Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming healthcare; however, equitable access to AI training remains limited, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where digital infrastructure and technical training opportunities are limited. The AI Catalyst for Global Health course was developed as a free, easily accessible, virtual course to provide foundational AI literacy and ethical awareness for a globally diverse audience, with an emphasis on underserved settings. We collected baseline participant demographics using a pre-course survey and evaluated participation, engagement and educational impact using weekly post-lecture surveys and a final post-course survey incorporating a retrospective pre–post design. Survey items assessed confidence in explaining core AI concepts and evaluating ethical implications, as well as the perceived feasibility of applying AI approaches, likelihood of future application, perceived barriers and open-ended reflections on course content and impact. A total of 63 participants from 12 countries completed the survey, including healthcare providers (41%), students (24%), researchers or academics (22%) and professionals in technology, policy or other roles (13%). Confidence in explaining AI concepts increased from 2.68 ± 1.22 (retrospective pre-course) to 4.22 ± 0.75 (post-course) (t(62) = 9.84; p < 0.001; d_p = 1.24), while confidence in evaluating ethical implications increased from 2.68 ± 1.28 to 4.27 ± 0.70 (t(62) = 9.58; p < 0.001; d_p = 1.21). Participants rated the feasibility of applying AI as 3.86 ± 0.93 and the likelihood of applying AI insights within the next 12 months as 4.29 ± 0.87, with strong agreement that AI has the potential to reduce global health inequities (4.40 ± 0.64). The most reported barriers to AI adoption were funding limitations (43%), limited technical capacity (21%) and lack of stakeholder awareness (16%). Qualitative analysis highlighted collaboration, efficiency and the importance of sustained AI education. These findings suggest that accessible virtual education can meaningfully strengthen self-reported AI literacy and ethical awareness, supporting capacity building for global health and oncology in resource-limited settings.