Building AI Agent Systems

Prerequisites: Introduction to Generative AI with Python and LLMs and Application Development with LLMs

Building AI Agent Systems is the third and final required course in Villanova’s Generative AI Certificate. Building on the foundational AI fluency developed in Introduction to Generative AI with Python and LLMs and the applied development experience gained in Application Development with LLMs, this course helps learners explore more advanced generative AI architectures, workflows and multimodal systems.

Learners deepen their work with retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, and vector databases while exploring how LLM-based workflows can be designed for more complex tasks. The course also introduces image generation tools, multimodal prompting and lightweight fine-tuning strategies such as LoRA, helping learners understand how generative AI systems can be adapted, extended and applied across different types of content and use cases.

Throughout the course, learners examine how generative AI systems can be evaluated and improved with attention to grounding, bias, hallucination risks and responsible use. As the final course in the certificate sequence, Building AI Agent Systems brings together technical application, system design and ethical evaluation to support more thoughtful development of AI-powered tools and workflows.

What You'll Learn in This Course

By the end of the course, learners should be able to:

• Design and implement LLM-based workflows using RAG and vector databases
• Apply image generation tools and multimodal prompts to build generative AI applications
• Customize language models using lightweight fine-tuning strategies such as LoRA
• Evaluate and improve generative AI systems for grounding, bias, hallucinations and responsible use
• Explore how agentic systems and model context protocols can support more structured AI workflows
• Apply testing and evaluation practices to strengthen trust, reliability and responsible system performance

Do You Need Prior Experience?

This course builds directly on Introduction to Generative AI with Python and LLMs and Application Development with LLMs, which are the prerequisites for enrollment.

Learners should have foundational familiarity with Python, prompting and basic LLM concepts before beginning this course. Advanced software development experience is not required, but learners should be prepared to work hands-on with coding environments, APIs and guided application-building exercises.

Course Specifics

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