Introduction to Building with AI

Building with AI takes you from everyday chatbot use to hands-on AI building. Across the course, you will learn how AI applications communicate through APIs, how model settings and prompts shape behavior, what makes an AI agent different from a chatbot, and how to build, connect, publish, and review an agent using modern no-code, low-code, and AI-assisted development tools.

You will start by setting up your OpenAI and n8n accounts, creating an API key, and using the OpenAI Playground to understand requests, responses, tools, variables, saved prompts, and exported code. From there, you will learn the core agent model: brain, instructions, knowledge, tools, guardrails, and the observe-think-act-check loop.

Then you will build your first agent visually in Agent Builder, add built-in tools, connect external services through MCP, publish a workflow, and deploy it through a terminal or ChatKit-powered web interface.

The course also shows you how to think beyond one tool. You will compare Agent Builder with vibe coding tools like Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and Google AI Studio Build Mode, and you will learn how Skills and scheduled automations turn AI coding assistants into reusable systems that can handle recurring work. In the capstone, you will bring everything together by scoping, building, testing, publishing, documenting, and reviewing an agent that solves a real problem in your work or life.

What you'll learn: 

  • Explain the difference between using AI and building with AI.
  • Describe what APIs do and make basic OpenAI API calls through the Playground.
  • Read API responses, adjust model behavior, save reusable prompts, and export working code.
  • Explain what an AI agent is and map an agent into its core components.
  • Build and publish a workflow in OpenAI Agent Builder.
  • Add built-in tools such as Web Search, File Search, Code Interpreter, and Image Generation.
  • Connect agents to external services through MCP and evaluate MCP servers for security and trust.
  • Deploy a published agent through terminal code export or a ChatKit web interface.
  • Use vibe coding tools to build custom apps, interfaces, and supporting workflows.
  • Apply guardrails, approval patterns, evals, trace review, and versioning to make agents more reliable.
  • 3hr 10m of video instruction 
  • 5 lessons
Patrick Jones - Course author
Meet YOUR instructor

Grant Harvey

Grant is the voice of The Neuron, the daily newsletter delivering no-hype insights on how AI is changing the world around us, along with co-hosting The Neuron’s weekly podcast.