Topic 1 of 16 in the learning path

Start Here: Roadmaps & Strategy

What an AI engineer does, what to learn first, and how to plan your study.

Reels and posts (32)

• AI Engineer Roadmap Overview: From ML Foundations to RAG, Agents & Ops · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:45: Bashiri Smith briefly walks through an AI engineer roadmap he built.
• SWE-to-AI Engineer Plan for 2027: LLMs, RAG, Agents, Evals, Job Search · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:07: A short reel whose audio is only music.
• Step-by-Step Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:49: This is a quick roadmap for landing a well-paid AI engineering job.
• Pointer to Bashiri Smith's Complete AI Engineer Roadmap for 2026 · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:08: This 8-second reel teaches almost nothing by itself.
• Software Engineer to AI Engineer Before 2027: A 5-Step Career Plan · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 1:17: Bashiri Smith lays out a plan for software engineers to move into AI engineering.
• 6 Free Videos to Move from Software Engineer to AI Engineer · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:55: Bashiri Smith suggests watching six free videos in a set order instead of TV after work.
• 7 Habits to Become an AI Engineer: Books, Tooling, Research & Shipping · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:07: This short reel has no speech.
• How to Relearn LLMs & RAG in 2026: A 7-Step Roadmap with Free Resources · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 1:54: Bashiri Smith lays out the order he would follow to relearn LLMs and RAG and become an AI engineer in 2026.
• 8-Week Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:06: The creator lays out an 8-week, self-directed plan for becoming a hireable AI engineer without a bootcamp.
• AI Engineer Roadmap Before 2027: Fundamentals, RAG, Agents, Ops, Evals · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 1:09: This is a quick roadmap for becoming an AI engineer.
• AI Engineer Roadmap: 5 Skill Areas, a 24-Week Study Order & Interview Strategy · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 2:29: Bashiri Smith answers three questions people ask about becoming an AI engineer: what to study, in what order and for how long, and how to get and pass interviews.
• Andrew Ng Says Keep Learning to Code, but Learn the Modern Way · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:50: The video starts with Andrew Ng's comment that telling people to stop learning to code because AI will automate it may be some of the worst career advice ever given.
• 3-Month Roadmap to AI Engineering for Experienced Software Engineers · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:07: A 12-week plan for software engineers who already build APIs, work with databases and ship software, and can spend 10–15 hours a week on it.
• AI Engineer Mistakes Pt. 3: Don't Grind Math First, Choose Embeddings Carefully · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:31: This short video contrasts a "wannabe" with a $200K+ AI engineer across two common mistakes.
• AI Engineer Roadmap for 2026 in 60 Seconds · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:55: Bashiri Smith gives a quick five-stage roadmap for becoming an AI engineer in 2026.
• 6 AI Engineering Career Paths: Pick Your Target Role First · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:09: This short reel lists six different AI engineering roles and gives a one-line description of each.
• Software Engineer to AI Engineer: The Four Pillars and Five Topics to Learn · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:37: The video argues that software engineers already cover most of what AI engineering requires.
• The 3 Levels of AI Engineering: LLM Apps → Production → Agentic Systems · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 1:13: Bashiri Smith splits AI engineering into three levels.
• Matching Your Interests to 5 AI Engineering Job Roles · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:32: A quick guide that matches what you enjoy doing to an AI career path.
• Why RAG Alone Won't Make You a Lasting AI Engineer · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 1:15: Bashiri Smith says many aspiring AI engineers only learn the basic RAG pipeline: chunk a PDF, embed it, store it in a vector database and put a chatbot on top.
• 90-Day Plan to Land an AI Engineering Job: Benchmark, Learn, Build · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 1:02: The creator lays out a 90-day plan for getting an AI engineering job.
• Promo: Bashiri Smith's AI Engineer Career Community ($150K+ Goal) · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:11: This 11-second reel advertises Bashiri Smith's AI engineering career community.
• AI Engineer Roadmap: Fundamentals, RAG, Agents, Books & Your First AI Service · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 1:15: Bashiri Smith lays out a short roadmap for becoming an AI engineer before 2027.
• AI Engineering Roadmap: 16 Topics to Learn, from LLMs to AI Safety · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:15: This is a 15-second reel that reads out a list of AI engineering topics as a study roadmap.
• Five Core AI Engineering Topic Areas: A Study Roadmap Checklist · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:27: This short reel splits AI engineering study into five areas: LLMs & RAG, Agents & Orchestration, Ops & Evaluation, Safety & Ethics, and ML Foundations.
• The 5 Core AI Engineering Skill Categories to Focus On · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:12: This short reel says you don't need to learn every AI topic you see online.
• Promo: Bashiri Smith's Free AI Engineering Guide and Community · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:08: This 8-second reel teaches nothing.
• Andrew Ng's AI Engineering Skills Map · Melvin Vivas, X: The creator shares Andrew Ng's article 'AI Engineering Skills Map: Building and Deploying AI Applications'.
• Andrew Ng on how anyone can become an AI Engineer · Melvin Vivas, X: The creator points out that Andrew Ng published a guide on how anyone can become an AI engineer.
• 17-Step AI Engineer Roadmap: From Basic RAG to Agents, Evals, LLMOps & Governance · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:11: Bashiri Smith says building a basic RAG chatbot isn't enough to become a serious AI engineer, and lays out a 17-step learning path.
• AI Engineering Skills Map: The 5 Core Categories to Master · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 1:06: The creator talks about an AI engineering skills map published by an unnamed "top AI expert." That map splits the field into six areas: LLM foundations, grounding models with data,
• Two Free Resources to Learn AI Engineering: AI Engineering Hub & AI Safety Book · Bashiri Smith, Facebook · 0:29: Bashiri Smith recommends two free websites for learning AI engineering from scratch.

Watch, free (1)

• The Complete AI Engineer Roadmap for 2026 (Exact Courses + Step-by-Step) · video · youtube.com · free
  Bashiri Smith's free YouTube training on upgrading your skills and becoming competitive for AI engineering roles, with specific courses listed step by step.
  Mentioned in: SWE-to-AI Engineer Plan for 2027: LLMs, RAG, Agents, Evals, Job Search (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Pointer to Bashiri Smith's Complete AI Engineer Roadmap for 2026 (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Step-by-Step Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Software Engineer to AI Engineer Before 2027: A 5-Step Career Plan (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes) and 20 more

Read and use (9)

• Andrew Ng · person · x.com · free · recommended by both Bashiri Smith & Melvin Vivas
  A leading AI researcher and educator whose view is that more people should learn to code as AI tools improve.
  Mentioned in: Andrew Ng Says Keep Learning to Code, but Learn the Modern Way (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Building Adaptive AI Agents: Skills from Traces and Code Knowledge Graphs (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Andrew Ng's AI Engineering Skills Map (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Andrew Ng on how anyone can become an AI Engineer (Melvin Vivas on X · notes)
• AI Engineering Skills Map: Building and Deploying AI Applications · article · x.com · free
  Andrew Ng's article mapping the skills needed to build and deploy AI applications as an AI engineer. It's on X, so reading it may need an X account.
  Mentioned in: Andrew Ng's AI Engineering Skills Map (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Andrew Ng on how anyone can become an AI Engineer (Melvin Vivas on X · notes)
• The AI Pivot Field Guide · pdf · drive.google.com · free
  A 2026 guide from the baswe.Ai Engineer Accelerator with three routes into AI engineering: mid-level software engineers (9 to 12 months), new grads (12 months) and non-technical domain experts who want to build agents…
  Mentioned in: AI Engineer Roadmap Overview: From ML Foundations to RAG, Agents & Ops (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), SWE-to-AI Engineer Plan for 2027: LLMs, RAG, Agents, Evals, Job Search (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes)
• 5 books to upgrade from software engineer into Ai/ML engineer · pdf · docs.google.com · free
  A one-page reading list of five books for software engineers moving into AI or ML engineering.
  Mentioned in: 5 Books to Move from Software Engineer to AI/ML Engineer (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes)
• Bashiri Smith's '200k' full roadmap breakdown · pdf · free
  The creator's detailed version of the 8-week AI engineer roadmap, sent to viewers who comment on the post.
  DM only: comment 200k on this reel on Facebook and you get it by DM.
  Mentioned in: 8-Week Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes)
• Bashiri Smith's AI Engineer Roadmap (free resource guide) · pdf · free
  The creator's free guide of resources for becoming an AI engineer, sent to viewers who comment "ROADMAP".
  DM only: comment ROADMAP on this reel on Facebook and you get it by DM.
  Mentioned in: AI Engineer Mistakes Pt. 3: Don't Grind Math First, Choose Embeddings Carefully (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes)
• Bashiri Smith's AI engineering coaching group (roadmap + daily calls) · community · skool.com · paid
  The creator's program: a group of AI engineers offering a learning roadmap, a personalized learning plan, coaching calls and job-search help.
  Mentioned in: Wannabe vs. Hired AI Engineer: Beyond RAG, FDE Roles and Degrees (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes)
• Bashiri Smith's Free AI Engineering Guide · pdf · free
  The creator's free AI engineering guide, sent to people who comment "PLAN".
  DM only: comment PLAN on this reel on Facebook and you get it by DM.
  Mentioned in: Promo: Bashiri Smith's Free AI Engineering Guide and Community (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes)
• Trello · tool · trello.com · free
  Kanban-style board tool, useful for tracking progress through a learning roadmap.
  Mentioned in: AI Engineer Roadmap Overview: From ML Foundations to RAG, Agents & Ops (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes)

Build

• Build a real RAG system covering chunking, embeddings, a vector database, and semantic search. (from AI Engineer Roadmap Overview: From ML Foundations to RAG, Agents & Ops)
• RAG app with hybrid search, reranking, and citations, evaluated on retrieval quality and answer accuracy. (from SWE-to-AI Engineer Plan for 2027: LLMs, RAG, Agents, Evals, Job Search)
• Agent that researches companies or updates a CRM, with retries and a human approval step, evaluated on task success, latency, and cost. (from SWE-to-AI Engineer Plan for 2027: LLMs, RAG, Agents, Evals, Job Search)
• A portfolio project chosen from an AI-assisted market gap analysis of what your target companies are hiring for. (from Step-by-Step Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role)
• Build a production-style LLM app that solves a real problem: LangGraph orchestration, LiteLLM model gateway, pgvector retrieval, Langfuse tracing, all containerized with Docker. (from 7 Habits to Become an AI Engineer: Books, Tooling, Research & Shipping)
• Add a RAG pipeline with reranking and evals, deploy it to Vercel or AWS, and monitor it with OpenTelemetry, Grafana or LangSmith. (from 7 Habits to Become an AI Engineer: Books, Tooling, Research & Shipping)
• Publish the project on GitHub with an architecture diagram and a technical write-up on LinkedIn. (from 7 Habits to Become an AI Engineer: Books, Tooling, Research & Shipping)
• A checkpoint project: an end-to-end RAG app where you choose the models, build the retrieval pipeline (embeddings, vector database, chunking, hybrid retrieval), and explain why you made each choice. (from How to Relearn LLMs & RAG in 2026: A 7-Step Roadmap with Free Resources)
• Build a RAG pipeline from scratch. (from 8-Week Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role)
• Build an AI agent system orchestrated with LangGraph or CrewAI. (from 8-Week Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role)
• Containerize an AI app with Docker, serve it with FastAPI, and add evals and monitoring. (from 8-Week Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role)
• A basic to-do app built without AI, as a check of your software fundamentals (from AI Engineer Roadmap Before 2027: Fundamentals, RAG, Agents, Ops, Evals)
• A RAG pipeline built from scratch (from AI Engineer Roadmap Before 2027: Fundamentals, RAG, Agents, Ops, Evals)
• Your own personal AI project after doing the practice projects (from AI Engineer Roadmap Before 2027: Fundamentals, RAG, Agents, Ops, Evals)
• One production-grade LLM app with RAG for a focused use case using real data. It should include 30–50 evaluation test cases, hybrid search with reranking, a permissioned tool, regression tests for prompt injection and unauthorized access, tracing, and tracking of quality, latency and cost. Write it up as a public case study. (from 3-Month Roadmap to AI Engineering for Experienced Software Engineers)
• A RAG app deployed with FastAPI and Docker, with evaluations, logging and failure handling, that tracks answer accuracy, latency and cost. (from AI Engineer Roadmap for 2026 in 60 Seconds)
• An AI agent project with a test suite and failure handling. (from AI Engineer Roadmap for 2026 in 60 Seconds)
• A benchmark coding project, built without AI help, to test whether you have the basic AI engineering skills (the video shows it but doesn't name it). (from 90-Day Plan to Land an AI Engineering Job: Benchmark, Learn, Build)
• An MVP that solves a real problem a team at one of your target companies has, based on their job postings. (from 90-Day Plan to Land an AI Engineering Job: Benchmark, Learn, Build)
• Your first AI service: build it with FastAPI, containerize it with Docker and serve it behind a real API. (from AI Engineer Roadmap: Fundamentals, RAG, Agents, Books & Your First AI Service)
• LLMs & RAG checkpoint project: a RAG app that covers chunking, embeddings, a vector database and advanced retrieval. (from Five Core AI Engineering Topic Areas: A Study Roadmap Checklist)
• Agents checkpoint project: a LangGraph agent or multi-agent system with tool calling, memory and MCP. (from Five Core AI Engineering Topic Areas: A Study Roadmap Checklist)
• Ops & Evaluation checkpoint project: deploy an LLM app with observability and CI/CD, and evaluate it with LLM-as-a-judge. (from Five Core AI Engineering Topic Areas: A Study Roadmap Checklist)
• Safety & Ethics checkpoint project: add guardrails and security risk checks to an LLM application. (from Five Core AI Engineering Topic Areas: A Study Roadmap Checklist)
• ML Foundations checkpoint project: a scikit-learn pipeline with MLflow tracking, DVC data versioning, deployment and monitoring. (from Five Core AI Engineering Topic Areas: A Study Roadmap Checklist)
• Build the beginner, intermediate and advanced LLM, RAG and agent projects from the AI Engineering Hub repo. (from Two Free Resources to Learn AI Engineering: AI Engineering Hub & AI Safety Book)