Setting Up Your AI Environment

This is the first in a three-part workshop series designed to help non-technical people build the practical skills they need to become AI leaders.

Note: This session is cross-listed in Vibe Code AI for Absolute Beginners
Being an AI leader doesn’t mean writing thousands of lines of code. It means having the confidence to understand how AI tools and systems fit together, guide projects, and spot opportunities others might miss. That confidence starts with knowing which tools your teams need to master for building AI apps.

In this first workshop, we’ll focus on the foundations. Together, we’ll set up your environment, verify that everything is working, and take a short “test flight” to connect with an AI model. By the end, you’ll be prepared to earn your first badge and move on to the next stages in the series.

What You’ll Build and Verify
A fully working AI-ready environment where:

• You can run Python code inside VS Code with uv managing your environment
• You can securely connect to an LLM API and send a simple request
• You can launch and view a basic Streamlit web app in your browser
• You know how to troubleshoot common setup issues

Workshop Stages
Stage 1: Installing and Verifying Your Tools

• Install VS Code, uv, and Python
• Learn the role each plays in your workflow

Key Learning: A clean, working setup is the foundation of every AI project.

Stage 2: Testing Your AI Connection

• Add your API key with .env
• Send a simple “Hello, AI” request and inspect the response

Key Learning: Every AI project begins with a secure, working connection.

Stage 3: Launching Your First App

• Run a simple Streamlit app
• Display an AI-generated response in your browser

Key Learning: Even a minimal app shows how tools, APIs, and user interfaces connect.

What You’ll Take Away

• A verified AI development environment ready for future workshops
• The confidence to run code, call APIs, and see results in a web interface
• Your first badge: proof that your environment is ready
• A foundation to move on to:
• Part II: exploring agentic coding with the latest tools
• Part III: building your first AI web app

Note: Step-by-step instructions for the basic installation and setup will be provided ahead of time through our GitHub repository. This way, the workshop itself can focus on verifying your environment and putting it to use, rather than spending the session on installs.