IBM

Designing Human-AI Collaboration and First Agents

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IBM

Designing Human-AI Collaboration and First Agents

Starweaver

Instructor: Starweaver

Included with Coursera PlusLearn more

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
Intermediate level

Recommended experience

2 weeks to complete
at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace
Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
Intermediate level

Recommended experience

2 weeks to complete
at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

  • Allocate tasks between humans and agents using a structured framework that accounts for judgment, risk, and morale.

  • Define roles, responsibilities, and decision rights for hybrid teams using an adapted RACI framework.

  • Design for trust, psychological safety, and onboarding within a team that includes AI agents.

  • Configure a working agent in IBM watsonx Orchestrate for a defined task at a manager-configuration level.

Details to know

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Recently updated!

October 2026

Assessments

17 assignments¹

AI Graded see disclaimer
Taught in English

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Build your Leadership and Management expertise

This course is part of the IBM Building and Managing Agentic Teams Professional Certificate
When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Professional Certificate.
  • Learn new concepts from industry experts
  • Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
  • Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
  • Earn a shareable career certificate from IBM

There are 5 modules in this course

In this opening module of the design phase, you will learn a disciplined way to decide which tasks belong to humans, which to agents, and which to a coordinated pair. You will apply a structured allocation framework rather than gut feel, hold a firm line on the work that must stay human on judgment, legal, or motivational grounds, design shared tasks where the human and agent each contribute distinct value, and stay alert to the morale consequences of allocation choices. The labs have you allocate the tasks in a provided business scenario.

What's included

11 videos17 readings4 assignments3 peer reviews1 discussion prompt

In this module, you will move from task-level allocation to the broader question of who is accountable for what. You will author clear role definitions for human and AI roles, build a decision-rights map that includes both human and agent participants, apply a RACI-style framework adapted for agentic teams, and recognize and resolve the ambiguities that hybrid role design tends to create. The labs have you author roles and a decision-rights map for the hybrid team you are designing.

What's included

9 videos13 readings4 assignments3 peer reviews1 discussion prompt

In this module, you will bring the human-experience side of agentic teams into focus. You will diagnose the trust and psychological-safety risks specific to hybrid teams, apply communication and design choices that build trust between humans and agents, anticipate worries about replacement, surveillance, and dignity and address them honestly, and design onboarding rituals that integrate humans and agents together. The labs have you author a four-week onboarding plan and a concerns-and-responses brief for a hybrid team.

What's included

10 videos14 readings4 assignments3 peer reviews1 discussion prompt

In this module, you will move from designing on paper to building on the platform. The work is hands-on at a manager’s level in a self-service IBM watsonx Orchestrate free-trial environment, but it stops short of software engineering. You will scope a task tightly enough to be a viable agent assignment, write instructions and example interactions that shape behavior reliably, configure a single agent end-to-end, and test and iterate against representative inputs. The labs have you build a working agent for a provided scenario.

What's included

11 videos13 readings4 assignments3 peer reviews1 discussion prompt

In this final module, you will assemble everything from Modules 1 through 4 into a cumulative project: a Hybrid Team Design Package with a Working First Agent. The deliverable includes a task-allocation table, role definitions with a decision-rights map and adapted RACI, a trust-and-safety brief with a four-week onboarding plan, and a configured, working single agent in your watsonx Orchestrate free-trial instance. The module closes with a wrap-up featuring an SME interview, a day-in-the-life view of a People Manager through a team-redesign week, and a bridge into the orchestration work of Course 3.

What's included

3 videos13 readings1 assignment1 peer review

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Instructor

Starweaver
644 Courses1,333,615 learners

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IBM

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¹ Some assignments in this course are AI-graded. For these assignments, your data will be used in accordance with Coursera's Privacy Notice.