Cisco Introduction to Modern AI: free course for everyday AI use
Cisco Networking Academy lists Introduction to Modern AI among its free, self-paced courses. It covers chatbots, prompting, computer vision and translation, with a badge.
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What it is
Introduction to Modern AI is a course from Cisco Networking Academy. Cisco's Networking Academy page describes it as learning "to use AI in your daily life, craft effective prompt chatbots, and use computer vision and machine translation". The Credly page for its badge says learners practise using AI features on free apps, such as photo apps, translation services and chatbots, and get in-depth practice prompting a chatbot. It is a general-user course, not a coding course.
Is it free
Yes, according to Cisco. Its Networking Academy page says "Explore our free, self-paced online courses" and lists Introduction to Modern AI among them. The current course page also explicitly shows FREE, 6 HOURS, BEGINNER and SELF-PACED, with a Get Started With Self-Paced button. Six hours is the listed estimate, not a guaranteed completion time. We did not sign up, enrol or claim a badge.
Is it available in India
We could not confirm this. The Cisco pages we read do not list countries.
How to find it
- Open Cisco’s Networking Academy overview and find Introduction to Modern AI.
- Use its Explore course link, then check the current course language, time estimate, account terms and enrolment rules.
- Read the assessment and badge rules before starting. We did not verify these account-level steps.
What you get
- A Cisco Networking Academy digital badge. The Credly badge page says the earning criterion is a passing score on a comprehensive exam. The specific public badge example we checked was issued on 31 August 2025. This is evidence of a past award, not the earliest issue date or proof that every current learner can enrol or claim a badge.
- Topics named by Cisco and Credly: AI basics, machine learning, computer vision, machine translation, chatbots and prompting tips.
Limits to know
- An older Cisco sign-up page for this course still says "Coming Soon" and describes 50 video lectures and 4 hours of video. The current Cisco overview card lists a six-hour duration. Four hours of video and a six-hour course estimate are different measures, not necessarily a conflict. A public badge issued in August 2025 shows past completion, while the old launch-notification page still says coming soon. Use Cisco’s current course link rather than that notification form and verify the live syllabus before planning your time.
- The current course page lists English and several other languages, but Hindi was not in the displayed list we read. Do not assume a Hindi version or that translated chatbot output replaces course-language support.
- We did not review Networking Academy's privacy terms or what data a free account collects.
- A digital completion badge is not a degree, Cisco professional certification or job guarantee. Check the course’s current pass rules and badge-claim terms; we did not verify a pass percentage or fee for any separate certification exam.
- Practice with non-sensitive examples. Do not paste client work, student personal data or private documents into external chatbots or translation/photo services unless you have permission. Free course access does not guarantee all third-party app features remain free.
- We did not test the course ourselves, complete an exam or claim a badge.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cisco's Introduction to Modern AI free?
Cisco lists it among its free, self-paced Networking Academy courses. We did not find a price.
Sources: Cisco Networking Academy, Current course page, Older launch-notification page, Credly badge page. Checked 11 October 2026.