Transformation of the Week
Mike Chrabaszcz

Transcript

Lusk: Hey Mike, thanks for joining me. Congratulations on winning the Transformation Of The Week. Tell me a little bit more about your background and what you’re doing today.

Mike: Thank you Chris, for the recognition and the opportunity to chat today. I’m an engineering leader based in the San Francisco Bay area. My career began as a software engineer building high quality software products across a variety of industries, from mobile to consumer electronics to IoT. Over the years, I progressed to a senior director role, leading cross-functional remote teams and contributing to both startups and established companies. Currently, I’m the founder and developer of an AI application focused on data cleaning.

Lusk: Very interesting background. So what got you interested in Gen AI to begin with?

Mike: My interest in AI goes back quite a few years. While I was at Technicolor, we built an IoT pilot for senior care in France leveraging machine learning. It was an amazing project, though quite time consuming. When GPT emerged, I was excited about its potential. It was clear to me that this was going to be transformative. So over the past two years, I’ve been researching Gen AI.

Lusk: And so you graduated from our AI Engineering Bootcamp back in May, it’s been about six months now. Have you been able to put anything that you learned into practice professionally or personally?

Mike: Absolutely! Right away I continue to learn and started to teach. I’m a peer supporter at AI Makerspace, where I assist cohort members in lessons and homework. It’s been a great way for me to deep dive into cutting edge technologies while helping others grow. In addition, I am actively involved in the rapidly growing San Francisco AI community, which hosts many conferences, meetups, and hackathons.

I participated in three AI hackathons since graduating, winning prizes at two of them. One of these events, The Agentic Rag-A-Thon, was co-sponsored by AI Makerspace. That’s where I connected with my co-founders and we started PureML.io.

Lusk: So you’re out there building shipping and sharing like a legend. What words of wisdom do you have for someone who’s watching this who is considering a move into AI?

Mike: Yeah. Tech leaders often ask me how to integrate AI into their products, but Gen AI isn’t a new SDK or a product feature. It’s a disruptive technology that will impact companies and the way we operate. My advice? Dive in and understand it now, because the sooner you do, the better prepared you are for the transformations ahead.

I strongly recommend attending a bootcamp. While bootcamps can be challenging, they are absolutely worth the effort. Unlike many online courses that simply walk you through the technology boot camps like AI Makerspace, go further. You’ll build real AI applications, learn from structured lessons and grow through the collaboration with others. It’s a unique community where enthusiasts from diverse backgrounds and skill levels come together to go under the hood and bring their AI ideas to life.

Lusk: Mike, thank you so much for joining me today, and congratulations again on winning the transformation of the week. Keep building, shipping and sharing like I know you’ll do.

Mike: Thanks a lot Chris, appreciate it.