AI in Dubai: Prompt, Build, Automate
A one-day intensive for ESL and ESP teachers — from your first serious prompt to a working automation you build and take home.
Friday, 13 November 2026 · 10:00–17:00 · Downtown Dubai · In person
Pricing announced shortly — early-bird and institutional rates available.
The Premise
Why this matters
Most teachers have now tried AI. Far fewer have found it genuinely useful.
The reason is rarely the tool. It is that nobody has shown teachers what these systems are actually good at, how to ask properly, and where the real time savings sit. So the experiment stops at a few disappointing answers, and the assumption forms that this is a technology for other professions.
Meanwhile the ground is shifting underneath the classroom. Students arrive already using these tools. Institutions ask what their teachers are doing about it. And in this region in particular, employers increasingly expect graduates who can work alongside AI systems — in English.
That places the language teacher in an unusually strong position. The vocabulary of prompting, models, data, and automation is not a distraction from English teaching. In the Gulf's professional sectors, it is English for Specific Purposes.
This day treats it that way.
Outcomes
What you will gain
A reliable method for getting good answers — how to question an AI system so the output is specific, accurate, and usable, rather than the fluent generality most people settle for.
A sense of which tool to reach for. Claude, ChatGPT, and Google's Gemini and NotebookLM do not do the same things equally well. You will see them side by side on the same real teaching tasks.
Hours back in your week. Lesson materials, differentiated versions of the same text, rubrics, feedback drafts, and reports — the repetitive layer of the job, handled properly.
One working automation, built by you, during the day. Not a demonstration you watch. Something you build, test, and leave with running.
The English of the field. The terminology, collocations, and register of AI and IT, framed so you can teach it — to general English classes and to ESP groups alike.
A judgement you can defend. Where these tools are trustworthy, where they are not, and what to tell students and colleagues who ask.
Programme
The day
The structure is deliberately progressive. Each session opens where the last one closed, so nobody is left behind and nobody is held back.
10:00 – 10:15
Welcome and orientation
Where you are starting from, and where the day ends.
10:15 – 11:45
Session One — Ask
The querying problem. Why most prompts return usable-sounding but unusable answers, and the specific moves that change that. Working with unfamiliar subject matter, checking what you are told, and building a personal prompt library you will keep using. Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini compared on identical tasks.
11:45 – 12:15
Coffee
12:15 – 13:15
Lunch
Not included in the fee. Downtown Dubai offers no shortage of options within a short walk, and the break is timed to allow for Friday prayers.
13:15 – 14:45
Session Two — Build
From one-off questions to reusable assets. Custom instructions and saved projects that already know your syllabus, your level, and your standards. NotebookLM for grounding material in your own sources rather than the open internet. This is where the ESP thread comes forward: building AI and IT language work for your own learners.
14:45 – 15:00
Coffee
15:00 – 16:30
Session Three — Automate
The repetitive tasks in your week, mapped and then removed. You will build a working automation during this session — chosen from your own teaching life, not a generic example — and troubleshoot it in the room with support.
16:30 – 17:00
Wrap-up
What to do in your first week back, what to avoid, and how the follow-up session works.
Audience
Who this is for
ESL and ESP teachers at any level — primary, secondary, university, or corporate
Teachers with no AI experience at all, and casual users who suspect they are barely scratching the surface
Teacher trainers, coordinators, and heads of department building institutional capacity
Anyone teaching English for professional or technical purposes in the Gulf
Working English at B1 or above is the only prerequisite. No technical background is expected, and no coding is involved at any point in the day.
What to bring
Your own laptop, with free ChatGPT and Claude accounts already created, and a Google account for Gemini and NotebookLM. Free tiers are sufficient throughout — paid subscriptions are useful but not required. Please install and sign in before you arrive so the first session begins with work rather than passwords.
The Trainer
Why Professor Korten
Christopher Korten is an American academic based at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, with more than two decades of university teaching and international teacher training behind him. He has delivered ESL and ESP training across Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, including programmes in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, and Russia.
For the past two years he has taught AI and research courses across the EPICUR network — a European university alliance — working with academics and students on how these tools change research, writing, and teaching practice. That work sits behind the structure of this day: not a tour of features, but a method that holds up under scrutiny.
His teaching principle throughout is language before fluency: give people the structures first, and confidence follows. The same principle governs how this training is built.
Organiser
This event is organised by Lusine Issayan of DaMont Professional Development.
A TESOL professional specialising in English for Specific Purposes and Business English, she works on exactly the ground this training moves into: the language demands of professional and technical life, and what teachers need in order to meet them.
Certification
Six hours of professional development
Participants receive a Certificate of Completion recording six hours of professional development, issued in a form suitable for submission to your institution for CPD credit or reimbursement.
After the day
Every participant receives the full training materials, including the prompt library and workflow templates built during the sessions, and an invitation to a follow-up troubleshooting session — a chance to bring back what broke, what you could not finish, or what you want to extend once you have used it with real classes.
Places are limited to 100, and the room is built for practical work rather than lecture.
Pricing announced shortly — early-bird and institutional rates available.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
I have never used AI. Will I be lost?
No. The day is deliberately built to start at zero. Session One assumes nothing, and the progression from asking to building to automating is gradual by design. Newcomers and casual users work side by side throughout.
Is there any coding?
None. Everything you build uses the tools' own interfaces. If you can use email and a word processor, you have the technical background required.
Do I need paid AI subscriptions?
No. Free accounts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are sufficient for everything in the day. Paid tiers offer more capacity, and we will be honest about where that matters, but nothing in the training depends on them.
Is my English good enough?
If you work comfortably at B1 or above, yes. The training is delivered in English, with terminology introduced explicitly — which is itself part of the point.
Will AI replace English teachers?
It is the question everyone brings, and it is worth answering properly rather than reassuringly. We will address it directly, including the parts of the job that are genuinely changing.
Can my school or university pay?
Yes. Institutional rates are available, and invoices and documentation for reimbursement can be issued on request. Please get in touch about group registrations.
What do I actually leave with?
Materials from all three sessions, your own prompt library, and at least one working automation built from your own teaching tasks — tested before you leave the room.
Is lunch included?
Coffee breaks are included in the fee. Lunch is not; a full hour is set aside, and Downtown Dubai offers plenty within walking distance.
Is there an online option?
No. This is in-person only. The building-and-troubleshooting element of the day depends on being in the room.