BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Local Business Growth with AI
Build a practical lead intake, qualification and follow-up automation with Make, Google Sheets, Gmail and human-reviewed AI—without handing critical customer decisions to a black box.
Overview
A revenue-ready lead response system.
The course moves from workflow selection and data design to rule-based scoring, safe AI triage, Gmail draft creation, failure handling, measurement and controlled rollout. Learners work with synthetic data first and preserve a human review path for consequential or ambiguous cases.
- Format
- Self-study, online, at your own pace
What you will learn
The outcomes for this course are set out in the overview and modules on this page.
Modules & lessons
- Module 1
Choose the Right Growth Workflow
Use the R-D-R-R test—repetitive, digital, rule-driven and reversible—to identify an automation candidate worth building.
- Module 2
Design the Lead Data Contract
Create clean fields, controlled values, ownership and synthetic test records before connecting any automation.
- Module 3
Build the Make Scenario Backbone
Watch new lead rows, map fields, test with Run once and establish the base workflow.
- Module 4
Validate, Score and Route Leads
Build transparent scoring and HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW and REVIEW routes with a fallback path.
- Module 5
Add Human-Reviewed AI Triage
Use AI for bounded summarization and classification while preserving source text and uncertainty.
- Module 6
Draft Follow-Up with Gmail
Create route-specific customer drafts using validated data and a draft-first approval pattern.
- Module 7
Make the Automation Reliable
Handle retries, incomplete executions, duplicate prevention, validation failures and rate limits.
- Module 8
Measure, Govern and Scale
Run a controlled pilot, compare response metrics, version changes and modularize reusable components.
How self-study works
This is a self-study course. You work through it online, on your own schedule. There are no scheduled classes or live sessions to join.
- Go in order. Each module builds on the one before it.
- Practise as you go. Complete the activities and checks in each module before moving on; they show you what to revisit.
- Keep your work. Save your notes, drafts and evidence in your own document so you can reuse them.
- Get help when you need it. Questions about access or your account go to Student Support.
Assessment & certificate
Build and demonstrate the full lead-response system.
The final project requires a working intake-to-follow-up workflow using synthetic records, a manual-review route, transparent lead scoring, draft creation, write-back status, duplicate protection and tested failure recovery.
- Five mandatory test records, including missing and ambiguous data.
- Evidence of expected routing and safe fallback behaviour.
- Pilot scorecard with baseline and target metrics.
- One-page operator SOP naming the workflow owner and recovery steps.
Certificate. Learners who complete the required lessons and exercises, pass the required mastery checkpoints and complete the capstone where applicable can receive an ARQS Course Completion Certificate. ARQS certificates are private professional-development credentials, not government accreditation, professional licensure or externally recognized academic credentials. How ARQS certificates work
ARQSI · AI course tutor
Study with ARQSI
ARQSI is the ARQS AI course tutor. This space is reserved for ARQSI, which will help you work through the course one lesson at a time: explaining each idea, setting short practice exercises and checking your understanding before you move on.
Until ARQSI opens here, study the modules on your own and contact Student Support with any questions about access.
Important limits
Credential truth: ARQS Mastery Credits are internal, non-academic learning units. They do not represent college or university credit, licensure, accreditation or government-recognized degree authority.
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Local Business Growth with AI