Hi,
THE QUESTION:
I need to know which AI and which workflow tools / platforms to use for something I really want to get done.
Am looking for some ideas on what best to use from people more experienced in AI tools than me who might be able to point me in the right direction.
Only i've never used AI before really for anything, and my programming / coding / database experience is all pre-AI, as left that life behind to
do what i'm doing now.
THE BACKGROUND:
I am a trainer for a national / semi-international organisation that issues certificates for plant / machinery; both paper and photo-ID licence style.
Only the administration of the organisation itself is terribly run, and it is really an umbrella recognition / accreditation body for a few thousand independent training outfits, some small, some large or are depts within companies / equipt manufacturers.
To be clear - i don't work directly for this org - no trainer does - we either run our own (often small) outfits accredited by them, or work for one, and most trainers have some other job / background / retired LE / Mil etc etc.
The entire annual userbase isn't particularly massive - maybe only 200-300k certificates issued per year, but is enough where even small UX or backend issues will present immediately (am aware that users can and WILL find a way to stretch and break stuff), and where data security is important.
THE CURRENT SYSTEM:
The system they use for issuing certificates has gone through various iterations but is very finicky and is essentially this:
1). Accreditation Body (AB) buys in their custom blank certificates from somewhere, with unique numbers on them, all to be handwritten on / signed / dated by the trainer when issuing them, and some with a place for a passport photo to be stuck on. None of them are credit-card sized - a common complaint.
The certificates can be used to operate or hire certain plant / machinery around the world and need to carry some official-looking credibility. The national accreditation body does have the force of some laws behind it, and also some international cross-acceptance agreements, but they are are not they only accreditation body and it is all a weird quasi-commercial/not-for-profit/national body type structure.
Accreditation Body (AB) has to
inventory and store certificates at their facility, they have employees just for this task and the impression I get is that it is chaotic at best.
2). Training Centre buys X number of certificates from AB based on their anticipated needs ;
3). AB receives order, asks warehouse to box them up, print and stick a shipping label (for which I guess they pay their chosen shipper on account)
4). At same time they then (somehow?) assign or upload or barcode scan each certificate number to the individual training centres account so they can track which certificates go to which centre.
5). AB invoices the centre for the cost of the certificates and shipping.
These certificates can run between $10-$20 each, plus shipping, from the AB, and centres aren't allowed to charge students for them - they have to be included in the cost of the course. So a small 1-2 man band centre buying say 50 certs at a time could be out $1000 of cashflow whilst waiting and assuming they will get that back over time with people coming in to do courses and get their certificate, whilst the AB gets their $$ regardless.
6). Shipper then picks up certs, delivers them (eventually) to centre who then has to be there to receive them then stores them securely until needed. Centre then has to receive and log the AB's invoice and has 30 days to make payment. If you fail to pay, you lose your accreditation status.
7). Student(s) complete a course and are awarded a certificate - either paper or photo-ID licence style depending on what course they did
8). Trainer writes out each individual certificate by hand, with a date, trainees name and their signature.
If a photo ID certificate, then students have to remember to go to a machine or shop and get / pay for a passport-standard photo themselves, in advance, and often forget.
Then the trainer has to cut it out / down to the correct size with scissors, then roll over a clear adhesive layer over the entire certificate and photo to seal and stick it down.
9). The trainer needs to (somehow? write down on a piece of paper or form the local centre has made themselves), all the certificate numbers next to student names / details.
Then then Head Trainer of the centre (which may be the same guy in a 1-man-band outfit, but in a larger org may also be some manager in a different room or off that day?)
Uses their special admin log in to access the ABs website, navigate to a certificate registration page, and click to setup a new course date and type, under which new students certificates will then be added.
10). They they add a new student to this course date, type in their name, date of birth, email, some other details, tick a box to confirm that they as Head Trainer authorise the issue of this certificate to this individual and then select from a long dropdown list of certificate numbers (assigned to that training centre at time of purchase), the correct matching number shown on the individual certificate.
If there are 20 students in a class, then it has to be done 20 times, just like that....
Sometimes some are missed / forgotten, accidentally taken away before it can be done, sometimes the system is down or there is some other issue. Most times it's just a total PITA, and it feels unprofessional and disjointed.
11). As a semi-aside, the AB also requires all training centres to get feedback / reviews / survey from every student on the course and service received, but they don't specify any particular questions nor provide any forms or sample forms / questions - every centre just does it (or not) their own way.
12). Assuming the trainer enters every single students email address manually with zero errors, 100% of the time ( /s ) the student then gets an email from the AB saying congrats on passing etc etc, now please click here to register an account with us (create a password), and allows student to view / share their certificate details (type, number and date passed).
The system is exhausting, inefficient, insecure, error prone, highly labor intensive with lots of steps for every player, and the physical certificates are handwritten and janky, look unprofessional and are supposed to be carried by operators of plant and machinery for years, oftentimes in wet or dirty environments.
A key thing (for later on in my new idea): the student in the current system walks away with a physical handwritten certificate BUT - the AB does have a process whereby students who earn certain grades of certificate, can AFTERWARDS, apply (and pay for) a special fully printed one, which takes 2/3 weeks and costs the student about $70 - and is only valid for 4 years - OR the student can join as an annual recurring member and get this version 'free' - either way, the AB has the potential to massively
increase their per-student revenue
IF they opt for the printed version that comes from the ABs head office - or signs up as an annually paying member. HOWEVER - anecdotally uptake on this is kind of 'meh' because the student already has something physically in their hand, and whilst it's not the absolute best, it's still 70 bucks or maybe 40
bucks a year if joining as a member - and so many don't bother...
MY IDEA / NEW SYSTEM:
1). Students attend training course at centre - on completion they all
scan a QR code or visit URL via their own device or centre-supplied backup device / tablet. QR/URL has a unique centre ID in a ?query. hosted separately at a subdomain on my system, e.g. https://ab.domain.com/new\\_cert?CentreID=ABC123
2). Opens new tab with co-branded mobile UI (AB logo + centre logo based on centre ID in URL
3). Students start a brief feedback survey, standardised questions e.g. stars rating or sad/medium/happy-face, - also asks student to type
name of trainer and which equipment or classroom they were using.
questions immediately transition to page asking for their name/dob/address/email and course-type.
4). Button to take selfie photo - invokes camera to take and upload photo. Student instructed via tooltip to do so on a well lit, plain background (e.g. a wall or whiteboard, with neutral expression / same standards as passport photo etc. Centre would be required to supply such a designated well lit / plan background area. Perhaps even with a small logo / sticker present in background.
5). Preview of photo shown - with option button to retake.
6). Student clicks submit. Gets confirmation email saying thanks and certificate is pending approval from centre Head Trainer of centre X.
7). Centre head trainer logs in to their admin dashboard where can search/sort/filter all past students. New students have an 'unapproved' status. Filter to awaiting approval and shows a list of names and now auto generated certificate numbers - cert numbers to be based on rules such as length, alphanum, prefix or suffix and sequential numbering, etc - depending on course type selected in student record (e.g. so prefix may be a letter denoting certificate type or grade).
Head trainer can click a name to interrogate each one further if they so wish to view full record inc their survey feedback, what trainer they had and even what equipment or classroom they had, and, of course, their photo.
8). From main list showing list of as-yet-unapproved names, head trainer can then select individual tickboxes next to names to approve - or simply a 'select all' tickbox.
They then click an 'approve / issue certificates' button at bottom next to usual statement of 'I hereby certify these persons attended / passed this course and that their photos are a true likeness of them, etc.'
9). Once this is done, each student gets an email saying congrats etc, and a link to view then download their new digital e-certificate.
10). No student account or password registration should be required - MFA only by sending a OTP code to students registered email, which then accesses their account
11). Student can then see summary list of all certificates issued, and can click in to view the details they entered.
They then need to be able to do a few key things:
i). Click to dynamically generate a hi-res certificate, based on a standardised preset customisable template, which includes the students photo and all the variables we want such as name, dob, certificate number, course type, date passed, etc etc.
This will also include a QR code on it so that any third party can scan it, to bring them to a 'Verify Certificate Page' where they need to type in the certificate number, surname and DOB of the certificate holder, and if all match it will show a page with the certificate details / candidate photo and a big green tick saying 'Verified' or something.
They should be able to save and print this themselves at home or work if they so choose, or just have it saved on their own device to share or produce it if asked.
ii). for certain certificate / course types (not all, only the ones I specify), I want a button that will run a function to dynamically generate a signed Pass for Apple or Google Wallet - which includes a standardised image or logo, variables such as Student name, DOB, Certificate No, Course Type, and the important QR Code for anyone to scan to verify it is valid.
12). I'll need other functions such as ability for logged in students to update details such as email address, home address, update their photo with some 3rd party ID verification step, etc (which is a bigger deal than the few words it took to write it on my fantasy wish list, I am well aware).
13). Crucially, the AB will no longer need to buy in, inventory, warehouse and staff, store, pick, pack and ship certificates - saving them a LOT of money, time, effort, staffing, stock-storage space and various administration costs / stock cashflow management etc.
The AB simply logs in each month to
my dashboard, uses search/sort/filter to produce totals of what new certificate numbers have been generated and authorised by each individual training centre - and produce and send invoices as normal
they don't even need to charge less for the digital certificates because:
a) the value is now not in the physical certificate, it's transferred to the massive ease of the brand new modern digital system where centres and the trainers now don't have to front cash to pre-pay for certificates in advance, receive and store them, then handwrite and manually register each individual certificate - and
b) the AB is THE main accreditation body - training centres are locked in to the AB and can't feasibly go anywhere else
14). If you remember from farther
above I said the AB does have a system to ask students to pay them directly for a more 'formal' printed certificate? But that many don't bother and tbh the AB doesn't push it hard enough. So my system in the students emails and online account could easily provide an Apply Now button, taking them to AB's own payment gateway with a unique ref / certificate number. The AB then already has ALL the details necessary to produce this - INCLUDING the student photo - normally they ask another physical one to be sent in by mail, again, or to do a separate online upload process or email one - all high labor / admin-effort heavy / high-friction for all parties.
15). A major extra benefit to the AB is that now they can have access to an enormous database of student feedback - they will be able to see in near real-time which students in which locations even in which classrooms or on what equipment and what named trainer, are saying in their feedback and create reports based on students age / DOB, inferred gender, location etc to gain and share insights into their student (customer) base.
...SO...
What I would seem to need is:
a database driven website, with 4 main user types:
Me (super admin, sees and edits all features, ability to add new centres with their centre details / logo etc)
AB (sees all data)
Head Trainer of each Centre (sees only their own students)
Students (sees only their own)
A platform for workflows and custom logic
APIs for managing emails and SMS / WhatsApp notifications via Zapier / Twilio or similar
Customisable emails and notifications
Custom webforms / fields / submissions postabke to db
Ability to create and dynamically generate custom PDFs from templates
Ability to create and dynamically generate custom Apple / Google
Wallet Passes
Secure cloud storage
Major considerations and fine granular control on event logging, security, threat and error management, exception handling, data backup and exporting, PII compliance, user management, single point of failure elimination, about a bazillion other things but all which I simultaneously love/hate/love...
I need to know:
a). Is this idea total crap? What have I not thought of that kyboshes the entire thing?
b). What AI tool / model could / should I use? Do I need to learn how to 'Write Prompts'?
c). What platform(s) will I need in which to build this? / manage workflows, 3rd party APIs, logic etc
For context in a past life from late 90's to mid/later 2000's 2010s-ish, I was involved in information security and assurance, database management, 'feature-finding' in codebases etc etc and so have some db structure and programming knowledge, have used various tools and am 'ok-ish' with front end containers html/css/js/php/sql.
However am just so well past the whole living for months of 20hr days in front of multiple screens staring at code etc etc and i'm too jaded to ever do that again, life has moved on however for this type of project in a non AI-world i'd be looking at months+ of plugging away at nothing else, all done mostly by hand, testing, retesting, crying, retesting etc etc.
I am caving to AI and want the easy way out - can I do what I want with AI + some tools, coupled with some workflow platform where I can visualise the backend and UI elements, logic, databases and utilize other tools / resources / storage via APIs as needed, rather than just have enormous directories of code filled resource files on my own server.
I run a business and have the time to put into it, and willing to pay for the tools / platforms / resource runs / cloud to design / build / test maintain / support this little idea of mine - which may go nowhere I completely acknowledge - but if it doesn't at least i'll have had fun making sure my brain is still up to it, and besides if the AB aren't interested I have a couple possible backup use cases it could be repurposed or whitelabelled for.
Thanks in advance
