As artificial intelligence evolves to become a key component of most new software technologies, LinkedIn Corp. is hoping to address a growing problem facing many enterprises looking to extend their footprint in this area: the shortage of skilled workers.

In a blog post today, Craig Martell, LinkedIn’s head of science and engineering, said AI is becoming more of a presence in almost every product and experience across the company’s social network, including features such as “People You May Know” and recommendations for learning courses. But like many companies, LinkedIn also struggles to recruit personnel with AI skills and often finds itself competing with numerous other firms to land this talent.

“Today, top universities can’t produce graduates with the requisite AI skills quickly enough,” Martell said. “Companies around the world compete fiercely for these individuals, without whom they can’t hope to remain competitive; LinkedIn is no exception.”

To solve this problem, LinkedIn is instead planning to train workers in AI by itself. It said it’s launching a bunch of new AI-based learning courses under its recently announced “LinkedIn AI Academy.” The goal is to equip its employees in areas such as engineering and product management with “the knowledge they need to optimally deliver impactful AI experiences to our members.”

LinkedIn is offering a number of different courses to meet different business needs. For example, the AI200 course, “Building an AI Product from End-to-End,” is aimed at engineers and consists of five one-day classes plus a one-month apprenticeship with LinkedIn’s core AI team. The company is also offering a one-day deep dive course into AI for product managers, focusing on the specific domain knowledge they’ll need to manage AI-based products at their organizations.

“After completing those courses, participants better understand one of the hardest problems in applied AI: knowing which problems are solvable via AI and which ones aren’t,” Martell said.

LinkedIn is planning other courses too, including one aimed at sales personnel that work with technology clients and recruiters who work with LinkedIn’s engineering organization.

“We aren’t trying to turn every engineer into an AI Ph.D with this program — that would be impossible,” Martell said. “Instead, we are opening up the AI toolbox to all of our engineers, so that they can more easily incorporate AI into their day-to-day work.”

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