Business leaders of all kinds know AI is going to change their industries forever. What’s less clear is how to use AI most advantageously to position their businesses for the future. At the same time, companies are struggling to find and recruit professionals trained specifically in AI.
That’s where Salwa Nur Muhammad, founder and CEO of FourthBrain, comes in.
“We train data scientists and software engineers to become AI engineers,” Muhammad says. “We also offer workshops in AI for business leaders. Our curriculum focuses on communication, collaboration, and ethical considerations in AI in addition to technical skills.”
FourthBrain works closely with individuals to level up through one-week or monthlong programs, as well as with companies across many industries like biomedicine, consulting, technology, health, and retail. As a result, FourthBrain enables ventures of all sizes to optimize their operations through AI.
FourthBrain fills the skills gap
As businesses of all kinds increasingly incorporate AI, the demand for talented AI engineers has grown.
“AI is transforming how most tasks and in turn many jobs are performed,” Muhammad explains.
Small and mid-sized companies are at a disadvantage, however.
“When companies try to hire AI engineers, they must often compete with heavy hitters like the FAAMG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google) companies in compensation and benefits,” Muhammad says. “There are also just not enough trained AI engineers to go around.”
FourthBrain addresses this problem, giving businesses a way to develop their existing team members into the AI experts they so desperately need.
“Training existing employees to become AI engineers preserves institutional knowledge, which allows candidates to hit the ground running and also learn about applications as closely related to work projects as possible,” Muhammad explains. “It’s a great strategy for retention and better business outcomes.”
FourthBrain redefines upskilling
Muhammad founded FourthBrain in 2020, when jobs in AI were exploding.
“Not many graduates were coming out of traditional school systems prepared to fill those roles,” she explains. “Connecting jobs and workforce to hands-on learning and education, especially through non-traditional systems, has always been a focus of my work in education. I have been working in education for my entire career and specifically edtech for over a decade.”
To prepare students to work in the growing field of AI, she turned to offering applied training. But she didn’t want her programs to follow conventional approaches.
“We have our students do a lot of group projects and focus on the communication and collaboration skills that are critical in the fast-paced nature of AI jobs,” she explains. “Part of our mission has been to redefine continuous education or up-skilling.”
Unlike traditional university courses, which can get out-of-date, and massive open online courses (MOOCs), which usually have no personalized expert guidance or project-based element, FourthBrain offers practical, hands-on training in AI. Launching this new enterprise during the pandemic was far from easy, however.
The evolution of FourthBrain
“We got our first investment in March 2020, not knowing COVID was about to indefinitely put us in lockdown,” Muhammad remembers. “Originally we had envisioned a hybrid format with in-person classes scaffolded with asynchronous online learning. Shelter-in-place orders forced us to think about this creatively.”
Muhammad and her team moved from in-person classes to live online video calls for the entire cohort. “This allowed us to enroll students across timezones,” she says. “Students were also more receptive to this, since it was the only way we could meet synchronously during COVID. “
What had appeared to be a curse turned into a new opportunity, however. “When COVID restrictions were lifted, students didn’t want to go back in person,” Muhammad says. “No one wanted to waste time commuting. We also didn’t want to lose out on diverse cohorts that included people from all over. Our ability to serve students regardless of their geographic location contributed to a more diverse learning experience.”
A couple of years ago, as the launch of ChatGPT and Large Language Models (LLMs) brought AI more into focus, FourthBrain shifted to shorter courses that target specific skills people want to learn. Each features industry experts in cutting-edge technology, such as Generative AI.
“In our experience, the ever-changing landscape of technology motivates many tech professionals to continue learning,” Muhammad explains. “Keeping up with the latest innovation and collaborating with peers, who can be people in their cohorts, gives them a built-in community to pull from so that they can master the latest developments that affect their work.”
A concrete roadmap to incorporating AI
As the world spins faster and faster, business leaders run risks if they ignore the AI revolution.
“When we were first training engineers, we heard from them that they were happy with what they learned and their salary increases after upskilling in AI,” she says. “However, they wished they applied more AI in their work. This is often the responsibility of the business leaders in charge of budgets and prioritization. Not only does AI contribute to efficiency and generating revenue, but companies also risk losing their best people if they don’t get to work on cutting-edge problems to keep the work interesting.”
FourthBrain helps companies implement AI in their businesses at this critical time via trained, knowledgeable staff who develop concrete, actionable roadmaps and projects during their studies.
“We do this by infusing real-life skills like communication, collaboration, and ethical considerations in AI with the technical deployment skills,” Muhammad says. “This positions teams and the company to reap benefits from AI in the short term as well as long into the future.”
