Artificial intelligence at the edge: Building in-demand IoT skills

In this blog post, we’ll talk about AI at the edge and why it matters to developers; the core technologies to support Applied AI and IoT within the Azure ecosystem; and how to get started learning about Microsoft Azure and IoT and skilling up on Applied AI for IoT.

The global market for IoT (Internet of things) is growing exponentially, from $250B in 2020, to a projected 1.6T by 2025. The use of AI (artificial intelligence) with IoT is one of the identified growth trends with a rising need for three types of skills:

• Processing large volumes of IoT data (MLOps, Analytics)
• Integrating cloud-based intelligence at scale (Cognitive Services, IoT Hub)
• Deploying more AI-enabled IoT devices (IoT Edge)

What does this mean to you as a developer? It means there is demand for IoT engineers with AI experience and knowledge — and now’s the perfect time to skill up.

In this blog post, we’ll focus on the topic of Artificial Intelligence at the Edge and leave you with some great resources to jumpstart your IoT exploration, including official course content from Microsoft Learn and A Cloud Guru resources that can help you earn your AZ-220 Azure IoT Developer Certification.

This post is meant to help:

• Create awareness of relevant resources for everyone
• Jumpstart learning journeys into IoT for IoT beginners
• Skill up on AI technologies for IoT for IoT practitioners

Let's dig in!

Get hands-on to learn about Azure IoT Solution Infrastructure and prepare for the Microsoft Azure IoT Developer (AZ-220) exam with ACG.

Artificial intelligence at the edge is an emerging field that combines the latest breakthroughs in AI and machine learning to drive hardware solutions that often require a need for mission-critical insights in near real-time without the need for full connectivity to the internet. 

These self-contained solutions are often powered by hardware-accelerated devices but can also be employed on tiny microcontrollers.

This subject of AI at the edge was one of the themes for #JulyOT, 31 days of content and projects to inspire those curious about IoT to pursue personal projects within the IoT realm and share their learnings with the community to motivate others. (Check out the #JulyOT post at the Microsoft IoT Tech Community to learn more.)

Azure Percept is an emerging family of hardware, software, and services from Microsoft, designed to accelerate innovation and deployment of business solutions using IoT and AI at the edge.

The visual guide below provides a summary of the core components of Azure Percept (Dev Kit, Studio, and Best Practices) and emphasizes its silicon-to-services approach to exploring IoT scenarios beyond telemetry.

Microsoft’s #JulyOT content covers a wide range of these scenarios with a particular focus on the Azure Percept DevKit from Microsoft, enhancing Machine Learning models using Transfer Learning strategies powered by NVIDIA hardware, and an AI-driven nose developed using a Microcontroller and Machine Learning solutioning from Edge Impulse. 

Explore the full series of content around “Artificial Intelligence at the Edge” — and go from learning core applied AI concepts, to exploring fully functional projects with code using Azure services.

Now that you have a sense for the value of applied AI for IoT, let's talk about resources to get you started with your own IoT journey as an absolute beginner.

We want to challenge you to sharpen your knowledge of Azure IoT Services with the Azure IoT Developer Journey — designed to guide learners in pursuit of an official designation as a certified Azure IoT Developer. 

Need further incentive? Try the “30 Days to Learn It Cloud Skills Challenge,” a limited-time promotion that challenges you to learn, and apply, your Azure IoT knowledge by completing a curated series of interactive learning modules from the Microsoft Learn Online Learning Platform. 

Register for this challenge and — if you complete the assigned modules within 30 days — you may be eligible to receive a 50% discount voucher to take the official AZ-220 IoT Developer Certification Exam.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this Azure IoT Developer Collection (18 modules, 15 hours) of content:

The above learning path offers a curated set of modules to jumpstart your IoT learning journey with Azure-powered technologies. If you already have an understanding of the IoT ecosystem, then explore the modules in this section to build your knowledge and experience with applied AI at the edge.

The content has been created by Microsoft in a working partnership with the University of Oxford and includes modules leveraged in the university's official Artificial Intelligence: Cloud and Edge Implementations course. Learn a complex subject using materials from one of the best programs on the planet — and take your interest in AI at the Edge to the next level.

Check out this collection to get started — click on this link to get the interactive version of the roadmap below with a higher level of detail.

Want a quickstart? Explore the intro modules identified below, and the two options for integrating Cognitive Services with IoT solutions – on the backend (triggered by Azure Functions, in the cloud) or on the IoT edge device (created on cloud, deployed to Edge).

The IoT ecosystem is growing rapidly, and developer skills in IoT and AI/ML will be critical to supporting next-generation IoT deployments and addressing applied AI challenges in data processing, cognitive service integrations, and intelligence at the edge.

Want to skill yourself up to be ready for this challenge? Here are some actions you can take:

• Check out Microsoft's #JulyOT content page to build your awareness of IoT terms and technologies.
• Try the #30DaysToLearnIt challenge to go from IoT concepts to code — and aim for certification!
• Complete Microsoft's AI Edge Engineer learning path and skill up on AI integration with IoT cloud and edge!

Keep an eye out for the next blog post from our team that focuses specifically on “Beginners, Students, Teachers and Makers” anchored by an amazing 24-lesson curriculum with hands-on projects (and an associated kit/bundle from Seeed Studio) for the quickstart.

Until next time, happy hacking!

Paul DeCarlo is a Microsoft Sr. Cloud Developer Advocate focusing on IoT, OSS, Containers, and Kubernetes. Nitya Narasimhan also contributed to this post.

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