Amazon unveils the “AI Ready” initiative, aiming to equip two million individuals with AI skills by 2025. The company highlights a recent study conducted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) with Access Partnership, revealing that 73% of employers prioritize hiring AI-skilled talent. Three out of four face challenges meeting these demands, anticipating potential salary hikes of up to 47% for AI upskilling.
To bridge the AI skills gap, AWS announces eight free AI and generative AI courses aligned with sought-after jobs, catering to both beginners and experts. Additionally, AWS allocates over $12 million in Udacity scholarships for 50,000+ students from underserved communities globally, offering free access to the “Introducing Generative AI with AWS” course.
“The goal of AI Ready is to help level the playing field of AI education, supported by the new initiatives we’re launching today. We will also scale our existing free AI training programs and courses as we continue to remove cost as a barrier to accessing these critical skills,” says Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President of Data and AI at AWS, emphasizing the goal.
Furthermore, AWS pledges up to $8 million in cloud computing credits to Code.org during Computer Science Education Week to support students and teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade. Amazon’s AI Ready program complements its commitment to invest in free cloud computing skills training for 29 million by 2025, having already trained over 21 million individuals.
