A Practical Learning Path for Building Human-Centred Conversational AI

Conversational AI has moved from experimentation to infrastructure. Assistants now support customer service, healthcare, finance, internal operations, and decision-making at scale. As these systems become more capable, the skills required to design, train, and govern them have changed.

Strong conversational AI is not created by models alone. It is created by people who understand how humans communicate, how systems interpret language, how behaviour is shaped through interaction, and how responsibility must be embedded into design decisions.

The Conversation Design Institute offers a structured learning path for professionals and teams building conversational AI in the real world. Our courses focus on practical capability, shared language, and long-term quality, not trends or tools.

Together, these four courses cover the essential disciplines behind effective, human-centred conversational systems

Conversation Designer 1 introduces conversation design as a professional practice. It focuses on how structured conversations are planned, designed, and evaluated to meet user needs and business goals.

This course is about learning to think in conversations rather than screens. Participants develop an understanding of how users move through conversational experiences, how systems should respond, and how clarity and structure reduce friction.

Conversation Designer 1 is ideal for those entering conversational AI, UX writers expanding into conversational interfaces, and teams looking to establish shared foundations for quality and consistency.

As conversational systems grow more sophisticated, design moves beyond flows into behaviour. Conversation Designer 2 focuses on advanced conversation design, where psychology, motivation, and persona shape how assistants influence user actions.

This course explores how assistants guide, persuade, and support users while remaining ethical and intentional. It addresses the design of personality, tone, and consistency across complex, multi-turn interactions.

Conversation Designer 2 is designed for experienced practitioners who are shaping not just what an assistant says, but how it behaves over time and how users experience it emotionally.

Even well-designed conversations fail when systems misunderstand users. AI Trainer 1 focuses on the discipline of training conversational AI so it can reliably interpret intent, language variation, and real-world behaviour.

This course introduces how conversational AI systems learn, how performance is measured, and how training decisions affect accuracy and user experience. It emphasises structured thinking, analysis, and iteration rather than guesswork.

AI Trainer 1 is suited for analysts, developers, conversation designers seeking technical depth, and professionals transitioning into AI training roles. It builds the skills needed to maintain and improve AI systems over time.

Each course addresses a different layer of conversational AI capability:

• Conversation design establishes structure and clarity
• Behaviour design shapes influence and experience
• AI training ensures understanding and reliability
• Ethics anchors responsibility and trust

Together, they reflect how conversational AI is actually built and maintained in production environments.

Rather than focusing on tools or platforms, the Conversation Design Institute focuses on transferable skills that remain relevant as technology evolves.

Learn more about our courses and certifications and find the right path for your role or team.