Google and Goodwill—yes, the Goodwill where you find old band T-shirts—have a bit of an Odd Couple pair, but Goodwill’s begun to offer Google’s AI Essentials online course for free to anyone who wants to sign up.
They claim they want to train 200,000 people through the course, and more than 112,000 have already enrolled. You could be next.
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how The AI Course claims to help
“Zero experience required,” says Google. “The course is taught by AI experts at Google who are working to make the technology helpful for everyone.”
The course, part of the AI Opportunity Fund that Google launched in April 2024, is meant to help people stay competitive in their jobs as AI moves into to disrupt so many industries.
Google offers a few example situations in which the course could help somebody in their work: “Stuck at the beginning of a project? You’ll learn how to use AI tools to generate ideas and content. Planning an event? You’ll use AI tools to help research, organize, and make more informed decisions.
“Drowning in a flooded inbox? You’ll use AI tools to help speed up those daily work tasks, like drafting email responses.” Now that’s the case usage that caught my eye. “You’ll also learn how to write effective prompts and use AI responsibly.”
The course itself states that it’s designed to take four hours to complete, but as it’s a self-paced course, you can take longer than that without penalty or pressure to speed up.
Goodwill seems to be hedging a bit when they vaguely say that”in under 10 hours, the course provides practical, hands-on experience using generative AI to help with work tasks through videos, readings, and interactive exercises,” according to their July 30, 2025, press release.
“The skills learned can be applied to a variety of roles across industries. After completing the course, participants will earn a certificate from Google to share with their network.”
Goodwill also says that 86% of those who’ve graduated the Google AI Essentials course says the skills they learned will “improve their productivity and/or efficiency in their jobs,” and 80% say they’ll help their overall job performance. However, it doesn’t provide any context for how many people were asked or how the phrasing was presented to participants.
Sold? You can sign up here on Coursera.org, which is where Google’s own website points would-be participants.
