Technical

AI Agents & Automation

Building AI systems that actually work. A grounded, practical course on agents, automation and orchestration — without the hype, without the jargon, and with real working examples you can build yourself.

22+ hours
9 Modules
Intermediate
200+ Workshops

What You'll Learn

Grounded, practical agent and automation knowledge — deliberately anti-hype.

Agent Fundamentals

What agents actually are, the difference between chatbots, workflows and autonomous agents.

Build Your Own Agent

Step-by-step construction, testing, iteration and common pitfalls to avoid.

RAG Explained

What RAG is, when to use it, document processing and vector databases made simple.

Multi-Agent Systems

Agent swarms, orchestration patterns, handoffs and coordination strategies.

Automation Stack

Zapier, Make, n8n, custom scripts — when to use what and integration patterns.

Safety & Governance

Guardrails, human-in-the-loop, monitoring and responsible deployment.

Workflow Design

Mapping processes, identifying automation candidates and designing reliable systems.

Real-World Projects

Complete build-alongs: research agent, content pipeline, customer service system.

Course Curriculum

9 modules cutting through the hype with grounded, practical knowledge.

01

What AI Agents Actually Are

4 lessons

Definitions that actually make sense
Agent vs chatbot vs workflow
Anatomy of an agent
Current state of reality (not hype)
02

The Agent Architecture

5 lessons

Planning and reasoning
Memory systems
Tool use and function calling
Feedback loops
Single vs multi-agent systems
03

Building Your First Agent

5 lessons

Step-by-step agent construction
Tool selection and setup
Testing and iteration
Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
Your first working agent
04

RAG Explained Simply

5 lessons

What RAG is and why it matters
When to use RAG (and when not to)
Document processing pipelines
Vector databases demystified
Practical RAG implementation
05

Multi-Agent Systems

4 lessons

Agent swarms and orchestration
Handoff patterns between agents
Specialisation and coordination
When multi-agent is overkill
06

The Automation Stack

5 lessons

Zapier for AI automation
Make (Integromat) workflows
n8n and open-source options
When to use what tool
Integration patterns and best practices
07

AI Workflow Design

4 lessons

Mapping processes for automation
Identifying automation candidates
Designing reliable systems
Error handling and edge cases
08

Agent Safety & Governance

4 lessons

Guardrails and safety boundaries
Human-in-the-loop design
Monitoring and testing
Responsible deployment practices
09

Real-World Agent Projects

5 lessons

Build-along: Research agent
Build-along: Content pipeline
Build-along: Customer service system
Build-along: Data analyst agent
Your custom agent project

Who This Course Is For

Curious Professionals

Technically curious professionals wanting to understand agents (no coding required).

Business Analysts

Business analysts and operations managers exploring process automation.

Developers

Developers wanting structured, practical agent knowledge beyond tutorials.

Innovation Teams

Innovation teams evaluating AI automation opportunities for their organisations.

RC

Your Instructor

Rupert Chesman

Filmmaker turned AI educator with years of experience teaching AI and creating AI courses enjoyed by thousands of students. Rupert builds working agent systems, not theoretical frameworks — his deliberately anti-hype approach cuts through the noise to deliver practical, honest knowledge about what agents can and can't do today.

1000s of Students
70+ Countries
200+ Workshops
Filmmaker + AI Educator

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to know how to code?

No. The course is designed for technically curious people who may not be developers. Many of the tools and platforms covered — Zapier, Make, n8n — use visual interfaces. Where code does appear, it’s explained step by step. Developers will find the structured approach valuable, but coding is not a prerequisite.

What does “intermediate level” actually mean? What should I know before starting?

You should be comfortable using AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude, and have a basic grasp of concepts like prompting, tokens, and context windows. If you’ve been using AI regularly for a few months, or you’ve completed a fundamentals-level AI course, you’re ready. You don’t need any background in automation or programming.

Is this just another hype course about AI agents?

The opposite. This course is deliberately anti-hype. It teaches you what agents actually can and can’t do today, when simpler automation is the better choice, and how to evaluate the many overblown claims in this space. If you want honest, grounded knowledge rather than breathless predictions about autonomous AI, this is the right course.

Will I actually build working agents, or is it all theory?

You’ll build real, working systems. Module 3 walks you through your first agent, and Module 9 contains four complete build-along projects: a research agent, a content pipeline, a customer service system, and a data analyst. These are functional systems you can adapt for your own needs, not toy demos.

What tools and platforms does the course cover?

The course covers the full automation stack: Zapier, Make, and n8n for workflow automation, plus multiple agent frameworks for building AI agents. Rather than going deep on one platform, the focus is on understanding patterns and architectures that transfer across tools — so your knowledge stays relevant as the landscape shifts.

How is this different from the Mastering AI Tools course?

Mastering AI Tools gives you broad, practical capability across the full AI landscape — prompting, image generation, vibe coding, and more. This course goes deep on one specific area: building AI agents and automation systems. There’s some natural overlap in the automation modules, but this course covers agent architecture, RAG, multi-agent systems, and safety frameworks in much more depth. Many students take both.

What’s covered in the safety and governance module?

Module 8 covers the practical side of deploying agents responsibly: what can go wrong, how to set guardrails, how to monitor agent behaviour, and how to build governance frameworks that satisfy both technical and organisational requirements. This isn’t abstract ethics — it’s the operational knowledge you need before putting agents into production.

How long will the course take to complete?

The course covers nine modules with build-along projects throughout. The projects in Module 9 take the most time, but they’re also where the deepest learning happens. For the fastest results, join a live lesson where Rupert guides you through the material with real-time support — contact us to find out when the next one runs.

Do I need paid subscriptions to any of the tools?

Most of the platforms covered have free tiers that are sufficient for the course exercises. Some tools may require a paid plan if you want to use them at scale after the course, but the lessons are designed so you can follow along without spending money on subscriptions.

Is this course suitable for someone who wants to bring automation to their team at work?

Very much so. The course is structured to give you both the technical understanding and the strategic framing to propose and implement AI automation within an organisation. The workflow design module and the build-along projects are specifically chosen because they map to common business needs — research, content, customer service, and data analysis.

How much does the live lesson cost?

The live lesson is $220 AUD ($150 USD) per person for the course. It covers the same core material in an instructor-led format with real-time Q&A, group exercises, and direct feedback from Rupert.

When is the next live lesson?

Contact us to find out about the next live lesson.

About the Expert

Rupert Chesman

AI Educator · Filmmaker · Author of The AI-Native Playbook

Rupert has trained thousands of professionals across corporate workshops, online courses, and live intensives — turning complex AI concepts into practical, immediately applicable skills. As an filmmaker and creative technologist, he brings a unique perspective that bridges technical capability and real-world application.

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