In a major move to revolutionize AI education, Amazon has launched the AWS AI Ready courses, offering eight free courses in AI and generative AI. The aim? To get 2 million people worldwide with essential AI skills by 2025. This initiative is a direct response to the findings of an AWS study that pointed out a “strong demand” for AI-savvy professionals and the potential for higher salaries in this field.
The mission is crystal clear: to make AI education accessible to everyone with the passion to learn. Let’s unpack this exciting development and explore how it’s set to transform the landscape of AI skills training.
What are the AWS AI Ready courses?
At its core, the AI Ready initiative is a multifaceted approach to empower 2 million individuals with AI skills by 2025. It serves as a guiding light for those navigating the challenges of today’s job market, acting as a catalyst for personal and professional growth.
Amazon’s entry into AI education responds to a critical demand for AI expertise globally. An AWS study revealed a hungry job market seeking skilled AI professionals, promising potentially higher salaries for those well-versed in AI technologies. It’s a golden opportunity for individuals embracing the AI revolution.
The initiative unfolds with a variety of offerings, including free courses for non-techies, scholarships for students in partnership with Udacity, and a collaboration with Code.org. However, the real gems are the eight AI courses that make up the AI Ready curriculum.
AWS AI Ready Courses Catalog
Here is the course catalog that Amazon will be teaching in the upcoming two years to get people know more about the benefits and dangers of artificial intelligence:
- Introduction to Generative Artificial Intelligence: A foundational course offering insights into the applications and essential concepts of generative AI.
- Generative AI Learning Plan for Decision Makers: A trilogy of courses designed to equip leaders in planning and building organizations ready to harness the power of generative AI.
- Introduction to Amazon CodeWhisperer: Unveils the secrets of Amazon’s AI code generator, empowering learners to generate complete lines of code effortlessly.
- Foundations of Prompt Engineering: Delves into the essentials of prompt engineering for generative AI tools, unveiling advanced techniques.
- Low-Code Machine Learning: Focuses on the practical aspects of data preparation, training machine learning models, and deployment with minimal coding.
- Building Language Models: Guides learners through using Amazon SageMaker to construct and fine-tune language models.
- Amazon Transcribe—Getting Started: An initiation into using Amazon Transcribe for transforming speech into text.
- Building Generative AI Applications Using Amazon Bedrock: A comprehensive guide to leveraging Amazon Bedrock for creating cutting-edge generative AI applications.
Why do these courses matter?
The need for an AI-savvy workforce has never been more urgent. According to a recent AWS and Access Partnership study:
- Hunt for AI Talent: 73% of employers are on the lookout for AI-skilled talent, but a whopping three out of four struggle to find the right match.
- Salary Surge: Upskilling in AI could mean up to a 47% salary boost, according to employer expectations.
- AI Integration: Brace yourself for an AI-infused business landscape, with 93% of companies planning to integrate AI solutions within the next five years.
AWS AI Ready courses are just the tip of the iceberg. Amazon is doubling down on education by investing hundreds of millions to provide free cloud computing skills training to 29 million individuals by 2025. Already, more than 21 million people have benefitted, cementing AWS’s position as a global leader in cloud skills training.
By democratizing access to AI education, Amazon’s AI Ready initiative emerges as a transformative force addressing immediate industry needs. It serves as the cornerstone for shaping a future where AI-driven strategies become indispensable for success across sectors. As we ride the waves of the AI revolution, the AWS AI Ready courses stand tall, beckoning individuals to level up their skills and join the vanguard of the AI-savvy workforce.
In a nutshell, AWS AI Ready courses are not just a step into the AI future – they’re a giant leap. Amazon is tearing down the barriers to AI education, putting the power to lead the revolution in the hands of anyone ready to seize it. The opportunity is knocking – answer it with AWS AI Ready courses.
Featured image credit: Christian Wiediger/Unsplash
