Name: Towards AI Legal Name: Towards AI, Inc. Description: Towards AI is the world's leading artificial intelligence (AI) and technology publication. Read by thought-leaders and decision-makers around the world. Phone Number: +1-650-246-9381 Email: pub@towardsai.net
228 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10003 United States
Website: Publisher: https://towardsai.net/#publisher Diversity Policy: https://towardsai.net/about Ethics Policy: https://towardsai.net/about Masthead: https://towardsai.net/about
Name: Towards AI Legal Name: Towards AI, Inc. Description: Towards AI is the world's leading artificial intelligence (AI) and technology publication. Founders: Roberto Iriondo, , Job Title: Co-founder and Advisor Works for: Towards AI, Inc. Follow Roberto: X, LinkedIn, GitHub, Google Scholar, Towards AI Profile, Medium, ML@CMU, FreeCodeCamp, Crunchbase, Bloomberg, Roberto Iriondo, Generative AI Lab, Generative AI Lab VeloxTrend Ultrarix Capital Partners Denis Piffaretti, Job Title: Co-founder Works for: Towards AI, Inc. Louie Peters, Job Title: Co-founder Works for: Towards AI, Inc. Louis-François Bouchard, Job Title: Co-founder Works for: Towards AI, Inc. Cover:
Towards AI Cover
Logo:
Towards AI Logo
Areas Served: Worldwide Alternate Name: Towards AI, Inc. Alternate Name: Towards AI Co. Alternate Name: towards ai Alternate Name: towardsai Alternate Name: towards.ai Alternate Name: tai Alternate Name: toward ai Alternate Name: toward.ai Alternate Name: Towards AI, Inc. Alternate Name: towardsai.net Alternate Name: pub.towardsai.net
5 stars – based on 497 reviews

Frequently Used, Contextual References

TODO: Remember to copy unique IDs whenever it needs used. i.e., URL: 304b2e42315e

Resources

Our 15 AI experts built the most comprehensive, practical, 90+ lesson courses to master AI Engineering - we have pathways for any experience at Towards AI Academy. Cohorts still open - use COHORT10 for 10% off.

Publication

Before You Start Your AI Engineering Journey… Do This.
Latest   Machine Learning

Before You Start Your AI Engineering Journey… Do This.

Last Updated on August 29, 2025 by Editorial Team

Author(s): Ahmed Boulahia

Originally published on Towards AI.

Forget hype. Learn the core skills that actually help you build AI systems that work, from Python to agents, step by step.

So, you want to become an AI Engineer? That’s awesome.
But here’s something most people won’t tell you:
if you start by chasing the trendiest tools and frameworks, you’ll get stuck fast.

Before You Start Your AI Engineering Journey… Do This.

Master the Programming Basics flowchart

The article emphasizes the importance of acquiring core programming skills, especially in Python, before exploring frameworks or advanced AI concepts. It advocates for a strong foundational knowledge to adequately build functional AI agents, detailing key topics and resources necessary for mastering programming, essential tools, and designing effective AI systems. The author stresses the significance of understanding the fundamentals of AI agents and encourages readers to focus on prompt engineering, API integration, and evaluating their builds to ensure real-world applicability and optimization.

Read the full blog for free on Medium.

Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming a sponsor.

Published via Towards AI


Take our 90+ lesson From Beginner to Advanced LLM Developer Certification: From choosing a project to deploying a working product this is the most comprehensive and practical LLM course out there!

Towards AI has published Building LLMs for Production—our 470+ page guide to mastering LLMs with practical projects and expert insights!


Discover Your Dream AI Career at Towards AI Jobs

Towards AI has built a jobs board tailored specifically to Machine Learning and Data Science Jobs and Skills. Our software searches for live AI jobs each hour, labels and categorises them and makes them easily searchable. Explore over 40,000 live jobs today with Towards AI Jobs!

Note: Content contains the views of the contributing authors and not Towards AI.