Notes from the
edge of the model.
Field notes on what actually breaks in production — agents, retrieval, evaluation, MLOps, and the career decisions nobody writes down. Longer arguments become papers; these are the rest.
353 posts
The enterprise software market is about to be rebuilt around AI agents.
The "Agentic Enterprise" vision: instead of employees manually moving data between systems, AI agents handle the workflows. Procurement agent processes purchase orders. Finance agent…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read post$100B+ was invested in AI companies in 2025.
Biggest investment categories: AI Infrastructure ($35B+): compute, serving, training platforms. Job creation: massive. Every dollar of infra investment creates engineering roles…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postQuantum computing + AI job postings increased 400% in the past 2 years.
The reality check: practical quantum advantage for ML is still 3-5 years away for most applications. But the companies investing NOW need engineers NOW to be ready when the hardware…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postA new type of AI gig economy is forming.
Emerging AI gig categories: Model Evaluation: companies pay $50-$200/hr for domain experts to evaluate AI outputs. Medical professionals evaluating healthcare AI. Lawyers evaluating…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postThree years ago, "AI Ethics Officer" was a title at maybe 20 companies globally.
What an AI Ethics Officer does (not the theoretical version — the practical daily work): reviews AI products for potential harms before launch. Designs and implements bias testing…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postI've hired 30+ AI engineers over my career.
What gets you an interview: a GitHub profile with real projects (not tutorial clones). One or two deployed applications I can actually use. Clear technical writing (blog posts, README…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postPeople keep asking: "What if there's another AI winter?"
Short answer: there won't be a complete winter. But there will be a consolidation. And the engineers who prepare for it will thrive while others struggle. What "consolidation" looks…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postThe creative economy is being transformed by AI, and it's creating an entirely new class of…
This isn't about AI replacing artists. It's about artists becoming 10x more productive with AI tools — and earning more because of it. New creative + AI roles: AI Music Producer (using…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postSpecific, actionable advice for building an AI career in India in 2026. No vague platitudes.
For fresh graduates (0-1 year): your first priority is getting hired, not getting your dream job. Apply to AI teams at IT majors (TCS, Infosys, Wipro) — they're hiring hundreds of AI…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postIf I had to bet my career on 5 skills for the next decade of AI, here's where I'd put my chips.
1. System Design for AI — Not just ML. The entire system. Data pipelines, model serving, monitoring, human-in-the-loop workflows, cost optimization. This skill transcends any specific…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read post300+ posts. Here's the single most important thing I've learned about the AI job market.
It rewards builders. Not talkers. Not planners. Not certificate collectors. Builders. The engineer who built a mediocre RAG system and deployed it gets hired over the one who watched 50…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postReal estate is a $300 trillion global asset class.
AI real estate applications in 2026: automated property valuation using satellite imagery + transaction data + neighborhood features. Virtual staging that transforms empty rooms into…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read post