The AI engineer skills gap

The AI engineer skills gap

Author: Practical AI LLC December 10, 2025 Duration: 45:33

Chris and Daniel talk with returning guest, Ramin Mohammadi, about how those seeking to get into AI Engineer/ Data Science jobs are expected to come in a mid level engineers (not entry level). They explore this growing gap along with what should (or could) be done in academia to focus on real world skills vs. theoretical knowledge. 

Featuring:

Sponsors:

  • Shopify – The commerce platform trusted by millions. From idea to checkout, Shopify gives you everything you need to launch and scale your business—no matter your level of experience. Build beautiful storefronts, market with built-in AI tools, and tap into the platform powering 10% of all U.S. eCommerce. Start your one-dollar trial at shopify.com/practicalai

Upcoming Events: 


There's a lot of noise out there about artificial intelligence, but cutting through the hype to find what's genuinely useful can be a challenge. That's the space where Practical AI operates. Hosted by the team at Practical AI LLC, this technology podcast moves beyond abstract theory to explore how AI, machine learning, and large language models are actually being applied right now. Each episode features unscripted conversations with a diverse mix of experts, developers, business leaders, and curious minds. You'll hear tangible discussions about implementing machine learning systems, the realities of MLOps, the evolution of neural networks, and the practical implications of breakthroughs in deep learning and GANs. The dialogue is grounded in real-world scenarios, focusing on how these technologies solve problems, drive productivity, and create value in accessible ways. Whether you're a professional building models, a business person integrating AI tools, or an enthusiast eager to understand the landscape, this podcast offers a clear, conversational entry point. It’s about making sense of a complex field through the lens of practical application, demystifying the concepts that are shaping our world without losing sight of how they work on the ground.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Practical AI
Podcast Episodes
Using edge models to find sensitive data [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:28
We’ve all heard about breaches of privacy and leaks of private health information (PHI). For healthcare providers and those storing this data, knowing where all the sensitive data is stored is non-trivial. Ramin, from Ta…
Rise of the AI PC & local LLMs [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:35
We’ve seen a rise in interest recently and a number of major announcements related to local LLMs and AI PCs. NVIDIA, Apple, and Intel are getting into this along with models like the Phi family from Microsoft. In this ep…
AI in the U.S. Congress [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:48
At the age of 72, U.S. Representative Don Beyer of Virginia enrolled at GMU to pursue a Master’s degree in C.S. with a concentration in Machine Learning.Rep. Beyer is Vice Chair of the bipartisan Artificial Intelligence…
First impressions of GPT-4o [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:28
Daniel & Chris share their first impressions of OpenAI’s newest LLM: GPT-4o and Daniel tries to bring the model into the conversation with humorously mixed results. Together, they explore the implications of Omni’s new f…
Full-stack approach for effective AI agents [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:02
There’s a lot of hype about AI agents right now, but developing robust agents isn’t yet a reality in general. Imbue is leading the way towards more robust agents by taking a full-stack approach; from hardware innovations…
Autonomous fighter jets?! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:11
Yep, you heard that right. Autonomous fighter jets are in the news. Chris and Daniel discuss a modified F-16 known as the X-62A VISTA and autonomous vehicles/ systems more generally. They also comment on the Linux Founda…
Private, open source chat UIs [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:25
We recently gathered some Practical AI listeners for a live webinar with Danny from LibreChat to discuss the future of private, open source chat UIs. During the discussion we hear about the motivations behind LibreChat,…
Mamba & Jamba [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:13
First there was Mamba… now there is Jamba from AI21. This is a model that combines the best non-transformer goodness of Mamba with good ‘ol attention layers. This results in a highly performant and efficient model that A…
Udio & the age of multi-modal AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:52
2024 promises to be the year of multi-modal AI, and we are already seeing some amazing things. In this “fully connected” episode, Chris and Daniel explore the new Udio product/service for generating music. Then they dig…
RAG continues to rise [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:19
Daniel & Chris delight in conversation with “the funniest guy in AI”, Demetrios Brinkmann. Together they explore the results of the MLOps Community’s latest survey. They also preview the upcoming AI Quality Conference.Sp…