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Essential AI Skills For 2026
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Essential AI Skills For 2026

Essential AI Skills for 2026

Introduction to AI Skills

  • The speaker introduces essential AI skills needed by 2026, categorized from beginner to advanced levels.
  • Highlights the rapid rise of generative AI since late 2022, emphasizing its pervasive presence in various forms like algorithms and chatbots.

Importance of Prompting

  • The key skill identified is prompting; viewers are encouraged to guess this skill for an "imaginary cookie."
  • Two frameworks for effective prompting are introduced:
  • Tiny Crabs Write Enormous Iguanas: Stands for Task, Context, References, Evaluate, and Iterate.
  • Ramen Saves Tragic Idiots: A second framework that aids in structuring prompts effectively.

Learning Resources

  • Viewers are directed to a video summarizing Google's prompt engineering course for more detailed insights on these frameworks.
  • Emphasizes that mastering prompting is crucial as it unlocks advanced capabilities in using AI tools.

Essential AI Tools

  • Lists essential tools every modern individual should know:
  • Generalized AI chatbots for answering questions and assisting with tasks like email writing and data analysis.
  • Tools that enhance learning speed through AI assistance.
  • Execution tools for creating presentations and simple applications.

Tool Optimization Strategies

  • Encourages focusing on one generalized chatbot (e.g., ChatGPT or Gemini), rather than learning multiple tools.
  • Shares personal experiences with a stack of daily-used tools tailored for specific tasks, offering deep dives into each tool's functionality.

Practical Applications of Comet

  • Introduces Comet as a useful browser tool integrated into the speaker's workflow.
  • Demonstrates how Comet can clarify complex financial terms by providing quick explanations based on user queries.

Email Management with Comet

  • Shows how Comet can summarize lengthy email chains and suggest actionable next steps based on content analysis.

How AI Agents Enhance Productivity

Scheduling Meetings with AI

  • The speaker discusses using Common Agent to schedule meetings, highlighting its integration with Google Workplace for seamless scheduling.
  • A successful meeting is scheduled with Ibrahim for 9:00 a.m. Hong Kong time, showcasing the efficiency of AI in reducing tab-switching and manual scheduling.

Fact-Checking Health Information

  • The speaker shares an example of researching natural sleep aids and expresses skepticism about certain remedies like lavender.
  • By instructing Comet Assistant to fact-check the efficacy of lavender for sleep, it retrieves evidence supporting its use, demonstrating how AI can assist in verifying health claims.

Comparing Retail Options

  • When looking to purchase melatonin supplements, the speaker uses Comet Assistant to compare prices and delivery options across retailers.
  • The assistant identifies that Amazon does not deliver to Hong Kong but suggests alternatives like I Herb, emphasizing the convenience of using AI for shopping decisions.

Understanding AI Agents

  • The video transitions into discussing AI agents defined as software systems that autonomously pursue goals on behalf of users, such as customer service or coding tasks.
  • Companies are encouraged to integrate these independent AI products into their workflows rather than overhauling existing processes entirely.

Custom Solutions for Businesses

  • The speaker provides examples from their B2B consulting experience, including a custom product retention agent designed to address customer unsubscription reasons effectively.
  • This agent crafts personalized emails offering discounts based on specific feedback from customers, which has proven effective in retaining subscriptions.

Reporting Efficiency through AI

  • Another application discussed is reporting agents that streamline data transmission and compliance reporting for companies in regulated industries like finance and healthcare.
  • Emphasizing the demand for skills in building custom AI agents, the speaker notes various frameworks available for learning this valuable skill set.

The Rise of Open-Source AI and Its Implications

Introduction to AI Skills and Boot Camp

  • If you're interested in learning AI skills, there are several videos available for reference. Check the description for links to these resources.
  • An entire 28-day AI agent boot camp is offered, providing extensive information beyond what can be covered in a single video.

Understanding Open-Source vs Closed Source AI

  • The rise of open-source AI, particularly from China, has emerged unexpectedly. Open-source refers to publicly available core components like model architecture and training data.
  • In contrast, closed source AI involves proprietary models where users access them through APIs or platforms without insight into their inner workings. Examples include OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

Performance Comparison: Open Source vs Closed Source

  • Closed source AI has dominated since 2022 due to better performance until the release of DeepSeek, an open-source model that matched its closed counterparts while offering significant cost advantages.
  • Open-source models provide full control over deployment (on-premises or cloud) and customization options such as fine-tuning and modifying architectures without vendor lock-in issues associated with closed systems.

Advantages of Open Source Models

  • Transparency is crucial for regulated industries; open-source models allow for auditing which is not possible with closed systems due to their proprietary nature. This transparency meets regulatory requirements in sectors like finance and healthcare.
  • The shift towards open source is gaining momentum as companies recognize the benefits of lower costs, increased innovation, and enhanced transparency in their operations. This trend is particularly notable among Chinese models dominating the landscape now.

Future Predictions on Open Source Movement

  • A16Z reported that 80% of startups pitching them are based on Chinese open-source models like DeepSeek and Alibaba's Quinn, indicating a significant shift in developer interest towards these technologies.
  • By 2026, it’s predicted that the open-source movement will accelerate further as geopolitical factors may push Western companies to adopt more open practices in their AI developments for greater collaboration and innovation opportunities.

Upcoming Events Related to Open Source

  • A free in-person workshop on open source will be held in Hong Kong in January; summaries will also be shared via a mailing list for those unable to attend physically—encouragement to sign up for updates is emphasized.

The Importance of AI-Assisted Coding

  • The final essential skill highlighted is "AI-assisted coding," also referred to as vibe coding; this allows anyone—regardless of coding experience—to build products easily using tools that interpret user input into functional applications like manga creators or other software solutions without traditional programming knowledge required.

AI-Assisted Coding: The Future of Development

The Evolution of AI-Assisted Coding Tools

  • A year ago, building with AI-assisted coding tools required developer skills; now, these tools enable faster coding and learning for both developers and non-developers.
  • There is a wide range of AI-assisted coding products available, catering to beginners as well as professional developers.
  • Open-source coding tools are emerging as cost-effective options, suggesting an increase in choices by 2026.
  • Emphasizes the importance of mastering AI-assisted coding skills for future development opportunities.

Emerging Trends in AI Technology

Multimodality in AI

  • Multimodal models that integrate images, video, and audio are improving significantly; audio generation is already highly advanced.
  • An example highlights how indistinguishable AI-generated voices have become from human voices.

Advances in Image and Video Generation

  • The release of Google's Nano Banana model marks a significant improvement in character consistency across generated images and videos.
  • While not perfect, this model addresses previous issues where characters appeared inconsistent across different frames or images.

Importance of AI Safety

  • Despite being less popular due to its unexciting nature, AI safety is crucial as technology advances; it emphasizes the responsibility that comes with powerful tools.
  • Viewers are encouraged to explore the topic further as it will gain importance leading into 2026.

Conclusion and Call to Action

  • The speaker expresses hope that viewers feel inspired to learn new skills related to AI technologies and invites comments on which skills they wish to pursue.
Video description

Download Comet for FREE 👉 https://www.perplexity.ai/comet 🤖 Want to get ahead in your career using AI? Join the waitlist for my AI Agent Bootcamp: https://www.lonelyoctopus.com/ai-agent-bootcamp This is how I would approach learning AI in 2026! 🤝 Business Inquiries: https://tally.so/r/mRDV99 🖱️Links mentioned in video ======================== AI Agents Fundamentals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU3fmidNbJE Building Your First AI Agent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV0Ln7HRyJQ NotebookLM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbt-MFVvQQY Claude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1eHNDB2LOM Gemini: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDf0p5hgjvk ChatGPT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS8g9cnfvTs Perplexity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5EjbBPri-c 🔗Affiliates ======================== My SQL for data science interviews course (10 full interviews): https://365datascience.com/learn-sql-for-data-science-interviews/ 365 Data Science: https://365datascience.pxf.io/WD0za3 (link for 57% discount for their complete data science training) Check out StrataScratch for data science interview prep: https://stratascratch.com/?via=tina 🎥 My filming setup ======================== 📷 camera: https://amzn.to/3LHbi7N 🎤 mic: https://amzn.to/3LqoFJb 🔭 tripod: https://amzn.to/3DkjGHe 💡 lights: https://amzn.to/3LmOhqk ⏰Timestamps ======================== 00:00 Intro 00:24 Gen AI Literacy 01:07 Prompt Engineering 02:19 Specialized AI Tools 07:16 AI Agents 10:17 Open Source AI 14:19 AI-Assisted Coding 16:05 Future Trends 📲Socials ======================== instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellotinah/ linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinaw-h/ tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hellotinahuang discord: https://discord.gg/5mMAtprshX 🎥Other videos you might be interested in ======================== How I consistently study with a full time job: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INymz5VwLmk How I would learn to code (if I could start over): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHPGeQD8TvI&t=84s 🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛About me ======================== Hi, my name is Tina and I'm an ex-Meta data scientist turned internet person! 📧Contact ======================== youtube: youtube comments are by far the best way to get a response from me! linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinaw-h/ email for business inquiries only: tina@smoothmedia.co ======================== Some links are affiliate links and I may receive a small portion of sales price at no cost to you. I really appreciate your support in helping improve this channel! :)