Independent AI skills certification

Level 1 of 3

VeriLevel Foundation

Use AI at work well and safely

Foundation certifies that you can use AI assistants for everyday work with good results and good judgment. It covers clear instructions, checking what the AI produces, protecting data and staying accountable for the result.

Questions
30
Time limit
40 min
Pass mark
70%
Attempts
4
Price
$29

Who it is for

  • Office professionals who use AI chat tools for writing, summaries and research
  • Managers who want a shared baseline for their team
  • Sales, marketing, HR and customer support staff
  • Freelancers and small business owners who use AI with clients
  • Anyone new to AI at work who wants to show employers they use it responsibly

No prior certification or technical background is needed.

What you will demonstrate

  1. Write requests that give AI the purpose, audience, context and format it needs
  2. Recognize invented facts, sources and numbers and verify them before use
  3. Choose tasks where AI helps and spot tasks where it should not decide
  4. Keep confidential, personal and client data out of the wrong tools
  5. Stay accountable for AI-assisted work and disclose AI use when expected
  6. Explain what an AI agent is and why its actions need approval

Exam content outline

The Foundation exam covers 6 domains. Each attempt draws questions from every domain in the proportions below, so you see a balanced exam every time.

1

Instructions and context

20%about 6 questions
  • State purpose, audience, length, tone and output format
  • Provide the facts and material the AI cannot know
  • Use examples to show style without inviting copying
  • Improve a weak answer with specific feedback instead of repeating the request
  • Break a large task into an outline and then sections
2

Evaluating output

20%about 6 questions
  • Treat fluent, confident output as a draft, not as proof
  • Find and read the original source behind any citation or statistic
  • Recalculate numbers and check summaries against the document
  • Know why asking the same AI "are you sure?" is not verification
  • Notice one-sided or stereotyped answers and outdated information
3

Everyday workflows

15%about 5 questions
  • Use AI for drafts, rewording, brainstorming, outlines and summaries of your own material
  • Recognize poor fits such as exact internal figures or final decisions about people
  • Save and reuse prompts that work, with notes on what to check
4

Data and privacy

20%about 6 questions
  • Follow your company policy and use approved tools
  • Never share passwords, keys or unnecessary personal details
  • Understand that removing names does not always make data anonymous
  • Respect client contracts and licenses before uploading their material
  • Tell people before an AI tool records or transcribes a meeting
5

Responsible use

20%about 6 questions
  • Remain responsible for anything you send or decide with AI help
  • Keep meaningful human review in decisions about people
  • Disclose AI use where policy, clients or the audience expect it
  • Verify unusual voice or video requests through a known channel
  • Understand the basics of copyright and AI-generated content
6

AI agents

5%about 2 questions
  • Explain the difference between an AI that writes and an AI that acts
  • Require approval before an agent sends, deletes or pays
  • Treat instructions found inside emails or web pages as content, not commands

Sample questions

These examples show the style and difficulty of Foundation questions. They are not part of the exam question bank.

Sample question 1

An AI assistant drafts a client email and includes a statistic with a named research firm as the source. You have not seen this figure before. What should you do before sending the email?

  1. ASend it, because the assistant named a specific source
  2. BFind the original report and confirm the figure and its wordingCorrect answer
  3. CAsk the assistant to repeat the figure and check it stays the same
  4. DRound the number so a small error will not matter

Why it is correct. AI tools can invent statistics and sources that look real. Only the original source confirms the figure, and repeating the question to the same tool proves nothing.

Sample question 2

You want a quick summary of a spreadsheet that contains customer names, phone numbers and order history. Your company has an approved AI tool for internal data. What is the best approach?

  1. AUse a personal AI account, since it is faster than the approved tool
  2. BPaste the whole file into any AI tool, then delete the chat afterwards
  3. CUse the approved tool and include only the columns the summary needsCorrect answer
  4. DEmail the file to a colleague and ask them to run it through AI

Why it is correct. Approved tools have agreed data handling, and sharing only what the task needs limits exposure. Deleting a chat later does not undo the disclosure.

How to prepare

You do not need a course. These steps use your own work to close the gaps the exam looks for.

  1. 1

    Review the content outline

    Read the objectives below and mark the ones you rarely practice.

  2. 2

    Practice on real tasks

    For a week, write every AI request with a purpose, audience and format, and compare the results with your usual requests.

  3. 3

    Check one claim a day

    Pick one fact, quote or number an AI gives you and trace it to the original source.

  4. 4

    Read your company AI policy

    Know which tools are approved and what data you may share with them.

Foundation questions

More answers about exams and certificates are on the main FAQ.

How hard is Foundation?

It is designed for anyone who already uses AI tools at work. Most questions describe short everyday situations and ask what you should do. No technical knowledge is needed.

Do I need to know a specific AI product?

No. The exam is tool-neutral and does not ask about features of any product.

Should I start with Foundation or Practitioner?

Start with Foundation if you use AI a few times a week. If you rely on it every day for real deliverables, Practitioner is likely a better fit.

Get VeriLevel Foundation

Pay once, receive your exam link by email and start whenever you are ready. Your certificate arrives the moment you pass.

  • No account needed
  • 4 attempts included
  • Full refund before you start

$29USD, one-time payment

Get FoundationCompare all levels

Other levels

For people who design AI workflows and agents for a team, a department or clients.

Questions
40 advanced scenarios
Time limit
60 minutes
Pass mark
70%
Attempts
1 + 3 free retakes
$99USD, one-time payment