Amazon's 'AI Ready' initiative to train 2 million in AI skills by 2025

Amazon has released its "AI Ready" initiative, geared towards providing free skills training in artificial intelligence to two million individuals by 2025. Backed by a recent AWS study highlighting the demand for AI talent and the potential for significant salary increases, the initiative introduces eight new, free AI and generative AI courses. The move includes the launch of the AWS Generative AI Scholarship and a collaboration with Code.org.

This comes in tandem with Amazon's earlier commitment to invest in providing free cloud computing skills training to 29 million people by 2025. The firm has already trained more than 21 million people.

A recent AWS study, conducted in partnership with Access Partnership, revealed the increasing demand for AI-skilled talent. While 73 per cent of employers prioritise hiring individuals with AI skills, three out of four struggle to meet their talent needs. The study indicates that workers upskilled in AI could potentially earn up to 47 per cent more in salaries. Looking ahead, 93 per cent of businesses anticipate incorporating AI solutions across their organisations within the next five years.

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To address the growing need for AI education, AWS is introducing eight new AI and generative AI courses ranging from foundational to advanced. These courses are:

- Introduction to Generative Artificial Intelligence: Covers generative AI basics, applications, and key concepts.

- Generative AI Learning Plan for Decision Makers: A series guiding the planning of generative AI projects and fostering generative AI-ready organisations.

- Introduction to Amazon CodeWhisperer: Teaches how to use Amazon's AI code generator.

- Foundations of Prompt Engineering: Introduces prompt engineering for generative AI tools.

- Low-Code Machine Learning on AWS: Explores machine learning with minimal coding.

- Building Language Models on AWS: Covers using Amazon SageMaker for language models.

- Amazon Transcribe—Getting Started: Explores using Amazon Transcribe for speech-to-text.

- Building Generative AI Applications Using Amazon Bedrock: Guides in building generative AI applications.

AWS will offer Udacity scholarships worth over $12 million to 50,000 high school and university students globally, focusing on underserved and underrepresented communities.

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Amazon Future Engineer and Code.org have also collaborated to launch an "Hour of Code Dance Party: AI Edition." This aims to provide students an interactive introduction to coding and AI.