Breaking into AI/ML

I often get asked how to break into AI/ML. This question comes from industry professionals as well as students and/or new graduates. Here is a rough guide that includes building a foundation and also getting some practical experience:

1. Do Machine Learning specialization in Coursera. [Mandatory]
2. Do Generative AI with Large Language Models course from Coursera. [Mandatory]
3. Do some of these short courses at DeepLearning.ai. After 1. and 2. above, you will know which ones are more important. [Mandatory]
4. Do Deep Learning specialization in Coursera. This is a significant time commitment. [Optional]
5. Try to break into something AI related at work. Does not have to be pure AI. Could be data science enablement, data analytics, etc. This can happen immediately after step 1..
6. Regardless of 5. it would be worthwhile attending some local/virtual meetups on AI/ML. I would check meetup.com.  This can happen immediately after step 1..

Once you have these on your resume, doors will start to open for AI/ML roles.