Amazon is launching a new initiative called "AI Ready"²⁷¹ to provide free AI skills training to 2 million people globally by 2025. This aims to address the talent shortage in AI as businesses struggle to find qualified candidates.

What's going on here?

Amazon is providing totally free training aligned with in-demand AI roles across business and technical fields.

What does this mean?

The main components of the AI Ready program are:

• 8 new free online AI courses covering both foundational concepts and more advanced skills.

• Over $12 million in AI scholarships for 50,000+ high school and college students.

• New collaboration with Code.org designed to help students learn about generative AI.

It has already released²⁷¹ a few courses in two categories: courses for business and nontechnical audiences and courses for developer and technical audiences via AWS Educate and AWS Skill Builder.

Why should I care?

AI skills are becoming critically important in the workforce. AWS’s new study¹⁷ for AI in the workforce has some stats to back the claim:

• 93% of businesses are expecting to use AI solutions across their organizations in the next 5 years.

• Hiring AI-skilled talent is a priority for 73% of employers, but ¾th of them are unable to find that talent.

• Employees with AI capabilities may earn 47% higher salaries on average.

Amazon is aiming to remove barriers like cost and access to training so anyone motivated can develop these abilities.