How I Got Certified in AI Prompting at Age 11 — The 1 Million Prompters Story

The 1 Million Prompters initiative sounds like something for adults. It was designed for adults — professionals in the UAE who needed to learn AI skills for their careers. The goal was ambitious: certify one million people in the art of AI prompting, making the UAE a global leader in AI readiness. Big companies, government workers, engineers, teachers — that was the intended audience.

I'm Parikshet. I was ten when I started it, eleven when I finished. I wasn't the intended audience. I did it anyway.

Why I Decided to Do It

My dad told me about the initiative in mid-2025. He explained that the UAE government was making AI education a national priority — not just for kids in school, but for everyone. He told me it was a serious certification, designed for working adults.

I asked: "Can I do it?"

He looked it up. There wasn't a minimum age requirement listed. So: yes.

The honest answer to "why" is that I was curious whether I could. I'd been using AI tools for almost two years by that point — experimenting, testing, figuring out what worked. I wanted to see how what I'd learned compared to a structured programme. I also wanted to prove something to myself: that age doesn't decide whether you understand something. Curiosity and practice do.

What the Programme Actually Involved

The 1 Million Prompters certification focuses on one specific skill: writing effective prompts for AI tools. It covers the theory of how large language models work (what they're doing when they "understand" your question), why some prompts get excellent responses and others get garbage, and how to structure requests for different kinds of tasks — creative writing, data analysis, problem-solving, summarising information.

There were concepts I already knew from experimenting. There were concepts that were new to me — particularly around the technical side of how AI models process context and why the order of information in a prompt can change the answer. I found those parts the most interesting.

The hardest part wasn't the concepts. It was sitting with the material the way adults are expected to — reading carefully, thinking critically about each technique, not rushing. Golf actually helped me with that. In golf, you can't skip the boring practice. You have to hit the same shot a thousand times. The same discipline applied here.

The Moment I Realised I Was Learning Something Real

About halfway through the programme, I was working on a prompt to help plan a golf training session. I wanted AI to help me build a practice schedule focusing on my weak areas — I struggled with bunker shots and long putts. My first attempt gave me a generic golf practice plan. It could have been for anyone.

I rewrote it using techniques from the programme, adding context about my specific handicap, my upcoming tournament schedule, the specific shots I needed to improve, and the time I had available each day. The second response was completely different — a structured 3-week plan with specific drills, time allocations, and a way to track progress.

I used that plan. My bunker play improved before the next tournament. That's when I stopped thinking of this as just a certificate and started thinking of it as a real skill.

What I Built Afterwards: The SUPER Formula

After completing the certification, I spent time thinking about how to teach what I'd learned to other kids. The official programme's language was designed for adults and professionals. I needed something a 9-year-old could understand and actually use.

I distilled everything into the SUPER Prompt Formula — five elements that consistently make AI give better answers. I tested it with my own prompts over several weeks. I taught it to friends. I refined it based on what clicked and what didn't. It's now part of the KidsFunLearnClub AI curriculum.

Creating it was probably more valuable than completing the certification. You don't really understand something until you can teach it to someone else in simple words. That process of simplification — taking an adult concept and making it accessible for a 9-year-old — forced me to understand it at a deeper level than I would have otherwise.

What It Means to Be One of the Youngest in the UAE

I don't love making a big deal of the "youngest" angle, because I think it can mislead people into thinking it was about being impressive. It wasn't. It was about curiosity. But the reason it matters is what it shows: AI skills are not adult skills. They're not something you need to wait until university to learn. They're learnable now, by kids, in a way that will genuinely change how good you are at learning everything else.

AI is a thinking tool. The better you are at using it, the better you are at learning, researching, creating, and solving problems. A kid who learns AI prompting at 10 has an advantage at 15, at 20, at 30 — not because AI is magical, but because they've learned to communicate precisely and think critically about information. Those are skills for life.

Should You Try the 1 Million Prompters Programme?

If you're in the UAE and curious, yes. If you're outside the UAE, there are similar programmes — and honestly, the best way to learn prompt engineering is to just start using AI with intention. Try a prompt. See what works. Try a different version. See what changes. Document what you notice. That experimental approach is what made me ready for the formal programme when I took it.

You don't need a certificate to be good at this. But proving to yourself that you can complete something designed for adults, when you're a kid who decided to try — that feeling is worth something.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the 1 Million Prompters initiative?

A UAE government programme launched in 2025 aiming to certify one million people in AI prompting skills, to position the UAE as a global AI leader.

What age can you do the 1 Million Prompters certification?

There is no minimum age requirement. Parikshet More completed it at age 10–11, making him one of the youngest in the UAE to do so.

What is AI prompting?

AI prompting is the skill of writing instructions and questions for AI tools in a way that gets accurate, useful, and relevant responses. It's like knowing exactly how to ask the right question.

How can kids learn AI prompting?

The free AI for Kids course at KidsFunLearnClub covers prompt engineering in a beginner-friendly way, including the SUPER Prompt Formula created by Parikshet.

What is the SUPER Prompt Formula?

A 5-element framework for effective AI prompts: Specific, Unique (your situation), Precise (format), Example-based, Result-focused. Developed by Parikshet after completing the 1 Million Prompters certification.