How to actually learn AI in 2026 (without paying for a bootcamp)
2026-07-28 7 min read
The hardest part of learning AI today is not access to material — it is the sheer volume of it. There are thousands of excellent free lessons online, and almost no structure connecting them.
Start with fundamentals for two weeks: how models are trained, what tokens are, and why context windows matter. You do not need mathematics to be productive, but you do need an accurate mental model.
Weeks three to six belong to prompt engineering and tooling. Build small automations that solve problems you personally have. Every prompt you write should produce an artefact you keep.
The final six weeks are project weeks. Ship three things: an AI-assisted workflow at work, a small app that calls a model, and a public write-up of what you learned. Portfolios beat certificates in interviews — but bring both.