This course provides a comprehensive introduction to fundamental components of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI & ML) infrastructure. You will explore the critical elements of AI & ML environments, including data pipelines, model development frameworks, and deployment platforms. The course emphasizes the importance of robust and scalable design in AI & ML infrastructure.

Foundations of AI and Machine Learning

Foundations of AI and Machine Learning
This course is part of Microsoft AI & ML Engineering Professional Certificate

Instructor: Microsoft
63,266 already enrolled
Included with
Recommended experience
Recommended experience
Skills you'll gain
- Category: ScalabilityScalability
- Category: Data ManagementData Management
- Category: Infrastructure ArchitectureInfrastructure Architecture
- Category: Data InfrastructureData Infrastructure
- Category: Data CleansingData Cleansing
- Category: Machine LearningMachine Learning
- Category: Artificial IntelligenceArtificial Intelligence
- Category: AI IntegrationsAI Integrations
- Category: Model EvaluationModel Evaluation
- Category: Data SecurityData Security
- Category: Data PreprocessingData Preprocessing
- Category: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML)Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML)
- Category: MLOps (Machine Learning Operations)MLOps (Machine Learning Operations)
- Category: Application DeploymentApplication Deployment
- Category: Data PipelinesData Pipelines
Tools you'll learn
- Category: Application FrameworksApplication Frameworks
- Category: Model DeploymentModel Deployment
- Category: AI WorkflowsAI Workflows
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There are 5 modules in this course
This module provides a comprehensive introduction to the essential elements of AI/ML infrastructure, focusing on the components and processes that underpin effective ML and AI systems. This module will cover the critical aspects of infrastructure required to support robust AI/ML applications, from data handling to model deployment. By the end of this module, you'll have a solid foundation in AI/ML infrastructure, equipping you with the knowledge to contribute to and manage AI/ML projects effectively.
What's included
14 videos18 readings9 assignments
14 videos•Total 68 minutes
- Introduction to the AI/ML engineering advanced professional certificate program•4 minutes
- Introduction to the foundations of AI/ML infrastructure•4 minutes
- A day in the life of an AI/ML engineer•4 minutes
- Getting started with Jupyter Notebooks in Azure Machine Learning Studio•6 minutes
- Introduction to AI/ML infrastructure•6 minutes
- Data sources and pipelines, frameworks, and platforms•5 minutes
- Introduction to data sources and pipelines•5 minutes
- Examples of data sources and pipelines•6 minutes
- Introduction to model development approaches and frameworks•5 minutes
- Introduction to deployment platforms•5 minutes
- Importance of deployment platforms•5 minutes
- Features and requirements for effective deployment•6 minutes
- Summary: AI/ML applications•4 minutes
- Industry exemplar: Model deployment•4 minutes
18 readings•Total 259 minutes
- Welcome to the Coursera Community•2 minutes
- Discussion: AI/ML engineer responsibilities•10 minutes
- Microsoft updates•2 minutes
- Practice activity: Setting up your environment in Microsoft Azure•30 minutes
- Walkthrough: Setting up your environment in Microsoft Azure (Optional)•0 minutes
- Selecting the right model deployment strategy in Microsoft Azure•15 minutes
- Practice activity: Selecting the right model deployment strategy in Microsoft Azure•45 minutes
- Walkthrough: Justifying your choice of model selection (Optional)•0 minutes
- Course syllabus: Foundations of AI and Machine Learning Infrastructure•15 minutes
- The structure and role of data sources and pipelines explained•10 minutes
- In-depth exploration of data sources and pipelines•10 minutes
- Model development frameworks and their applications explained•10 minutes
- Key considerations in selecting a model development framework•10 minutes
- Practice Activity: Selecting an appropriate framework for a complex business issue•45 minutes
- Explication of framework selection•10 minutes
- A practical guide: Deploying AI/ML models•15 minutes
- Practice activity: Deployment platforms•30 minutes
- Walkthrough: The predictive maintenance business problem (Optional)•0 minutes
9 assignments•Total 117 minutes
- Reflection: Setting up your environment in Microsoft Azure•3 minutes
- Reflection: Selecting the right model deployment strategy in Microsoft Azure•3 minutes
- Practice activity: Matching components to functions•15 minutes
- Knowledge check: Components of AI/ML infrastructure•30 minutes
- Knowledge check: Data sources and pipelines•20 minutes
- Reflection: Framework selection •3 minutes
- Knowledge check: Deployment platforms•10 minutes
- Reflection: Deployment platforms•3 minutes
- Graded quiz: AI/ML applications•30 minutes
This module delves into the sophisticated techniques and best practices required for effective data acquisition, cleaning, and preprocessing in the context of AI and ML. Emphasizing the importance of data integrity and security, this module will equip you with the skills needed to manage data sources for various applications, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) in large language models (LLMs) and traditional ML systems. You will also learn how to ensure data security throughout the AI development life cycle. By the end of this module, you'll be proficient in advanced data acquisition, cleaning, and preprocessing techniques, and will have a solid understanding of data security best practices, enabling you to manage data effectively and securely in AI development.
What's included
9 videos19 readings7 assignments
9 videos•Total 47 minutes
- Overview of data sources•6 minutes
- Methods for acquiring data•6 minutes
- Importance of data cleaning and preprocessing•5 minutes
- Hear from an expert: The value of consistent taxonomy•3 minutes
- Introduction to RAG•5 minutes
- Best practices for maintaining efficient data sources for RAG•5 minutes
- Hear from an expert: Security considerations when working with data•6 minutes
- Summary: Data management in AI/ML•6 minutes
- Hear from an expert: Industry exemplar•5 minutes
19 readings•Total 310 minutes
- Tools and libraries for data acquisition: a focus on SQL•15 minutes
- Practice Activity: Setup of a Basic Data Scraper in Python•45 minutes
- Walkthrough: Setup of a local python data scraper (Optional)•0 minutes
- Practice Activity: Fetch a Document Using a Python Web Scraper•25 minutes
- Walkthrough: Fetch a Document Using the Python Web Scraper (Optional)•0 minutes
- Manage Missing Values, Outliers, Normalize, and Transform Data•15 minutes
- Practice activity: Setup a local data cleaning and preprocessing tool•45 minutes
- Walkthrough: Setup of a data preprocessing tool (Optional)•0 minutes
- Practice activity: Apply the preprocessing tool to a dummy dataset for ML application•30 minutes
- Walkthrough: Data cleaning and preprocessing (Optional)•0 minutes
- Discussion: Data cleaning and preprocessing outliers•10 minutes
- Comparison of data sources for RAG and traditional ML pipelines•20 minutes
- Error identification in data collection•20 minutes
- How to identify errors in data collection (Optional)•0 minutes
- The importance of data security in AI development•10 minutes
- Common data security practices•10 minutes
- Real-world case studies of data breaches•10 minutes
- Practice activity: Auditing ML code for security vulnerabilities•55 minutes
- Walkthrough: Auditing ML code for security vulnerabilities (Optional)•0 minutes
7 assignments•Total 60 minutes
- Reflection: Local set up of basic scraper in Python•3 minutes
- Reflection: Fetching a document using the Python web scraper•3 minutes
- Reflection: Setting up of a local data cleaning and preprocessing tool•3 minutes
- Reflection: Data cleaning and preprocessing•3 minutes
- Knowledge check: Best practices in data security•15 minutes
- Reflection: Auditing ML code for security vulnerabilities•3 minutes
- Graded quiz: Data management in AI/ML•30 minutes
This module offers a comprehensive exploration of popular ML frameworks, libraries, and pretrained LLMs. You will gain hands-on experience with these tools, learning to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and select the most suitable ones based on specific project needs. By the end of the module, you'll be equipped to implement basic models and adapt their framework choices to optimize performance for diverse applications.
What's included
7 videos18 readings5 assignments
7 videos•Total 41 minutes
- Key features and use cases for frameworks and models•6 minutes
- Applicability of pretrained LLMs•5 minutes
- Guide to implementing a simple model in TensorFlow•6 minutes
- Guide to implementing a simple model in PyTorch•6 minutes
- Criteria for selecting frameworks based on project needs•6 minutes
- Summary: Selecting a framework•5 minutes
- Hear from an expert: Industry exemplar•6 minutes
18 readings•Total 430 minutes
- Introduction to popular ML frameworks•10 minutes
- Overview of pretrained LLMs•10 minutes
- Practice activity: Selecting and justifying a framework •60 minutes
- Walkthrough: Selecting and justifying a framework (Optional)•0 minutes
- Strengths and weaknesses of various ML frameworks•15 minutes
- Comparison of ML frameworks•10 minutes
- Real-world case studies of ML frameworks•10 minutes
- Discussion: Strengths and weaknesses of your selected framework •10 minutes
- Introduction to implementing models•10 minutes
- Apply pretrained LLMs for specific tasks•10 minutes
- Practice activity: Implementing a model•90 minutes
- Walkthrough: Implementing a model (Optional)•0 minutes
- Best practices for adapting frameworks to projects•10 minutes
- Real-world case studies of framework selection and its impact on industry projects•10 minutes
- Practice activity: Selecting a framework for a phantom project•85 minutes
- Walkthrough: Framework selection based on project needs (Optional)•0 minutes
- Practice activity: Implementing a model for business deployment•90 minutes
- Walkthrough: Implementing the model for the business (Optional)•0 minutes
5 assignments•Total 42 minutes
- Reflection: Selecting and justifying a framework•3 minutes
- Reflection: Implementing a model•3 minutes
- Reflection: Framework selection based on project needs•3 minutes
- Reflection: Implementing the model for the business•3 minutes
- Graded quiz: Selecting a framework•30 minutes
This module provides a detailed exploration of the critical aspects of deploying ML models into production environments. You will learn to identify the key features of deployment platforms, prepare models for real-world use, implement version control for reproducibility, and evaluate platforms based on their scalability and efficiency. By the end of this module, you will be equipped to effectively deploy ML models in production environments, manage their lifecycle with version control, and select the most suitable deployment platforms based on scalability and efficiency considerations.
What's included
7 videos16 readings6 assignments
7 videos•Total 43 minutes
- Key features to consider in deployment platforms•6 minutes
- Introduction to Microsoft Azure•8 minutes
- Preparing models for deployment•5 minutes
- Additional steps to prepare a model for production deployment•6 minutes
- Importance of version control •5 minutes
- Ensuring reproducibility•5 minutes
- Summary: Platform deployment•8 minutes
16 readings•Total 330 minutes
- Best practices for packaging and containerizing models•10 minutes
- Tools and frameworks for model deployment•10 minutes
- Instructions: Preparing a model for deployment•10 minutes
- Practice activity: Preparing a model for deployment•60 minutes
- Walkthrough: Preparing a model for deployment (Optional)•0 minutes
- Tools and practices for version control (Git, DVC)•20 minutes
- Implementing version control for reproducibility•30 minutes
- Practice activity: Implementing version control for reproducibility •30 minutes
- Walkthrough: Implementing version control for reproducibility (Optional)•0 minutes
- Criteria for evaluating deployment platforms•10 minutes
- Real-world case studies of successful AI/ML deployments•10 minutes
- Practical tips on choosing the right platform for specific project needs•10 minutes
- Practice activity: Selecting a deployment platform for a dummy project•60 minutes
- Walkthrough: Evaluating deployment platforms (Optional)•0 minutes
- Practice activity: Justifying a platform choice in a presentation to a C-suite executive•70 minutes
- Walkthrough: Justifying a platform choice in a presentation (Optional)•0 minutes
6 assignments•Total 60 minutes
- Knowledge check: Deployment platforms•15 minutes
- Reflection: Preparing a model for deployment•3 minutes
- Reflection: Implementing version control for reproducibility •6 minutes
- Reflection: Evaluating deployment platforms•3 minutes
- Reflection: Supporting your platform choice•3 minutes
- Graded quiz: Platform deployment•30 minutes
This module offers an in-depth exploration of the evolving role of AI/ML engineers within corporate environments. You will gain a comprehensive understanding of the responsibilities associated with this role, including data management, framework selection, deployment, version control, and cloud considerations. The module also emphasizes the integration of infrastructure and operations to optimize outcomes and provides strategies for networking and finding mentorship within the AI/ML community. By the end of this module, you will have a clear understanding of the AI/ML engineer's evolving role in the corporate landscape, the key operational priorities for effective infrastructure management, and strategies for building a professional network and finding valuable mentors in the field.
What's included
9 videos16 readings4 assignments1 peer review
9 videos•Total 56 minutes
- Overview of the AI/ML engineer's responsibilities•6 minutes
- Typical Tasks and Projects•7 minutes
- Hear from an expert: Data quality in the corporate setting•4 minutes
- Balancing model development, deployment, and maintenance•8 minutes
- Hear from an expert: Understanding the problem before building AI solutions•5 minutes
- Summary: AI/ML concepts in practice•9 minutes
- Course summary•7 minutes
- Example: Pitching to the C-suite•8 minutes
- Congratulations on completing the course!•2 minutes
16 readings•Total 192 minutes
- Required skills and competencies•10 minutes
- Practice activity: Role-playing as a hiring manager•60 minutes
- Walkthrough: The decision-making process (Optional)•0 minutes
- Prioritizing tasks and managing workflows•10 minutes
- Ensuring AI/ML systems are scalable, reliable, and functional•10 minutes
- Practice activity: Prioritizing tasks as an AI/ML engineer•30 minutes
- Walkthrough: Prioritizing tasks as an AI/ML engineer (Optional)•0 minutes
- Importance of networking and professional relationships•7 minutes
- Strategies for finding and connecting with mentors in the field•7 minutes
- Benefits of mentorship for career growth and development•6 minutes
- Practice activity: Creating a networking action plan for the AI/ML industry•25 minutes
- Walkthrough: How to create a successful networking plan (Optional)•0 minutes
- Further reading resources•10 minutes
- Introduction to industry journals, blogs, and conferences•10 minutes
- Recommendations for further development•7 minutes
- Walkthrough: Preparing for a pitch to the C-suite (Optional)•0 minutes
4 assignments•Total 39 minutes
- Reflection: The role of AI/ML engineers in a corporate context•3 minutes
- Reflection: Key priorities for AI/ML engineers•3 minutes
- Reflection: Networking and mentorship•3 minutes
- Graded quiz: AI/ML concepts in practice•30 minutes
1 peer review•Total 45 minutes
- Course assignment: Drafting your pitch to the C-suite•45 minutes
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Jennifer J.

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Chaitanya A.
Frequently asked questions
You’ll learn how AI and ML systems move from raw data to production, with a strong focus on data pipelines, framework choice, and deployment. It starts with the core parts of an AI/ML environment, then builds into data management, model preparation, and platform decisions for real workflows. You’ll apply that through guided activities such as comparing model options for customer churn and preparing a model for deployment.
Yes, intermediate Python is part of the recommended background. The course uses Python in activities like web scraping, data cleaning, and model work, so it doesn’t spend much time teaching the language itself. Basic familiarity with AI and ML concepts is also expected, and some statistics plus awareness of newer GenAI ideas will make the material easier to follow.
It’s a good fit if you already have some Python and a basic sense of how AI/ML models work. The course is intermediate and spends more time on infrastructure, deployment, and framework decisions than on beginner-level coding or math review. If you’re starting from zero, a more introductory course will likely feel easier.
Plan for about 36 hours total, or roughly four weeks at around 9 to 10 hours a week. The pace is manageable if you move steadily through the lessons and readings, then leave time for practice activities and quizzes. The course includes lessons, readings, quizzes, guided exercises, and a peer-reviewed pitch assignment.
Yes, there’s hands-on work, but it’s mostly guided practice rather than one large project. You’ll do activities such as setting up an Azure environment, building a basic Python scraper, implementing a simple model, and packaging a model for deployment. That makes the course useful if you want to apply each idea as you learn it, not just read about infrastructure choices.
The course focuses on the parts of AI/ML work that surround and support model building. You’ll cover data sourcing and preprocessing, framework selection, deployment planning, version control, and the security and scalability issues that matter in production. It also looks at how AI/ML engineers make technical decisions in business settings and explain those choices clearly.
After finishing, you should be able to map out an AI/ML workflow from data sourcing through deployment and explain the tradeoffs behind your choices. You’ll be able to compare frameworks, prepare a model for production, and judge which platform fits a project’s needs. For example, you could take a business case like customer churn or predictive maintenance and outline the data pipeline, model approach, and deployment plan.
It leans more toward concept-first learning with guided practice than toward open-ended project work. You’ll get hands-on exercises throughout, but they mainly reinforce how AI/ML systems move from data to deployment in real settings.
This course is a strong choice if you want AI/ML from a production and infrastructure angle, not just a model-training angle. It connects data management, framework selection, deployment, version control, and stakeholder communication, with many examples centered on Microsoft Azure workflows. If you want to understand how AI/ML systems are built, managed, and explained in a real business context, this course is a better fit than a model-only introduction.
¹ Some assignments in this course are AI-graded. For these assignments, your data will be used in accordance with Coursera's Privacy Notice.