RSS Amplifier

AI Action Letter · Jul 23, 2026

I Ranked Every AI Certification But Which One Should YOU Take?

Read inOriginalenesdefrptjaittr
0
Sign in to vote or save

This page did not load. You can still read it on the original site — the toolbar below keeps your place in the directory.

AI Action Letter #53: The S-to-D Tier List of AI Certificates, With Every Link, Plus Which One to Take Based on Your Job

In this mad AI rush, people just want to take every AI certification there is, without even looking at the course content.

Last week, a member of the AI Action Letter community asked me if they should take an AI certification. Four AI certificates. About $600 total. She was ready to buy all of them “to be safe.”

I asked her to stop.

Because here’s the thing nobody tells you.

Most AI certificates are worthless on a resume.

Not bad. Just invisible. A recruiter’s eyes slide right past them.

But there are a few that matter.

The problem is they all look the same from the outside. Same landing pages. Same “advance your career” copy. Same shiny badge at the end. You can’t tell the $100 cert that gets you hired from the 3-month grind that gets you nothing.

So I did the boring work. I went through every major AI certificate, checked the proctoring, the prep hours, the cost, and what recruiters actually say in hiring threads.

Then I ranked them S to D, and I put the real links under each one so you can go straight to the source.

I just want to clarify that I am not paid by any of these companies.

One number to anchor on.

Lightcast (the labor-data folks) found that credentials that show up by name in job postings carry a 12 to 18% salary premium. The ones that don’t show up by name carry nothing. That’s the whole game. Named and tested beats generic and easy, every single time.

If you’re a non-tech person trying to break into AI, I recommend these:

Read on if you want to understand which certifications matter:

S-Tier: elite ROI. Take these.

  • DeepLearning.AI Machine Learning Specialization (Andrew Ng): The closest thing tech has to a universal gold standard. Stanford brand, moderate effort, and the widest recruiter recognition of any AI credential. If you take one thing off this whole list, this is it.

  • Claude Certified Architect (CCA, Foundations): Anthropic’s first official cert, launched March 2026. Proctored through Pearson VUE, 60 questions, 120 minutes, 720 out of 1000 to pass. It tests agents, MCP (Model Context Protocol), and real LLM system design, the highest-demand skill set in AI right now, and almost nobody has it yet. Two honest catches: it’s built for people who’ve actually shipped with the Claude API, and the exam runs through the Claude Partner Network (you need a company or partner email to register). The learning, though, is free.

A-Tier: high value. Strong picks.

  • Microsoft Azure AI Engineer (now AI-103): Heads up, the old AI-102 exam retired June 30, 2026. It’s replaced by the Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate, exam AI-103, which leans into generative AI, RAG, and agent workflows. Harder proctored exam ($165), but enterprises running Azure OpenAI hire for exactly this. Huge B2B weight.

  • Google AI Essentials: About 5 to 10 hours, no coding, and you walk away with a verifiable Google credential. Quick note on cost: it’s roughly $49/month on Coursera now, not free, so knock it out fast.

B-Tier: solid, but niche.

C-Tier: high utility, low resume signal.

D-Tier: skip these.

  • IBM AI Engineering Professional Certificate: Three to six months of real coursework, and recruiters still rank the IBM brand below AWS and Google for this. Brutal time-to-value.

  • Unaccredited “AI Expert” certificates (generic Udemy-style courses): No proctoring, no standard curriculum. Near-zero signal to a hiring manager. Don’t pay for these. No link on purpose.

Okay. That’s the raw ranking.

But a tier list is a blunt tool. The right cert depends entirely on what you do. An S-tier cert for an ML engineer can be a total waste of money for a marketer. So here’s the part that actually matters.

If you’re a non-tech person breaking in

Start with Google AI Essentials. It’s built for exactly this, no coding, real Google name on it. Then add AWS AI Practitioner once you want something proctored that clears resume filters. Two certs, both accessible, and you’ve got a credible AI story. Skip anything with “engineer” in the name for now.

If you’re a marketer

HubSpot AI for Marketers first, because it’s free and you’ll use the campaign frameworks on Monday. Then Google AI Essentials for the general credibility layer. Don’t waste a second on AWS or Azure certs. They signal nothing for a marketing role and eat weeks you don’t have.

If you’re a product manager

You live between the business and the engineers, so you need to speak both. Google AI Essentials or AWS AI Practitioner for the shared vocabulary, then the Claude Certified Architect if your product touches agents or LLM features. That last one is a flex most PMs can’t match, and it makes you the person in the room who actually gets how the thing works.

If you’re an entrepreneur or founder

You don’t need a badge for a boss. You need to build fast and sound credible to customers and investors. Skip the resume-filter certs. Do DeepLearning.AI’s Generative AI with LLMs to actually understand what you’re shipping, and the Claude Certified Architect if you’re building agent products. Learn the thing. The credential is a side effect.

Build your own roadmap in 2 minutes

I can’t cover every job in one newsletter. So here’s a prompt. Paste it into Claude or ChatGPT, fill in the blanks, and it’ll build you a personal cert roadmap using this exact tier list.

You are a career strategist who specializes in AI credentials.
My situation:
- My current role: [e.g. marketing manager / PM / lawyer / student]
- My goal in 12 months: [e.g. land an AI PM role / add AI to my job]
- Hours per week I can study: [e.g. 5]
- Budget for certs: [e.g. $200]
- Coding comfort (1-5): [e.g. 2]
Using this tier list (S: DeepLearning.AI ML Specialization, Claude
Certified Architect. A: AWS AI Practitioner, Azure AI-103, Google AI
Essentials, GitHub Foundations. B: Gen AI with LLMs, Azure AI-900,
HubSpot AI for Marketers. C: Vanderbilt Prompt Engineering, LinkedIn
GenAI. D: IBM AI Engineering, generic Udemy certs):
1. Pick the 2 to 3 certs that fit MY role and goal. Ignore the rest.
2. Put them in the order I should take them, with a reason for each.
3. Give me a week-by-week schedule that fits my hours and budget.
4. Flag anything that's a waste of time for someone in my position.
Ask me one clarifying question before you answer if anything is unclear.

That last line matters. It makes the AI interview you before it guesses, which is the same trick from last week’s issue.

If you’re finding value in these AI Action Letters, please consider subscribing. It keeps me going.

AI Action Letter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I built the full ranked guide out even further, with the deeper roadmap for every S-tier cert and the exact order to stack them. Comment “certificate” on my latest reel and I’ll DM it to you.

If you know someone staring at a cart full of AI certificates they’re not sure about, please share this with them. It’ll save them real money.

Thanks for reading AI Action Letter! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Share

That’s it from me today.

Till next time. Stay tuned as I will share best resources from both my Harvard and Google networks to bring the best to you. Let’s up skill together. Aspyre higher!

Read on abhijayvuyyuru.substack.com ↗

Comments

Nothing yet. Say the first thing.

    Sign in to join the conversation.