From LLMs to Production Agents: The GenAI & Agentic AI Stack for 2027

Not long ago, building with AI mostly meant writing a good prompt and calling a model. Today the same work involves retrieval pipelines, tool connections through MCP, agents that pass tasks to other agents, and guardrails that decide what an agent is allowed to do.

And the stack keeps moving. New frameworks, protocols and models arrive every few months, each one claiming to change how AI gets built. So anyone who builds with AI ends up facing three practical questions: which layers of the stack actually matter, how do they fit together, and what’s worth learning next?

This 1-hour launch webinar answers them. 

Join Carol McLaurin of Duke Executive Education for a look at the GenAI and agentic AI stack and a first walkthrough of the Professional Certificate in Applied Generative AI & Agentic AI, in collaboration with Duke University and Microsoft. 

📅 Nov 19, 2026 | ⏰ 10 AM ET

See the Full AI Stack and the Path Through It 

The 2027 Stack, Layer by Layer

• Models: What LLMs and multimodal models can do across text, image, audio and video
• Connections: How RAG, function calling, MCP and A2A link models to data and tools
• Agents: How single agents and multi-agent systems plan, act, hand off work and scale
• Production: The security, guardrails and observability that keep systems reliable once they’re live

The Program, Walked Through

• How the 12 modules build from Python foundations to enterprise agent security
• The 8 portfolio projects and the capstone, including an AI contract clause finder built with RAG and MCP, and a secure OpenClaw assistant
• The 30+ tools you’ll work with, from Claude and LangGraph to AWS Bedrock and Azure
• How live weekend classes, Duke faculty masterclasses and Microsoft electives fit together

The Expert Behind the Session

Carol McLaurin: Director of Strategic Partnerships and Operations

Carol leads Duke Executive Education’s portfolio of hybrid and online programs, working closely with faculty and technology partners to design them. She brings more than 20 years of experience in program strategy, leadership development and institutional partnerships, including four director-level roles at NC State University’s Small Business and Technology Development Center.

About the Program

The webinar gives you an inside look at the Professional Certificate in Applied Generative AI & Agentic AI. It’s designed for working professionals who want to move from using AI tools to engineering complete AI systems.

Simplilearn’s subject matter experts teach the live weekend classes, a comprehensive curriculum reviewed by Duke faculty. You earn a program certificate from Duke University and Simplilearn, plus Microsoft Learn badges.

Register for the Webinar