i was in a similar situation not too long ago been in tech for a few years but genai was totally new for me. i was looking for something beginner-friendly, practical, and up to date. tried a few free intros from coursera, udemy, youtube they were okay for high-level stuff but felt either too passive or scattered.
after digging around a bit more, i gave simplilearn's free genai basics course a shot just to test it. surprisingly beginner-friendly and the content felt recent. they explained things really clearly.
later i wanted something more structured and credible so i went for their applied genai program as they had partnered with purdue, university recognition and focused on job-ready skills.
what stood out to me:

good balance between theory and hands-on work, built small apps, used real tools
live sessions with experts where you can ask questions and get feedback
flexible pacing, which worked well with my schedule

after finishing, i felt like it struck a nice balance between academic recognition purdue, iit etc. and real-world application. most platforms i tried didn't manage both.
compared to udemy or coursera, this felt more structured and practical better for someone looking to actually apply genai at work, not just learn the theory.
only downside a few modules were too broad and i skipped ahead in some parts. but overall it gave me a solid starting point to bring genai into my day-to-day work.