Leveraging AI for Process Improvement & Business Operations

AI for Business Transformation Certificate 

Take a single AI course or complete all five four-week courses to earn the AI for Business Transformation Certificate. Designed for managers, working professionals, and non-technical learners, the program develops the practical skills and business judgment needed to apply AI effectively in business settings.

Participants learn to identify appropriate uses for AI, evaluate outputs, assess organizational readiness, manage risk, improve workflows, and guide responsible adoption. The courses emphasize methods and judgment that transfer across AI tools and platforms, helping participants build skills they can apply as technologies and products change.

Topics include AI foundations, marketing and customer experience, business operations, strategy, and AI-supported data analysis. No programming or technical background is required. Participants may take courses individually or complete the full certificate over one or more terms, depending on their schedule.

This Course: Leveraging AI for Process Improvement & Business Operations

This course explores how artificial intelligence can improve business processes, streamline workflows, automate routine work, and support better operational decision-making. Participants will learn how to analyze existing processes, identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks, and determine where AI, automation, and human judgment can work together to improve speed, quality, consistency, and business performance.

Through hands-on activities and real-world business scenarios, participants will examine how generative AI, automation, intelligent workflows, and AI agents can be applied across business operations. Applications may include knowledge management, research, reporting and insights, document processing, content and data workflows, quality assurance, employee support, operational decision-making, and repetitive administrative processes.

Participants will learn how to move beyond isolated AI tasks and redesign complete workflows. The course will explore the differences between AI assistants, copilots, automated workflows, and AI agents, including how agents can access information, use tools, complete multi-step tasks, make recommendations, and escalate decisions to people when human review is required.

Participants will also evaluate opportunities for agentic workflows and coordinated AI systems in which multiple specialized agents support different stages of a business process. Emphasis will be placed on determining where automation adds value, where human judgment should remain central, and how to redesign processes rather than simply automate inefficient existing practices.

The course emphasizes measurable operational improvement. Participants will learn how to establish current-state performance, identify appropriate success measures, and evaluate AI initiatives based on outcomes such as cycle-time reduction, productivity, capacity, quality, accuracy, cost reduction, employee experience, and service levels.

Participants will also consider the organizational and governance requirements associated with AI-enabled operations, including process ownership, data and knowledge readiness, security, privacy, accuracy, exception handling, human oversight, change management, and workforce adoption.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to assess a business process, identify and prioritize AI opportunities, redesign an AI-enabled workflow, define appropriate human and AI responsibilities, and develop an implementation and measurement plan for improving operational performance.

For any questions about course content, please contact the course instructor, Chelsey Potter, at chpotter@lasell.edu. Visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseyplumb/ for more information.

This section of Leveraging AI for Process Improvement & Business Operations runs November 11–December 11 during the Fall 2026 term. Students may enroll in the course through November 16.

For any questions about enrollment or Lasell Professional Studies, please contact profstudies@lasell.edu.