CodeSignal turned my book into an AI-assisted professional development course

As universities and companies scramble to bring agentic AI to learning, I was intrigued by CodeSignal's approach to using AI in a new course inspired by the book Future Rising

When I wrote the book Future Rising back in 2020, I never imagined that it would become the inspiration for a professional development course taught by agentic AI. And yet this is exactly what the online learning company CodeSignal has just done. And I’m both intrigued and impressed.

Future Rising is, at least in my mind, as far as you can get from a “how to” guide for developing and exercising professional workplace skills. It was always intended as more of a personal reflection on how to think about the future, and navigate our relationship with it.

And yet the folks at CodeSignal — a future-focused online learning company that leverages agentic AI in quite novel ways — clearly saw something that I didn’t. And so this summer, Future Rising became the inspiration of one of the company’s flagship courses in their new Expert Series — a series that transforms “influential books, lectures, and research into immersive, simulation-based courses.” ( their words, not mine!)¹

The result is the online program “Future Rising At Work with Andrew Maynard.” The program is spread across four courses and 16 modules, and covers everything from trend analysis and interconnectedness in organizations, to change management and organizational leadership.

Those courses include:

• Anticipating A Future Rising (focusing on recognizing future trends, understanding interconnectedness, committing to continuous learning, and strategically planning for opportunities);

• Navigating the Uniquely Human Side of Change (designed to help leaders navigate the emotional and human aspects of organizational change, with a focus on understanding and managing emotional responses)

• Building a Future Through Strategy (strategies for fostering a culture of innovation, even in unclear or difficult situations.)

• Leading a Future Rising (equipping leaders with the tools to navigate complex decision-making, foster human-centered leadership, and build resilient, accountable teams)

What makes these courses interesting (apart from the content, of course!) is how they blend CodeSignal’s signature agentic AI platform with the source material — in this case a translation of some of the elements and ideas in Future Rising into workplace-relevant insights and tools.

CodeSignal’s approach to using agentic AI in their learning environment has three key components:

AI Mentor

First, each module starts with a basic overview, including introducing the main focus and key learning objectives.

The basic information is accessible via text or video. But — and this is the first layer of CodeSignal’s agentic AI platform — learners also get to interact with the AI mentor and tutor “Cosmo,” who is there to guide them through every aspect of the course, as well as providing additional insights and support.

If you’ve used one of OpenAI’s GPT bots or similar you’ll have a good sense of what it’s like to interact with Cosmo — although in this case the AI is fine tuned on the course material to be an expert mentor, tutor, guide, and teacher.

To give you a very basic sense of this, I asked Cosmo to tell me about the corse’s first unit and its role in helping me learn:

Cosmo: This unit teaches you how to anticipate future trends through data analysis, expert insights, and team collaboration. You’ll learn to spot emerging patterns and prepare your organization for change. My role is to guide you by asking questions, offering hints, and helping you think critically without giving direct answers. I’m here to support your growth as a confident, forward-thinking leader. Together, we’ll make your learning journey engaging and effective! 🚀

And them because I couldn’t risk:

Me: I'm just an academic who knows a lot but really doesn't know much about real-world workplaces. What are the three most useful things I'll learn from this unit that even I can use?

Cosmo: Great question, Andrew! Here are three useful takeaways for you:

• How to spot and interpret emerging trends using real-world data.

• The value of engaging diverse perspectives, including experts and your team.

• Practical ways to prepare for multiple future scenarios, not just one.

These skills help bridge theory and practice, making your knowledge actionable in any setting. How do you think you might apply these in your own work?

It’s basic but effective — and just what most learners will need (not surprisingly as CodeSignal’s course developers come from learning and course design backgrounds).

AI Practice Sessions

Next come AI-generated practice sessions, where you are asked to put core skills into practice within a simulated professional environment. For instance you may be asked to draft an email in response to a request from your manager, or to problem-solve an emerging issue within your team, or to write a reflection on a particular scenario.

After you’ve completed the requested task, Cosmo assesses your response, provides feedback, and — importantly — suggests how you might improve things in the next iteration if you aren’t quite there yet. And the platform doesn’t let you progress until you’ve demonstrated the skills you’re supposed to be developing to a sufficient level.

No shortcuts here!

AI Role Play

Finally — and this is where I thought things get interesting — you have a one-on one role-play conversation with an AI-simulated colleague, where you get to exercise your developing professional skills in real time.

Again, you both get feedback from Cosmo on how you handle the situation and the conversation, and pointers to how you can iteratively improve if you’re not quite there yet.

This ability to practice — and even flub — real-world professional skills in a safe environment is incredibly useful. It’s something that emerging AI models excel at enabling, and is something that every student could benefit from before being released into the wild!

I am now certified!

Of course, I worked through all 16 modules across the three courses to check out the program — I have the certificates to prove it! And yes, I did need to go back and repeat some exercises, despite this being based on my own work.

And I must confess that I was impressed.

The professional skills covered are all quite basic. But they are also skills that every one of our graduating students should have — yet rarely don’t get to develop and practice before they graduate.

And while at times I found the links to Future Rising to be a little creative, the fact that all of the skills here are framed within a futures-perspective is as refreshing and as unique as it’s important in this day and age.

It must be one of the very few workplace skills courses out there that has such a clear focus on futures-thinking.

In terms of just how relevant the program is to aspiring or seasoned professionals, it’s hard for me to say — not because the program isn’t good, but because it’s been decades since I worked in the real world rather than the Ivory Tower of academia.² But then I’m not the target audience here.

What I will say is that, despite my academic naivety, I found the courses and the hands-on AI-led practices worth my time. And they are definitely something I’d recommend to my undergrads as well as others.

More broadly, this is an implementation of agentic AI-based learning that’s worth paying attention to as it demonstrates what AI-based learning environments are beginning to be capable of.

You can check out CodeSignal’s Future Rising at Work here – taking the courses is free, with upgrade options also available.

1. Full disclosure: If a gazillion people sign up for the paid version of the course (it’s free by default) I get a small cut from CodeSignal — worth being aware of as this isn’t an independent review (although you might have worked that out from the fact that it’s also my book they’re using 😊 However, the real ROI to me here is how it leverages and scales the ideas in Future Rising.

2. I’m probably over-egging the academic thing a bit — I do, contrary to what I might say or how it might appear — have at least half a foot in the “real” world!