Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving rapidly from the margins of technology to the centre of how people work, build businesses and compete. Yet as technology advances, many people are still asking a more basic question: Where do I even begin?

Jamaican entrepreneur Aldain Reid believes the answer is not more fear, but greater capability.

Reid has launched INQUIZ Labs, the Academy of Applied Intelligence, a Kingston-founded online academy designed to take complete beginners from uncertainty about artificial intelligence to confidently using it to solve real-world problems.

Its flagship AI Mastery Certificate is a 12-module, self-paced programme delivered over approximately eight weeks, with no coding required. The programme is designed to move learners from AI anxiety to AI action by giving them the practical skills and confidence to work with the technology.

The launch comes at a pivotal moment for the global workforce. Microsoft and LinkedIn’s Work Trend Index, based on research involving thousands of business leaders across 31 countries, found that 71 per cent of leaders would prefer to hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills over a more experienced candidate without them. The World Economic Forum’s employer research has also identified AI and big data among the fastest-growing skills through 2030.

For Reid, those findings reinforce a reality that businesses and workers can no longer afford to ignore.

“The honest version of the story is not that AI is coming for anyone’s job,” said Reid, founder of INQUIZ Labs. “It is that someone using AI is. That is a very different problem, because it has a solution you can start tonight. Fear is not a strategy. Capability is, and capability is learnable by ordinary people, in weeks.”

INQUIZ Labs is built on the belief that AI education should not be reserved for programmers, data scientists or technology professionals. The academy focuses instead on practical application, enabling people with little or no technical background to understand what AI can do and, more importantly, build something useful with it.

Learners progress through 12 modules at their own pace, so they can fit the programme around their working lives, including jobs, shift work, and family responsibilities. They are supported by an expert help desk, with responses within one business day, and complete the programme by designing, building and deploying a working AI agent — a practical tool that addresses a real problem from their own work or life.

Graduates receive the AI Mastery Certificate, accompanied by an individual, verifiable credential number.

Reid sees the academy’s launch as particularly timely for Jamaica, where the national conversation around artificial intelligence is moving from awareness to implementation. In June 2026, the Government announced its $545 million Growing AI Innovation and National Skills Programme (GAINS), designed to deliver AI skills certification and employment pathways across Jamaica’s 63 constituencies.

“When a government commits over half a billion dollars to AI skills, as Jamaica has through the GAINS programme, the debate about whether this matters is over,” Reid said. “We think that the national push is exactly right. Our job is the next step: moving people from learning about AI to building with it. The country is moving. Nobody should be left watching.”

Reid brings more than two decades of experience across engineering, technology, education and business. His work has spanned energy consultancy and technology ventures in health, hospitality AI, education technology and data protection. He is also a member of the executive council of the Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association and a recipient of the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Award (2023) and Jamaica National Innovation Award (2018).

That breadth of experience has shaped his conviction that technological transformation is ultimately about people — and their ability to adapt.

“I have built across health, tourism and technology, and the lesson is the same everywhere: the future belongs to the people who build it,” Reid said. “This academy exists to widen who gets to be one of them.”

INQUIZ Labs is also designed to help businesses make that transition collectively. Companies can enrol entire departments through group enrolment at significantly reduced per-seat rates, beginning with a Private AI Capability Review that maps existing workflows against opportunities where AI could improve productivity, efficiency and execution.

The approach reflects Reid’s broader view that AI adoption should move beyond experimentation and become an organisational capability.

For individuals, that means developing the confidence to incorporate AI into everyday work and decision-making. For businesses, it means identifying where AI can create measurable value and equipping employees to use the technology effectively.

In a market increasingly defined by technological change, INQUIZ Labs is positioning itself around a simple proposition: people do not need to become computer scientists to participate in the AI economy. They need the opportunity to learn, experiment, build and apply.

Reid believes Jamaica has a significant opportunity to develop that capability locally while preparing its people to compete globally.

“The future is not simply about who has access to AI,” he said. “It is about who knows what to do with it. We want to help more people move from asking what AI means for them to discovering what they can build with it.”