Even if you're in a field that's not tech, adding AI to your skillset (and resume) sounds like a smart move.
A recent LinkedIn report pointed out that six out of the 15 emerging jobs are related in some way to artificial intelligence, with AI-related skills seeing a 190 percent increase from 2015 to 2017. What's even more important is that skills related to this field are infiltrating every industry beyond tech, including marketing, health care, education and business.
So, how do you keep up with the increasing need of AI experts in the job market? One Boston startup that uses AI as its bread and butter is throwing its hat in the ring as a resource for the AI-hungry community.
Starting in 2019, Boston-based AI startup Talla will offer AI-related, in-person free classes at its headquarters in the Theatre District. The plan is to organize these one-time lessons twice a month, mostly on Wednesday evenings, for a total of 20-25 lessons in a year.
Founded in 2015, Talla is an AI-powered platform that helps sales, customer success and customer support teams to find the information they need to resolve tickets as fast as possible. The company raised an $8.3 million Series A round led by Boston-based VC firm Glasswing Ventures in 2017, bringing its total funding to roughly $12.3 million.
Named "TallaAfterHours," the project involves eight or nine Talla executives who will teach the classes, including CEO Rob May. The idea for the classes started internally, May explained, after some Talla employees got requests to share their area of expertise to team members and beyond.
"We sort of said, 'Hey, if you're an expert on something, why don't you teach the rest of the team about it?'" May said.
As a next step, it made sense for Talla employees to play with the idea of delivering lectures externally. As far as career growth is involved, presenting themselves as experts is a great way to score points. The hard part is to begin; and here's where the idea for TallaAfterHours took off.
"I think it's just hard for people to, sort of, crack that and do it, so why don't we provide a platform for that?" May said. "I think it was good career development for the people who work here... My goal is to make everybody who's an executive do it at some point, at least one course at year."
Each course will likely consist of a combination of frontal lesson, PowerPoint slides and workshops on a variety of subjects related to AI, including Strategic thinking in AI and Selling and marketing AI products.
The first class, a lesson by Rob May on the PAC framework, will be on Feb. 6, 2019. The calendar of the classes, which are free and each open to 20-30 external students, is available here.
