscription, you can cancel. Interestingly, if you cancel, it looks like you lose access to those individual course certificates that Coursera was so actively trying to upsell. Fortunately, if you do complete the full eight-course bundle before the seven days are up, you'll get the full certificate, as I did. But do not cancel until you've downloaded the certificate. Once issued, certificates do remain in your account even after you cancel. Things to look out for If you want to take the course for free, be prepared before you enroll. As soon as you sign up, the clock starts ticking. As long as you complete all eight courses in the seven days, you'll earn your certificate. Make sure you download the final certificate before you cancel your trial.At about an hour per course, I recommend doing two courses per day, and starting as soon as you sign up. Don't wait until you're at day six, or you'll have a lot to cram in.Also: These companies are actually upskilling their workers for AI - here's how they do itAlso, the courses (especially the later ones) require access to Gemini Pro. Fortunately, Google offers a free three-month trial to Gemini Pro, so you can use all its features to complete your course. The offer isn't entirely obvious. When you complete the first course, you'll see the option above. Click it to sign up. I didn't do this because I already have Gemini Pro. Keep in mind that if you sign up for the three-month trial, you will also have to cancel that plan before billing starts. Oh, and don't be too surprised if you get an email or 30 from Coursera. These all came in today. I mean, seriously? It is a little much.Bottom line If you need to provide proof of general AI literacy, this certificate provides tangible evidence of completing coursework and a baseline of competence. I am also a strong believer in continuing education. While I have decades of AI experience, I welcome the opportunity to keep fresh with new classes, even though most of the material isn't new to me. Also: How to keep your conversations with ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, or Claude as private as possibleIf you're willing to complete the eight hours within the seven-day trial window, this course offers substantial value for your time. Yes, there are lots of upsells scattered throughout the course. As annoying as they may be, they're also tolerable, especially for the value the course provides. Udemy has a tremendous number of educational offerings, so you might want to consider a subscription. If you do pay the $49/mo, you'll get access to a significant subset of Udemy's full library. I'm not a subscriber, but if I were in a more active learning mode, there would be a lot of value in that offering. You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly update newsletter, and follow me on Twitter/X at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, on Bluesky at @DavidGewirtz.com, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.