Programming Generative AI Applications

Generative AI is transforming how we build software, yet many developers struggle to move past simple chat interfaces to write production-ready code. This course bridges that gap by showing you how to programmatically interact with modern foundation models. You will transition from a curious observer to a developer capable of building AI-powered features. Through clear, written explanations and structured code snippets, you will learn to structure prompts programmatically, manage API responses, and design basic retrieval-augmented systems. What you'll learn: - Understand foundational generative AI concepts, model architectures, and API terminology - Design programmatic prompts to extract structured JSON data from language models - Implement API integrations with leading LLM providers using modern Python libraries - Configure basic retrieval-augmented generation workflows using vector database concepts - Apply error handling, rate limiting, and cost-tracking strategies for AI applications - Manage conversational state and memory in multi-turn AI interactions The journey begins with essential terminology and the mechanics of language model APIs. You will then progress to structured prompting techniques, memory management, and integrating external data sources to build contextual AI features. This course is designed for beginner and intermediate programmers who want to learn AI integration, with no prior experience in machine learning or data science required. Start reading today to begin building your first AI-driven application features.