The AI Competence Institute
We maintain an open standard for the safe and effective use of AI in the workplace, provide free tools to help everyone reach it, and certify those who do.
Free knowledge assessment · instant competency report across 10 domains · personalised learning pathway · no account needed to start.
The opportunity
The organisations getting the most from AI are the ones investing in genuine, verifiable competence across their people. The AICI standard gives everyone — individuals, teams and organisations — a shared, open benchmark to work towards and build on.
Know which candidates and team members can actually use AI tools effectively, not just who has completed a course. Evidence beats assertion at every stage of recruitment and promotion.
Clients and procurement teams increasingly ask how you assure AI competence. An independently verifiable answer — a public register entry — is a different category of response to a policy document.
Boards and leadership teams that can point to certified AI competence across their workforce are better placed to move quickly, invest with confidence, and set the standard for their sector.
How it works
48 assessable competencies across 8 domains and five levels, defining what safe and effective deployment of AI in the workplace actually looks like. Published openly and mapped to ISO/IEC 42001 and the NIST AI RMF, so any organisation can adopt or build on it.
A free knowledge assessment that shows where you stand across every domain, an instant competency report, and a personalised learning plan built from a curated open library. No paywall, no account needed to start — because getting the workforce ready matters more than restricting access.
For professionals and organisations who want to formalise their knowledge: scenario-based assessments at Foundation, Practitioner, Governance Lead, Enablement Lead and Board level, with every current certificate listed on a public register anyone can verify in seconds.
Learning library
Our mission is to equip the UK workforce as quickly as possible. Take a free diagnostic, get your gap analysis, and follow a personalised learning plan — all included at no cost.
8 domains
Every competency in the AICI standard has corresponding learning material — from AI foundations to governance, security and practical tools.
Open to all
No paywall, ever. Sign in once and browse, read and watch everything in the library at any time, from any device.
Mapped to the exam
Each resource is tagged to the certification level and domain it supports. If you have a gap, the library tells you exactly what to read.
Train anywhere
Use our library, use your own materials, use both. The assessment treats every candidate the same — what matters is what you know.
Take the assessment, get your report, follow the plan — all free.
Certification
48 competencies · 8 domains · Progressive — each level builds on the previous: Foundation → Practitioner → Governance Lead → Enablement Lead → Board.
Every employee
8 domains · no prerequisites
Safe, effective everyday use: directing AI tools, checking what comes back, protecting data at input, recognising AI-enabled fraud and impersonation, escalating what they cannot assess.
Builders and supervisors
8 domains · assumes Foundation
Builds and supervises AI-assisted workflows: grounding tools in company knowledge, reusable templates, data readiness, supervising agents, incident response. Accountable for a team's AI outputs.
Governance
8 domains · assumes Practitioner
Sets AI policy and governance: people-decision rules, vendor due diligence, value measurement, the UK regulatory landscape, and the organisation's annual certification return.
For professionals
An AICI certificate is independently verifiable, level-specific, and career-portable — it belongs to you, not your employer, and anyone can check it on the public register. Start free, go as far as your ambition takes you.
Every hiring manager asks about AI. An AICI certificate gives you a specific, checkable answer — not a vendor badge, not a course completion, a professional credential with a public register entry behind it.
Begin with the free Foundation diagnostic to see where you stand, then prepare and sit the Foundation assessment whenever you are ready. Practitioner, Governance Lead, Enablement Lead and Board levels follow when your role and ambition take you there.
Your certificate is yours. It is listed on the register in your name, renews on your schedule, and follows you across roles and organisations — a career asset independent of any single employer.
For organisations
The AICI Certified Workforce mark is awarded to organisations where at least 80% of in-scope staff hold current certification. It turns a workforce capability claim into something any client, partner or regulator can independently verify.
Give clients and procurement teams independently verifiable evidence of AI competence — a public register entry they can check in seconds, not a policy document they have to take on trust.
People investing in their AI skills want to work somewhere that recognises and rewards it. Certification gives them something career-portable and externally credible.
Leadership teams with certified staff are better placed to set AI policy, respond to regulatory developments, and give boards the evidence they need to move decisively.
What a certified AI organisation looks like
Every employee who uses AI tools holds Foundation — the baseline for safe, effective everyday use across the whole organisation.
The people building AI-assisted workflows, supervising outputs, and accountable for how their team uses AI — one or more per team or practice area.
At least one Governance Lead per organisation, owning AI policy, governance, vendor oversight and the annual certification return — the person who can answer for the whole programme.
Free for everyone
Answer questions across all 8 AI domains, get an instant competency report showing your knowledge level in each one, and follow a personalised learning plan to close your gaps — all free, no account needed to start.
Answer up to 32 scenario-based questions across all 8 AI domains — foundations, data literacy, prompting, ethics, governance, security and more. No time pressure, no account needed.
See your knowledge level across every domain on a radar chart, find out which certifications you're already ready to attempt, and get a written profile of exactly where you stand.
Create your free account to unlock your plan, then work through the free library at your own pace. When you're ready, sit the Foundation assessment — it's free, and a pass earns your certificate on the public register.
No account needed to start · takes about 15 minutes · results instant · free