The AI Guild is a club of data-centric professionals like Data Scientists, Data Engineers, and Machine and Deep Learning engineers.

We frequently observe a shortage of experts as well as business case failure in Data Science and Machine Learning. It is so common across companies and countries that not being successful seems the prevalent outcome. We also know that just more AI projects or more online training won’t change the outcome. We founded the AI Guild to scale Data Science and Machine Learning as a business case by empowering talent to be the experts that build the data-centric products of the 21st century.

All working Data Scientists, Data Engineers, and Machine and Deep Learning engineers are invited to join the guild. Moreover, anyone with a track record in the data-driven professions is eligible for membership, including e.g. roles in data analytics & visualization, entrepreneurship, product, management, marketing, and education. We also offer training and induction for all talents to the AI Guild.

Be or become one of the experts building scalable data-centric products by e.g. 1) Getting hired in a better team 2) Hiring guild experts for a stronger team 3) Obtaining support from the guild in scaling the business case 4) Having new guild members available for product prototyping 5) Using the guild to co-found and launch your MVP

The best way to find out is to apply. If you have been enjoying courses in e.g. Python, R, Data Science - chances are that you are suitable for training. However, we generally are more interested in your previous experience in handling data and statistics, as well as in your motivation for choosing a data-centric career.

Experience with hiring companies and bootcamps show that if you are interested in Data & AI, you are numerate, and you have some prior coding experience, then 400-500 hours of further training and practice are sufficient for a career start.

We want all talents to kickstart their career. Running the training in 4 weeks means that you simply take a break from whatever else you are doing and start your upskilling. 4 weeks is short enough for e.g. some annual leave, paid education leave, a sabbatical. Running it in 4 weeks means that we expect you to work ‘996’ - from 9 to 9 on six days a week. This is intensive, we know, but e.g. many PhDs, Postdocs, and startup cofounders know anyway that there are periods in life when ‘996’ is required and makes sense too.

Online exercises and capstone projects are nice but experience says that they do not help you kickstart your career. Hiring managers prefer some ‘track record’, hence we ask you to work in teams on prototypes or products (the so-called MVP, the minimally viable product). Moreover, we expect all teams to publish their code in a reproducible manner so that a public track record emerges.

The guilds are setup to collaborate online, and many guild members hold day jobs too. More generally, this allows you to undergo guild induction while continuing with your PhD or employment, and this helps to make any career transition more seamless for you. The European labor market is structured in a way that bootcamps work suboptimally. If you quit your job, do the bootcamp and then expect to get hired right away you may find that your search drags on simply because companies do not hire that fast. We want you to have the best possible career start.

Many competitors charge €10,000 and more. However, we have found a scalable solution to training talent and improving business outcomes and this enables us to offer cost-effective and better training. Training and induction are essential to the AI Guild but not the only and also not the major source of income. Some bootcamps in the United States are free of charge for Ph.D. talent, but by charging only recruiters and hiring companies these bootcamps have to prioritize company needs. We charge you for the training because we are committed first and foremost to your career.

You can join THE AI GUILD by filling the "Be a Member" form (https://www.theguild.ai/-membership).

You can start an online guild by contacting the organizers (contact@theguild.ai). A joint infrastructure supports the guilds, enabling visibility and exchange. The costs for the infrastructure are shared among the participating guild members.

Online guilds are free to choose their focus, e.g. computer vision (approach), mobility (domain), recommender system (product), neural network (method). A combination of foci is also possible. Typically, online guilds work towards: 1) Getting better and become leading experts in the field 2) Making a recognizable contribution to the field (e.g. prototyping; open source code) 3) Inducting new guild members regularly and mentoring juniors

Develop and demonstrate increasing competence to expert level and beyond, e.g. as Head of AI, CxO, co-founder 1) Build a publicly visible track record with a team 2) Generate impact with prototyping and open source development 3) Demonstrate leadership with product development and team organization 4) Explore career options through feedback, freelancing, and new opportunities 5) Iterate on problems until you have an MVP making you a co-founder