Ben Watson

I grew up in the edtech world and been fortunate to ride the various waves of transformation ( Skillsoft, Microsoft, Global Knowledge, Skillable)

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

🚀 Excited to announce our partnership with @LumifyWork! I’ve known them since their DDLS days and have always been impressed by their expertise and expansion across ANZ & PH.

By working with top-tier partners like Lumify, we’re accelerating @AICertsAI's mission to certify 1 billion people on the impact of AI.

Want to bring AI certifications to your region? Let’s talk!

🔗 Read more: https://t.co/yG7Ucx3RzS

#AI #AICerts #Upskilling #AIcertifications

[Ethan Mollick @emollick]

Teaching an experimental class for MBAs on “vibefounding,” the students have four days to come up and launch a company. More on this eventually, but quick observations:

1) I have taught entrepreneurship for over a decade. Everything they are doing in four days would have taken a semester in previous years, if it could have done it at all. Quality is also far better.

2) Give people tools and training and they can do amazing things. We are using a combination of Claude Code, Gemini, and ChatGPT. The non-coders are all building working products. But also everyone is doing weeks of high quality work on financials, research, pricing, positioning, marketing in hours. All the tools are weird to use, even with some training, but they are figuring it out.

3) People with experience in an industry or skill have a huge advantage as they can build solutions that have built-in markets & which solve known hard problems that seemed impossible. (Always been true, but the barriers have fallen to actually doing stuff)

4) The hardest thing to get across is that AI doesn’t just do work for you, it also does new kinds of work. The most successful efforts often take advantage of the fact that the AI itself is very smart. How do you bring its analytical, creative, and empathetic abilities to bear on a problem? What do you do with access to a very smart intelligence on demand?

I wish I had more frameworks to clearly teach. So many assumptions about how to launch a business have clearly changed. You don’t need to go through the same discovery process if you build a dozen ideas at the same time & get AI feedback. Many, many new possibilities, and the students really see how big a deal this is.

[AI CERTs @aicertsofficial]

An incredible week for AI CERTs® at #GITEXGLOBAL 2025, the world’s largest tech & startup show!
We launched the AI+ Chief AI Officer Certification with The Learning Initiative, led by Prof. Samir El-Masri, drawing 135+ attendees (and 2 regional ministers.)

Together, we’re building responsible, human-centered AI leadership worldwide.

#AICERTs #GITEXGLOBAL #AILeadership #ChiefAIOfficer #ResponsibleAI #AIInnovation #DigitalTransformation #AIinAction

[AI CERTs @aicertsofficial]

AI is moving fast. Like, really fast. And if you’re not keeping up, you’re falling behind. But don’t worry—we’ve got you.

For a limited time (until April 11!), we’re giving away our brand-new AI+ Foundation™ Certification for FREE.

What’s in it for you?
✅ Learn how to actually use AI, not just read about it
✅ Master prompt engineering (so AI works for you, not against you)
✅ Get an industry-recognized certification
✅ Stay ahead while everyone else plays catch-up

AI isn’t just for techies—it’s for everyone. So why wait?

Enroll Now: https://t.co/IWmSoUuMOf

#AI #AIForEveryone #AIcertification #AItraining #ArtificialIntelligence #AIRevolution #FutureOfWork #AIinEducation #TechSkills #AIFoundation #AICERTs #Upskill #Learning #AIForAll #TechCareers #AITraining

[AI CERTs @aicertsofficial]

Exciting News!

We are proud to announce that Kara Flanagan, Head of Partnerships at AI CERTs, has been recognized as one of THE AI SHOW @ ASU+GSV’s 2025 Leading Women in AI! This prestigious honor celebrates over 200 incredible women who are driving AI innovation in EdTech, research, and practice.

Don't miss your chance to connect with Kara in San Diego from April 5-7, 2025, at THE AI SHOW @ ASU+GSV’s 2025.

Click here to book a meeting and be part of the AI revolution!
https://t.co/TIiA4NblXz

#ASUGSVAIShow #AIinEducation #AICERTs #WomenInAI #AIRevolution #AIforEducators #AIinTech #FutureOfAI #AIcertifications

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

@marcmack Dibs

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

@SawyerMerritt Tesla is offering 0% APR on Model 3 and Model Y. And when you use my referral link, you can get up to $2,000 off as well https://t.co/zcpYU5Wmj6

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

@emollick It's a great reminder to ask ChatGPT "what is in your memory" and add/delete as necessary. When I did this, it was interesting what needed correcting.

[AI CERTs @aicertsofficial]

Excited to welcome Ben Watson as AI CERTs' new Chief Commercial Officer!

With a stellar career in edtech (Microsoft, Skillsoft, more), Ben's expertise will drive growth, partnerships, and innovation.

Join us in celebrating this milestone!

#AICERTs #Leadership #AI #EdTech

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

Check out my latest article: @CompTIA 's Surprise Sale: Thoma Bravo's Acquisition Shakes Up the IT Training Industry https://t.co/Qo24mriRVl

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

@kimmonismus this link worked for me - https://t.co/Wchrke92mc

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

@sama

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

@gsiemens @OpenAI @emollick @ASU Are the sessions recorded?

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

Check out my latest article: The Future of Self-Paced IT Training: The Rise of the Expert in a World of AI-Generated Content https://t.co/6o3UXyHueB

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

Check out my latest article: Instructors Reborn: How Coaching is Stealing the Spotlight from AI-Generated Content in Education https://t.co/KIOTp3DxLh

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

Check out my latest article: Why IT Training Needs to Go Backward to Move Forward with AI Content Creation https://t.co/Lazy7uqqXd

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

Ok, this is actually pretty cool and worth your time to read about the 'evolution' of One Million Checkboxes

[nolen @itseieio]

At the height of One Million Checkboxes's popularity I thought I'd been hacked. A few hours later I was tearing up, extraordinarily proud of some brilliant teens.

A thread about my favorite story from running OMCB....

[Andrew Ng @AndrewYNg]

I'm teaching a new course! AI Python for Beginners is a series of four short courses that teach anyone to code, regardless of current technical skill. We are offering these courses free for a limited time.

Generative AI is transforming coding. This course teaches coding in a way that’s aligned with where the field is going, rather than where it has been:

(1) AI as a Coding Companion. Experienced coders are using AI to help write snippets of code, debug code, and the like. We embrace this approach and describe best-practices for coding with a chatbot. Throughout the course, you'll have access to an AI chatbot that will be your own coding companion that can assist you every step of the way as you code.

(2) Learning by Building AI Applications. You'll write code that interacts with large language models to quickly create fun applications to customize poems, write recipes, and manage a to-do list. This hands-on approach helps you see how writing code that calls on powerful AI models will make you more effective in your work and personal projects.

With this approach, beginning programmers can learn to do useful things with code far faster than they could have even a year ago.

Knowing a little bit of coding is increasingly helping people in job roles other than software engineers. For example, I've seen a marketing professional write code to download web pages and use generative AI to derive insights; a reporter write code to flag important stories; and an investor automate the initial drafts of contracts.

With this course you’ll be equipped to automate repetitive tasks, analyze data more efficiently, and leverage AI to enhance your productivity.

If you are already an experienced developer, please help me spread the word and encourage your non-developer friends to learn a little bit of coding.

I hope you'll check out the first two short courses here! https://t.co/lTupltSZkT

[Instructure @Instructure]

Today we announced that Instructure has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by funds managed by KKR, a leading global investment firm, for $23.60 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at an Enterprise Value of approximately $4.8 billion. Learn more about the deal here: https://t.co/hO397gr6nH

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

For the full details of my departure, see - https://t.co/iJMB0j1cT5

[Ben Watson @benwatson]

𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬: 𝐀 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬!
After an incredible 6.5 years, I’ve made the decision to leave Skillable. I can no longer resist the lure of AI and the huge impact it will have on education - it's time to help drive the next disruption in edtech! It’s been an amazing journey at Skillable, and I’m grateful for every moment spent helping shape this company into the leading platform for hands-on learning and skill validation. From our early days as Learn on Demand Systems, we knew we had something magical, even if the details were still unfolding.

Follow me here on X to see where I end up next!