When you enroll in this course, you'll also be asked to select a specific program.
Learn new concepts from industry experts
Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
Earn a shareable career certificate
There are 3 modules in this course
Business demand for technical gen AI skills is exploding, and AI engineers who can work with large language models (LLMs) are in high demand. This Fundamentals of Building AI Agents using RAG and LangChain course builds job-ready skills that will fuel your AI career.
In this course, you’ll explore retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), prompt engineering, and LangChain concepts. You’ll learn about the RAG process, its applications, encoders and tokenizers, and the FAISS library for high-dimensional vector search. Then, you’ll apply in-context learning and advanced prompt engineering techniques, including prompt templates and example selectors, to generate accurate responses.
You’ll also work with LangChain’s tools, components, document loaders, retrievers, chains, and agents to simplify LLM-based application development. Through hands-on labs, you’ll develop AI agents that integrate LLMs, LangChain, and RAG technologies. You will also complete a real-world project you can showcase in interviews.
A comprehensive cheat sheet and glossary are included to reinforce your learning. Enroll today and build in-demand generative AI skills in just 8 hours!
In this module, you’ll explore what AI agents are, how they differ from traditional AI systems, and when it’s appropriate to use them. You’ll learn the basics of tool calling and how it enables AI agents to interact with external systems. Through a hands-on lab, you’ll build a simple AI agent from scratch and understand the benefits and limitations of agent-based approaches in real-world applications.
What's included
4 videos8 readings3 assignments1 app item
Show info about module content
4 videos•Total 25 minutes
Course Introduction•3 minutes
What are AI Agents?•12 minutes
Tool Calling for LLMs•5 minutes
Why AI Needs Tools: From Guessing to Real-World Action•5 minutes
8 readings•Total 59 minutes
Specialization Overview•7 minutes
Course Overview •10 minutes
Comparing AI System Designs•5 minutes
When to (and not to) use AI Agents•5 minutes
Methods for Creating AI Agents•7 minutes
Pros and Cons of AI Agent Frameworks vs. From Scratch•5 minutes
Module Summary: Fundamentals of AI Agents•10 minutes
Cheat Sheet: AI Agents Weather and Daily Dish•10 minutes
3 assignments•Total 34 minutes
Graded Quiz: Fundamentals of AI Agents•15 minutes
Practice Quiz: Introduction to AI Agents•9 minutes
Practice Quiz: Getting Started with Tool Calling•10 minutes
1 app item•Total 30 minutes
Lab: Building AI Agents from Scratch with Python•30 minutes
RAG Framework
Module 2•3 hours to complete
Module details
In this module, you will explore the fundamentals of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and how it is applied to generate more accurate and context-aware responses in applications such as chatbots and intelligent AI agents. You will learn about the complete RAG process, including its integration with LangChain for building modular and scalable AI solutions. The module covers key components such as dense passage retrieval (DPR), which uses a context encoder and a question encoder, each paired with tokenizers to convert text into a machine-readable format. It also introduces the Facebook AI similarity search (FAISS) library, developed by Facebook AI Research, for performing efficient similarity searches in high-dimensional vector spaces.
Additionally, you will gain hands-on experience through labs that focus on implementing RAG-based systems using two major machine learning frameworks: Hugging Face, for retrieving information from datasets, and PyTorch, for evaluating content relevance and generating meaningful responses.
What's included
2 videos2 readings2 assignments2 app items
Show info about module content
2 videos•Total 17 minutes
RAG•7 minutes
RAG, Encoders, and FAISS•10 minutes
2 readings•Total 12 minutes
Reading: Summary and Highlights •2 minutes
Cheat Sheet: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) with Hugging Face and PyTorch•10 minutes
2 assignments•Total 24 minutes
Graded Quiz: RAG Framework•15 minutes
Practice Quiz: Introduction to RAG•9 minutes
2 app items•Total 120 minutes
Lab: RAG with Hugging Face•60 minutes
Lab: RAG with PyTorch•60 minutes
Prompt Engineering and LangChain
Module 3•4 hours to complete
Module details
In this module, you will learn about in-context learning and advanced prompt engineering techniques to design and refine prompts for generating relevant and accurate AI responses. You’ll then explore the LangChain framework, an open-source interface that simplifies AI application development using large language models (LLMs). The key concepts covered include LangChain’s tools, components, and chat models, as well as prompt templates, example selectors, and output parsers. You’ll also examine LangChain’s document loader and retriever, chains, and agents to build intelligent applications. Through hands-on labs, you’ll apply these concepts to enhance LLM applications and develop an AI agent that integrates LLM, LangChain, and RAG for interactive and efficient document retrieval. Additionally, a comprehensive cheat sheet and glossary are available to reinforce your learning.
What's included
6 videos6 readings2 assignments3 app items
Show info about module content
6 videos•Total 34 minutes
Introduction to LangChain•4 minutes
Introduction to Prompt Engineering and In-Context Learning•6 minutes
Advanced Methods of Prompt Engineering•6 minutes
LangChain: Core Concepts•7 minutes
LangChain Documents for Building RAG Applications•4 minutes
LangChain Chains and Agents for Building Applications•7 minutes
6 readings•Total 34 minutes
Summary and Highlights•3 minutes
Cheat Sheet: Fundamentals of Building AI Agents using RAG and LangChain•20 minutes
Glossary: Fundamentals of Building AI Agents using RAG and LangChain•5 minutes
Course Conclusion•2 minutes
Congratulations and Next Steps•2 minutes
Thanks from the Course Team•2 minutes
2 assignments•Total 39 minutes
Graded Quiz: Prompt Engineering and LangChain•21 minutes
Practice Quiz: Prompt Engineering and LangChain•18 minutes
3 app items•Total 115 minutes
Lab: In-Context Engineering and Prompt Templates•30 minutes
Lab: LangChain•40 minutes
Summarize Private Documents Using RAG, LangChain, and LLMs•45 minutes
Earn a career certificate
Add this credential to your LinkedIn profile, resume, or CV. Share it on social media and in your performance review.
Instructors
Instructor ratings
Instructor ratings
We asked all learners to give feedback on our instructors based on the quality of their teaching style.
At IBM, we know how rapidly tech evolves and recognize the crucial need for businesses and professionals to build job-ready, hands-on skills quickly. As a market-leading tech innovator, we’re committed to helping you thrive in this dynamic landscape. Through IBM Skills Network, our expertly designed training programs in AI, software development, cybersecurity, data science, business management, and more, provide the essential skills you need to secure your first job, advance your career, or drive business success. Whether you’re upskilling yourself or your team, our courses, Specializations, and Professional Certificates build the technical expertise that ensures you, and your organization, excel in a competitive world.
How long does it take to complete the Specialization?
With 3-4 hours of study, you can complete this course and build the job-ready skills you need to impress an employer within just eight hours!
Do I need any background knowledge to complete this course successfully?
This course is intermediate level, so to get the most out of your learning, you must have basic knowledge of Python and PyTorch. You should also be familiar with machine learning and neural network concepts, and it is helpful if you are familiar with language modeling, transformer models, GPT, and fine-tuning fundamentals.
Which roles can I perform after completing this course?
This course is part of the Generative AI Engineering with LLMs specialization. When you complete this course, you will have the skills and confidence to take on jobs such as AI engineer, NLP engineer, machine learning engineer, deep learning engineer, data scientist, or software seeking to work with LLMs.
Do I need any specific software or tools to complete the course successfully?
Only a modern web browser is required to complete this course and all hands-on labs.
You will be provided access to cloud-based environments to complete the labs at no charge.
When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
To access the course materials, assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience when you enroll in a course. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid. The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.
What will I get if I subscribe to this Certificate?
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Certificate, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.