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AI playbook to master artificial intelligence

Building an AI playbook is key to mastering artificial intelligence. This can either be so you can effectively use it on a daily basis or as an amazing future tech career. Also, the best news is that you have a great place to start as the process is the same as building a cybersecurity playbook.

This is the case because cybersecurity is so similar to AI but has also been around a bit longer. As a result, we can use these techniques from cybersecurity and then apply them to AI. This will provide you a great roadmap to get moving in the right direction. Lets start with the fear that is created by AI and cybersecurity and how to then reduce it.

People fear both AI and cybersecurity

Since the late 90’s, the Internet has interconnected our world, allowing people to communicate from anywhere to anywhere.

While the digital economy has flourished, cyber criminals have been quick to exploit the connectivity, leading to an increase in cyber attacks as more people go online.

This has led to massive breaches costing individuals their identities and businesses millions of dollars, resulting in a myriad of fears.

In the early days of cybersecurity these fears led to the coining of a concept known as F.U.D., or fear, uncertainty and doubt. So F.U.D. was brutal in severely impacting the decisions of people and businesses around cybersecurity.

Some of the more impactful issues were cybersecurity vendors using this fear to scare people into buying expensive technical solutions. At the time and in many cases, these solutions were unproven and clearly in the hype cycle. However, everyone was so scared they would still often make poor and rash decisions.

The good news is that while F.U.D. still exists today in cybersecurity, as a discipline we have learned a lot about how to reduce it. So even better news is that with the similarities between AI and cybersecurity, we have even more insight we can leverage in creating both an AI or cybersecurity playbook.

So lets begin with our AI playbook by reducing fear, first in yourself, and then in others as your AI journey begins.

The best AI playbook techniques to reduce fear and move forward

The key to your AI or really also a cybersecurity playbook is a combination of learning soft and hard technical skills while also gaining real world technical experience. Also, since fear is so prevalent at the beginning of this process we start there by reducing it. In addition, since fear is an emotion many of these early steps are soft skills and easy to learn.

It should be noted that developing AI or technology skills in general is not an overnight process. The entire process from start to finish can take 1-3 years to become proficient.

For the first phases, with no experience, can take up to a year. This will include measuring where you are at and gaining a simple understanding and frame of reference of AI.

While this will really speed up the rest of your development, it will then take another couple years to really execute on the longer tasks and become a professional with a full time job in AI or cybersecurity. So here are the steps to begin.

The first step for an AI or cybersecurity playbook is to reduce fear and gain understanding

The key to reducing fear in AI or cybersecurity is to learn why it scare you in the first place. Generally the biggest fears we have can be reduced by simply understanding them. From there, you want to give yourself a foundation understanding to further reduce the fear caused by this lack of understanding.

• Start with the why– Understanding the why is a great way to reduce confusion and a lack of understanding. This is because this lack of understanding leads to feelings of powerlessness in humans which then leads to fear or apathy. So first, ensure that you ask the why as you learn new concepts as you develop. Next, ensure that when you talk with others about AI, you also start with the why.
• Find trusted sources- There is a lot of hype about AI and cybersecurity which leads to bad sources and information. You want to first find experts that can help you identify the right sources, then you want to continuously look to identify them. A good place to start is with your teachers.
• Get a foundation understanding-You will not learn everything in one day, but it will help to start with a foundation course in either technology and/or an AI foundation course. You will want to learn initial AI foundation concepts as well an understanding of how technical infrastructure works in an organization.
• Continuously learn- Build your learning and teaching skills early in this technology journey. This is something you will need to continue to do and will never end while you are in technology. This includes your research, listening as well as communication skills.

The second step is to measure your current tech skills then build a plan

Once you have a base understanding to grow from, the next step is to measure your skills then build an AI playbook. You need many different tech skills to become successful in any technical career, let alone in AI. So a good start is to perform an inventory of which skills you do have and which you still need to learn.

• Measure current tech skills- There are many soft and hard skills you will need to develop to be proficient in tech or AI. You will want to assess your strengths and weaknesses as a starting point.
• Build a project plan– Since it can take a couple years to develop skills in AI, you will want a solid project plan to guide you. This should include defining the scope, schedule and budget for your entire development journey. Also, you should track progress and make changes as you need to.
• Find a team and support– Everything in technology happens in teams. So find a team early that can help you with insight, support and provide experience how to work well in teams.
• Find a place to practice– Learning is one thing, then demonstrating those skills you have learned is something else. You will want to identify a supportive environment that lets you practice both your hard and soft skills as you train.
• Build your professional persona– Early in your development you will want to build you professional persona on social platforms like Linkedin. You will also want to contribute to research papers or presentations to continue to learn and show you are a part of the discipline.

The third step is to get early work experience in tech or AI

Early in your development of the AI or cybersecurity playbook you will want to get real world work experience as early as you can. This is the key to accelerating development and moving you closer to full-time work.

• Get an entry supported job– These can be difficult as many people want them but they do exist. You will want to research and then apply for entry supported jobs that can provide pay, further work experience and additional on the job training.
• Additional training and certifications– While you work you will want to take more courses and get certifications as you specialize. This will continue your development in an ongoing fashion
• Become an expert at teaching others– You don’t know something till you can teach it. The best way to accelerate your learning is through teaching others as you learn.

The final step of the AI playbook is to become a professional

At this point you are ready for or in an AI or cybersecurity job. However you will want to always continue your technical development.

• Master more advanced technology– Look to learn more advanced system technologies or even learn to become an architect.
• Attain more advanced technical AI jobs– This can include becoming a senior professional in tech or perhaps even exploring technical leadership positions.
• Continuously learn and teach– The final reminder that you will need to always continue learning and teaching others as you develop in a technical or AI career.

Next steps to build an AI or cybersecurity playbook

As you can see there are many steps to building an AI or cybersecurity playbook. However, this effort is worth it as the reward can be a fulfilling AI or cybersecurity career. A strong next step is to look at programs such as our technical skill development pass. This program can provide you all of the tools we have discussed here to execute on your AI or cybersecurity career journey.

You can also reach out to us on our getting started page.