From BI to AI:
Making Data-Driven Decisions with Agentic AI
Instructor
Kerry Back
kerry.e.back@rice.edu
J. Howard Creekmore Professor of Finance and Professor of Economics
AI agents that understand plain English, query your data, and deliver answers instantly are transforming how organizations make decisions. This eight-session course gives you hands-on experience building and using these tools — no coding background required.
You’ll use AI to wrangle data, generate charts and reports, solve optimization problems, and automate workflows. You’ll learn how to build custom AI agents that connect to databases and documents, how to secure them for enterprise use, and how to develop an implementation plan for your organization.
The AI Lab provides each participant with cloud-based access to Claude Code so you can work with AI tools without installing software or subscribing to an AI provider.
Session 1: The AI Landscape. Chatbots and agents, the major models, large language models from 30,000 feet, API calls, Claude skills and connectors, AI reliability.
Session 2: Code Execution and Data Wrangling. Terminal commands and Python and SQL scripts. Querying databases, merging and filtering data, generating charts and Excel workbooks.
Session 3: Decision Making. Optimization, resource allocation, and exploring tradeoffs between competing objectives.
Session 4: Automating Workflows. Building AI skills for repeatable tasks and web apps that produce analysis on demand.
Session 5: AI Security. Enterprise data agreements, prompt injection, and data exfiltration defenses.
Session 6: Agents and Connectors. Building agents that connect to external services, query databases, and run scripts for data analysis and optimization.
Session 7: Special Topics. Teaching AI your company’s documents, predictive modeling, running open-source models locally, and fine-tuning.
Session 8: Capstone. Pitch your implementation plan and get peer feedback.
Each session is 90 minutes and includes instruction, demos, hands-on exercises, and group discussion.