Best Online AI Degrees for Working Adults (2026)

Working adults who already know some tech can turn spare evenings into savings here. WGU bills a flat $4,200 per six-month term, study is asynchronous, and start dates fall on the 1st of every month. Every extra course you finish inside a term costs nothing more. The catch is that a stalled term costs the same $4,200, and the typical 24 months is an estimate, not a promise.

Anyone finishing a bachelor's around a full-time job gets a flagship name without a campus visit. Courses have no live sessions, and Fall, Spring and Summer starts mean a bad month at work only delays you one term. Tennessee residents pay $490 a credit, everyone else $565. The estimated 48 months assumes little transfer credit, so bring every credit you have.

Seven-week online courses mean you only juggle a class or two while the workweek keeps going. Grand Canyon charges $490 a credit for the online format, which puts the 120 credits at $58,800. It ends with a capstone project. The trade-off is a 43% graduation rate in federal data, so ask how advisors help adults who fall behind.

Managers who want AI skills without becoming engineers get a business-school angle here. ASU Online runs 7.5-week classes, 44 in all, so you can pause between sessions when work gets heavy. Two capstone courses have you build AI solutions for real problems. Get a quote before you plan around a budget.

Five-week courses give you the fastest turnaround of any bachelor's on this list, so a rough month at work only costs you one short class. CTU's Fast Track exams can trim time and tuition. The degree is 183 quarter credits, and federal data shows a 19% graduation rate, so check the support you'd get before enrolling.

Short modules help when your work hours swing. UAT teaches asynchronous 7.5-week modules, two at a time, so you carry only two classes at once toward 120 credits. Veterans see $7,150 per 9-credit semester online, while everyone else pays $10,300 per 12-credit semester plus a $495 resource fee. Federal data shows a 35% graduation rate, so ask how advisors keep adults on track.

Eight-week terms with fall or spring starts keep this master's from swallowing your evenings. Nontechnical professionals can apply with a resume and an undergraduate degree, and most successful applicants have a 3.0 GPA or better. Tuition is $810 a credit, and SLU warns that additional charges may apply. You finish with a research project, so no thesis hangs over a busy year.

An engineer who wants to pay as they go can stretch Penn's ten courses over three years, or compress them into 16 months. Each course is $3,859, which makes employer reimbursement easy to request one course at a time. Applicants need a computer science or related bachelor's. Tuition can change yearly, so the slow route may cost more by the end.

If you manage people and have about two years of work behind you, Purdue's AI Management and Policy major fits your background. The technical major instead asks for programming, algorithms, calculus and linear algebra. Both finish with a 3-credit capstone, take one to two years, and need a 3.0 GPA but no GRE. Tuition is $950 a credit.

Two courses a semester, each lasting seven weeks, gives you a workload you can plan around busy seasons at work. San Diego runs three semesters a year, and the online degree takes about 20 months. Tuition is $995 per unit, so $29,850 for 30 units. Student fees come on top, and the pace leaves little room to skip a course.

Four-week courses suit working adults who'd rather focus on one subject than juggle several. Florida Atlantic charges a flat $800 per credit hour, and that rate covers course materials and graduation activities. You can finish in 1.5 years without taking the GRE. Be ready to show calculus, statistics and programming before you start, since the pace leaves little catch-up time.

Part-time study on a 12 to 20 month schedule suits engineers who want a respected name and a clear finish line. Northeastern starts students in fall and spring, and tuition is estimated at $30,500 before fees. Concentrations include Conversational AI and AI for 3D Imaging. You'll need an engineering or computer technology degree, or statistics coursework; others are pointed to a different version.

Control over your own pace is the draw. Two courses at a time moves you quickly, one at a time suits a heavy job, and you can finish in as few as 12 months. Eight-week terms and nine courses come to $32,256 before fees at $896 a credit. It's a non-thesis degree, so there's no research project to schedule.

Stackable pieces let you earn a certificate first and decide on the full degree later. Washington's route is two graduate certificates plus a two-quarter applied capstone, all doable part time online. The 2025-26 estimate is $40,375 to $43,088. The catch is a single start each year, and a 3.0 GPA plus prerequisite coursework is required.

Colorado Boulder lets you test the program before committing. You pass a three-course pathway with a B or better in each, instead of submitting a traditional application. Courses are asynchronous, eight weeks long, with six starts a year, and you pay by session toward a $15,750 total. Twelve months is possible, but plan on up to 24 alongside a job.

Speed is what Georgetown sells working adults. You can finish in as little as one year, study part time instead, and start in any of three terms, with any bachelor's accepted. Courses are asynchronous. The price is steep at $1,752 per credit, or $52,560 for 30 credits, and rates are published each February, so your entry term's figure may differ.

Cost is the reason to look here if you're funding this yourself. Grand Canyon charges $610 a credit, so 46 credits come to $28,060 before fees, and up to 12 credits may transfer in. Eight-week courses keep the pace manageable. Coursework covers deep learning and large language models plus a dedicated Ethics in AI course. Federal data shows a 43% graduation rate.

With fall, spring and summer starts, you rarely wait long to begin. West Virginia lists one to three years to finish, 8-week courses, and a mix of asynchronous and live sessions, so expect some fixed class times. At $805 a credit, 30 credits come to $24,150 before fees. You'll want a computer science or closely related bachelor's with a 3.0 GPA.