Amazon recently announced AI Ready, an ambitious new commitment to provide free AI skills training to 2 million people globally by 2025. This initiative comes as artificial intelligence rapidly transforms businesses and the job landscape.
A study by Amazon Web Services (AWS) underscores the soaring demand for AI talent. It found 73% of employers cite hiring AI professionals as a priority. However, 75% of these companies struggle to meet their AI recruitment needs. Workers with AI capabilities stand to earn up to 47% higher salaries.
The 'AI Ready' program encompasses three main initiatives. Firstly, eight new free AI and generative AI courses are being introduced, catering to a range of learners, from beginners to advanced, and including business leaders and technologists. These courses, accessible through AWS Educate and AWS Skill Builder, cover topics from foundational understanding of generative AI to practical applications in prompt engineering and machine learning.
Secondly, the AWS Generative AI Scholarship is a notable step, offering more than 50,000 high school and university students globally access to a generative AI course on Udacity. Valued at over $12 million, these scholarships aim to reach students from underserved and underrepresented communities, providing them with foundational AI skills and certification upon completion.
Lastly, Amazon is collaborating with Code.org to introduce students to generative AI through the Hour of Code Dance Party: AI Edition. This initiative, combining music and coding, is designed to make AI learning accessible and engaging. It also aligns with AWS's broader commitment to providing cloud computing skills training to 29 million people by 2025.