[D4] Applied NLP: Building Chatbots & Language Systems

Description:
This advanced course is designed for developers and IT managers who want to integrate AI APIs into existing business applications. Learners will gain hands-on experience with REST APIs, authentication, rate limiting, and building real-world workflows powered by GPT, Claude, and Google Gemini.

Why: Conversational AI is one of the most marketable technical skills.

Tools: Rasa, Hugging Face Transformers, OpenAI API.

Outcomes:

• Train intent-based chatbots.
• Build a Q&A system.
• Deploy an NLP-driven assistant.

Prerequisite: Python for AI Professionals (#D1) or equivalent.

Course Outline:

• Module 1: Introduction to AI APIs (3 hrs)
  • REST API fundamentals.
  • Tools: Postman, Python Requests library.

• Module 2: Connecting to AI Models (4 hrs)
  • OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini APIs.
  • Authentication, API keys, and billing management.

• Module 3: Building API-Integrated Workflows (4 hrs)
  • Calling APIs for summarization, classification, and generation.
  • Integrating outputs into apps and dashboards.

• Module 4: Deploying AI-Powered Applications (4 hrs)
  • Error handling, rate limits, and scaling.
  • Capstone: build a working API-integrated application.

Learning Outcomes:

• Explain how AI APIs connect to business applications.
• Authenticate and make API requests with Postman and Python.
• Integrate GPT, Claude, and Gemini into workflows.
• Handle scaling and optimization challenges with APIs.
• Build a functional prototype of an AI-powered application.

Course Development Lead:
M. Osei is a Software Engineer with 15 years in enterprise integrations. He specializes in building AI-powered systems and training teams to adopt API-first architectures.