Aishwarya Srinivasan

AI@Fireworks AI | Global Speaker(100+ talks)| EB1-A Recipient| 570k+ Followers| AI Engineer| GenAI/LLM Inference| LinkedIn Top Voice| Author-What's Your Worth?| Startup AI Advisor| Angel Investor| Ex-Google,Microsoft,IBM

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝗻𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗮𝘁 💌 partnerships@illuminate-ai.org

I write about:
- AI engineering
- Applied machine learning
- Generative AI Applications
- LLM/ LLMOPs (Training, post-training, inferencing)
- Fundamentals of Data science/ ML/ AI
- ML roles interview tips
- Learning roadmaps (beginner to advanced)
- Importance of personal branding for career growth

**All the posts reflect my own views and do not represent my employer.**

AI Advisor || Responsible AI Advocate || LinkedIn Top Voice - Data & AI  || Top 10 AI Influencer || EB1-A Receipt


Bio: 
Aishwarya currently leads the Developer Relations - Growth at Fireworks AI. She was previously at Microsoft for Startups as a Senior AI Advisor to help Y Combinator startups build machine learning solutions, leveraging core Microsoft/ OpenAI products. Prior to this, Aishwarya was working as a Data Scientist in Google Cloud and before that an AI & ML Innovation Leader at IBM Data & AI, where she was working cross-functionally with the product team, data science team and sales to research AI use-cases for clients by conducting discovery workshops and building assets to showcase the business value of the technology. She holds a post-graduate in Data Science from Columbia University. 

Aishwarya has been awarded Trailblazer of the Year by Women in AI in 2022 and Women of Influence by Business Journal in 2022. She was awarded EB1A - extraordinary ability visa for her contributions in the AI field.

She is an advocate for open-source technologies, and was an open source Developer Advocate for Deepchecks and Lightning AI, and a contributor to Scikit Learn. 


She holds a Patent Award (2018) for developing a Reinforcement Learning model for Machine Trading.

She has over 500,000+ follower base on LinkedIn and actively organizes events and conferences to inspire budding data scientists. She has been spotlighted as a LinkedIn Top Voice 2020 for Data Science and AI, which features Top 10 Machine Learning influencers across the world. 

She is an ardent reader and has contributed to the scholastic community. To spread her knowledge in the space of data science, and to inspire budding Data Scientists, she actively writes blogs related to machine learning on LinkedIn and Instagram: www.instagram.com/the.datascience.gal

Besides being a data junkie, she is a fitness fanatic who is into martial arts (Krav Maga) and yoga.

Senior AI Advisor

As an AI engineer, LLM Twin is an important architecture to understand.

An LLM Twin refers to a system where a language model is designed to represent the knowledge, writing patterns, and decision logic of a specific person, team, or organization. The goal is consistency and reliability, not novelty.

At its core, an LLM Twin is built around how information flows. Think of it as 4 steps:

1️⃣ First, content is collected from real sources: blogs, internal documents, posts, code repositories, or knowledge bases. This data reflects how the person or organization actually thinks and communicates.

2️⃣ Next, the data is structured for two purposes.
One path prepares instruction-style examples that help the model learn how to respond.
Another path prepares retrieval data so the system can pull relevant context at inference time. This ensures responses stay grounded in real material.

3️⃣ Then comes training and evaluation. Models are fine-tuned where appropriate, tested against clear criteria, and versioned before deployment. This step looks very similar to traditional ML workflows, just adapted for language models.

4️⃣ Finally, at inference time, user requests are combined with retrieved context and passed through the deployed model. Monitoring is critical here: quality, latency, and cost all need to be observed continuously.

Where is this used in practice?

✦ Personal or creator assistants that help scale writing and communication
✦ Company-wide assistants that maintain a consistent product or brand voice
✦ Internal tools that answer questions based on code, docs, or prior decisions
✦ Support systems that reflect how experienced engineers respond to issues

Why should AI Engineers understand this?
This architecture reflects how GenAI systems are actually built and maintained. It forces you to think beyond prompts and focus on data quality, retrieval design, evaluation, and long-term system behavior.

My 2 cents 🤌
This is a GREAT topic to build a portfolio project around!! 

Credit: LLM Engineer’s Handbook by Paul Iusztin  and Maxime Labonne. I really like how this book breaks down AI engineering clearly and goes deep into different GenAI system architectures without hand-waving.

Over the past few months, Arvind and I've delivered seven deep technical workshops across agentic AI, RAG, context engineering, AI evals, MCP, vibe coding, and more.

One theme kept coming up: you want something more structured. Not just standalone sessions, but a clear end-to-end roadmap from A to Z.

So that’s what we’re building.

A structured, comprehensive course for:
- Hands-on builders: software, AI, and ML engineers
- AI product managers
- Tech leaders and CXOs looking to upskill meaningfully

Before we finalize it, I’d love your input. I’ve created a short survey to understand where you are, what you want to learn, and your career goals.

It takes under 10 minutes.

As a thank you, you’ll receive an additional 10% discount when we launch the course soon 🫶

Survey: https://lnkd.in/gQYeBCRP

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Here’s my honest pattern with almost every AI tool I try.

I end up using a lot of tools, usually early access. After repeating this cycle enough times, I realized my reactions are almost predictable.

👉First hour
There’s real excitement.
I’m clicking around, testing odd prompts, trying things that used to fail. No strategy yet, just my curiosity and momentum.

👉Next few hours
I start comparing.
Where would this actually fit in my work?
What would I stop using if I kept this?
Is this clearly better, or just new?

👉Later that day
I experiment without guidance.
I skip the docs and examples on purpose. I try incomplete ideas, messy workflows, prompts I would never put in a demo. This tells me more than any tutorial ever could.

👉Day two
Then I look at the examples the team shared.
They usually work smoothly. They’re polished. They show the tool at its best, which is exactly what they’re meant to do.

👉After a few days
This is where the real understanding kicks in.
I start tweaking those examples. Changing assumptions. Using it in ways that feel realistic, not ideal. That’s when the boundaries show up. Not frustration. Just clarity.

Here’s the takeaway I’ve learned the hard way:
If you haven’t noticed limitations yet, you probably haven’t pushed the tool very far.

And honestly, if I use something consistently for three days and still can’t find a meaningful flaw, that’s rare. That earns real respect.
I haven’t experienced that yet.

Curious how others see this.
Are there tools you’ve used deeply where the limits still haven’t shown up?

Just a couple of weeks ago, Arvind and I hosted an in-person AI meetup with The Hub Bengaluru.

Over 300 people showed up in person.

Every single one of them was either already working in AI or actively trying to break into the space. The energy in the room was unreal. It genuinely felt like a room full of builders, practitioners, and people who are curious enough to go deep.

During the event, we rolled out a small challenge. We asked attendees to share a recap of what they learned, and we said we would pick one winner.

Really excited to share that Suraj V is that lucky winner 🎉
Suraj gets free access to all the The Gen Academy workshops we have hosted so far.

Huge congratulations, Suraj V!! 

Building The Gen Academy has always come from a very real observation that Arvind and I see every single day in our work. The adoption of generative AI and LLMs is moving incredibly fast, but the depth of AI engineering skills needed to build reliable systems is not keeping up.

There is a very real skill gap in AI engineering right now! There are so many curious souls who want to become AI engineers- but they aren't able to get those opportunities; and there are so many companies out there who  want to hire, but aren't finding the right talent. 

Our mission is to bridge that skill-gap!

As people who are deeply involved in this space, we felt a responsibility to help bridge that gap. Not just for people who are already experienced, but also for entry-level folks who want to build strong foundations the right way.

That is why our workshops are intentionally designed to be both intuitive and practical. We focus on theory that actually helps you reason about systems, and we pair that with hands-on demos where you build real things using modern toolkits and frameworks.

So far, we have hosted 6 workshops, and the response has been incredibly encouraging. We have trained 1500+ people already ❤️ 

Our next workshop is coming up on February 15th, and it will be focused on AI evaluations (link in comments)

Do follow The Gen Academy to stay updated on all our upcoming workshops.

Six months ago, Arvind and I started The Gen Academy with one simple goal- to create workshops that are deeply-technical, practical, cuts through the ton of noise out there, and that provides people clarity on building productive-grade AI systems.

So far we have trained 2100+ people. We’ve hosted 7 workshops, and consistently we’ve had 300–400 builders join us live.

The audience has been incredible.
- Software engineers moving into AI.
- AI engineers building LLM systems in production.
- Product leads thinking about reliability and evaluation.
- Directors and VPs from top tech and Fortune 500 companies who want to truly understand what’s under the hood.
- Even people from non-tech background who wanted to strengthen their technical fundamentals 

Recently, we hosted a workshop on AI Evaluations.

And this one felt especially important.

Because evaluating non-deterministic generative systems is fundamentally different from traditional ML evaluation.

We covered:

✦ How to evaluate non-deterministic generative AI systems
✦ How to think about benchmarks and what they actually tell you
✦ How to design your own evaluation dataset
✦ How to choose the right metrics for qualitative and system-level evaluation
✦ How to combine human evals, code-based evals, and LLM-as-a-judge
✦ A hands-on walkthrough so this isn’t just theory

If you’re building LLM applications, RAG pipelines, or agentic systems, evaluation is not optional. It is the difference between a demo and a reliable product.

If you missed the live session, we’ve shared the recording here: https://lnkd.in/gzMdbfWH

We’ll continue building these workshops for engineers who want to go beyond experimentation and into production.

More coming soon, so do follow us & The Gen Academy to get updates on our next workshops.

5 days to go! 
Arvind and I are super excited to be hosting an AI evals hands-on workshop on February 15.

It’s a 90-minute session where we’ll cover the fundamentals of AI evaluations and then actually do it together. You’ll walk away having built and reasoned through real evals yourself. 

If you’re aspiring to be an AI engineer or planning to upskill for AI roles in 2026, understanding how to evaluate LLM applications is critical.

Building an LLM app is often the easy part. Knowing whether it truly works in production is where most teams struggle.

LLM evaluation is not just about correctness anymore. You are judging usefulness, safety, faithfulness to sources, consistency across runs, cost, latency, and real user outcomes across prompts, RAG pipelines, tools, and agentic workflows.

Because this is hard, many teams fall back to vibe-evals. If a few outputs look good, they ship. That approach breaks quickly when models change, prompts regress, retrieval fails, or user behavior shifts. Without evals, problems surface only after users complain.

Why learning evals matters:
✦ Evals turn LLM development from guesswork into engineering
✦ They help catch regressions as models, prompts, or tools evolve
✦ They are essential for scaling RAG systems and agentic workflows
✦ In 2026, strong teams use hybrid evals combining automated metrics, LLM-as-a-judge, and targeted human review

Evals are no longer optional. They are a core AI skill.

In this workshop, Arvind and I will walk through how AI evals are done in real systems, with hands-on exercises so you build intuition.

This is designed for AI engineers and tech leads building systems, and even business leaders who want intuition for what “good” really means in production. Even if you are a beginner, don't worry, we will give you the foundations for you to understand everything comprehensively, and enough resources that you can review at your own pace.

If you want to level up your AI skills for 2026, register here:
https://lnkd.in/dQSR7yhU

Evaluation Resources

Fine-tuning is going to be one of the biggest focus areas for AI engineering teams this year.

We’re past the stage where calling an API is enough. The teams creating real leverage are the ones adapting models to their own data, workflows, and edge cases. Out-of-the-box models are powerful, but they are generic. Fine-tuning is where enterprises unlock meaningful efficiency gains and build real differentiation.

If you want to upskill in AI engineering, this is a topic you cannot skip.
Arvind and I are hosting a deep, hands-on workshop on Fine-Tuning LLMs.

In 90 minutes, you’ll learn:
✦ When fine-tuning makes sense and when it does not
✦ How SFT, RLHF, and DPO fit into real-world pipelines
✦ An end-to-end, code-based demo from raw data to a specialized model
✦ How to evaluate true performance improvements and avoid production pitfalls

This session is designed for software engineers, AI engineers, and data scientists, and it is equally valuable for product managers, solutions architects, tech leads, and executives working closely with model ecosystems.

If you want to move from using LLMs to actually optimizing them, this workshop will give you a practical framework to do it: https://lnkd.in/g-5gHrsY

In 2026, AI isn’t judged by a wow factor anymore.
It’s judged by whether it actually improves your workflows.

One of the most common questions I get from founders and teams I advise is how to automate go-to-market and sales properly. Real GTM automation needs deep ICP research, clear definitions, personalized messaging, and credible sources. This isn’t a one-prompt problem.

Normally, building a solid GTM or sales report would take me several hours, even with existing AI tools helping with research.

I recently got early access to Airtable’s new Superagent, and what impressed me was the approach. It didn’t treat my request as a single task. It broke it into ~16 steps, ran multiple agents in parallel, did deep research per subtask, cited sources, and stitched everything together into one structured output called a Super Report.

I used it to build a technical, informational report on AI for GTM/Sales in minutes. No fluff. No hallucinations. Just deeply researched content I could actually use with business leaders.

If your work involves building reports, decks, or MVP websites that need accuracy and depth, this feels less like “AI that makes things pretty” and more like AI that does real work.

Do check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gDkfSSG2

PS: You can get 2 months free for @Superagent, using code: AISH2FREE

#SuperagentPartner, #ad, #SuperagentbyAirtable

Executive Career Transformation Coach | Director to VP & C-Suite Positioning | Leadership Transition Strategy | 20+ Years Global Hiring Insight (Accenture, CIBC)

You don’t stall at senior levels because you lack experience.You stall because the market isn’t reading your leadership at the level you’re capable of operating.I work with Directors, Senior Directors, and VPs who have built real enterprise careers - but are mis-positioned for their next move.Often after:• A plateau despite strong delivery• A geography or industry pivot• A career pause• Years of being the “safe executor”• Reaching final rounds without closingBefore becoming an Executive Career Strategist, I spent 25+ years inside global hiring and leadership decisions -at Accenture, Hewitt, CIBC, and as an HR &amp; Talent Director across Asia Pacific.By the Numbers:• 1,000+ senior professionals evaluated• 500+ leadership hiring decisions influenced• Enterprise-level hiring across North America &amp; APAC• CXO and mid-senior mandates across industriesI’ve seen firsthand why technically strong leaders stall - while others advance.Today, I help senior professionals:• Translate deep experience into decision-ready leadership narratives• Reposition from Director to VP and enterprise roles• Navigate age bias and visibility gaps• Move from reactive job searching to strategic market positioning• Align internal identity with external executive perceptionThis is not resume editing.This is leadership repositioning at decision moments.If you're preparing for a senior leadership move in the next 3–6 months - and want your positioning to match your capability -message me to discuss your strategy.

Meenu Chadha

You're more successful than ever. And somehow, more uncertain.

You've done everything right.

Promotions. Bigger mandates. Larger teams. Global exposure.

And yet - there's a quiet uncertainty sitting underneath it all.

Not because you're failing.

But because the next move isn't obvious anymore.

At 15–25+ years in, growth doesn't come from working harder.

It comes from recalibrating direction.

This is the stage where many senior leaders feel disoriented.

You're successful - but unclear.

Valuable - but not visible at the right altitude.

Capable - but unsure how the market is reading you.

And here's the truth most won't say out loud:

Uncertainty at this level isn't incompetence. It's a signal.

A signal that your identity has evolved - but your positioning hasn't caught up.

Earlier in your career, performance created momentum.

Now, clarity creates momentum.

The market isn't asking, "Are you competent?"

It's asking, "Where does this leader fit at enterprise scale?"

If that answer isn't sharp, hesitation follows.

This stage requires something different:

Not more experience.

Not more credentials.

But better translation.

If you're successful and still unsettled, you're not behind.

You're likely at a recalibration point.

And those, when handled strategically, become inflection moments.

—

If this resonates, you're not alone. This is the transition most senior leaders face but few talk about openly.

I've sat across from hundreds of professionals in their darkest career moments.

The tears. The sleepless nights. The crushing question: "What's wrong with me?"

I've watched accomplished leaders doubt everything they've built.
Seen brilliant minds convinced their value has vanished.
Witnessed people tie their entire worth to a job title that no longer exists.

But here's what I've also seen.

The person who couldn't get out of bed at month two?
Leading a new team by month eight.

The executive who thought their career was over at 52?
Launching their most fulfilling chapter at 54.

The professional drowning in rejection letters?
Receiving three offers within 90 days.

Your career is not your life.

It's a significant part, yes-but it's not the whole story.

This season of stillness and uncertainty?
It's not wasted time.
It's recalibration.

You still have your health.
Your relationships.
Your perspective.
Your ability to step back, see the patterns, and rewrite the story in a way the market can finally understand.

The professionals who emerge strongest from setbacks don't rush the season.
They use it.

Every conversation that didn't convert taught them something about positioning.
Every rejection clarified fit.
Every difficult month built judgment and resilience they didn't know they'd need.

This is a season. And it will pass.

But the clarity, confidence, and narrative you're building right now?
Those become permanent assets.

The question isn't whether you'll get through this.
The question is what you'll carry forward when you do.

If you're in this season right now, pause long enough to notice what it's teaching you.

That awareness is often the turning point.

(This photo was taken in a moment many professionals recognize-paused, packed, and waiting, with a lifetime of experience sitting quietly beside them.)

Leadership Transition & Career Repositioning (Senior Professionals) | Former Accenture, CIBC & Hewitt Hiring Leader | I Help Senior Professionals Reposition for Their Next Role

Most senior professionals don't actually need a career pivot.
They need a Career REFRAME .

You've already led teams, navigated ambiguity, and owned outcomes that mattered.
But strategic depth doesn't speak for itself.

When your story stays operational, decision-makers miss the leadership judgment behind it.
They see execution - not strategic thinking.
Responsibility - not authority.
Delivery - not direction.

This stage of your career isn't about becoming someone new.
It's about reframing what you've already built so it lands with power.

Because at senior levels, clarity isn't cosmetic.
It's credibility.
And the right reframe changes the rooms you're invited into.

#Careerchange #Careerpivot  #Leadership

She'd applied to 247 roles.
Made it to 6 final rounds.
Still unemployed.

"Maybe I'm just not good enough anymore."

Wrong.

She wasn't failing because of her skills, her age, or the market.

She was failing because she was solving a problem that didn't exist.

Here's what I mean:

Most senior professionals who stall aren't stuck because they lack talent.

They're stuck because there's a gap between who they are and how they're being read.

And they're trying to fix it with:

→ Resume tweaks
→ More applications
→ Waiting for "the right opportunity"

But none of that addresses the real issue.

The real issue? Misalignment.

How the market is pricing your value today.
What your positioning is actually signaling.
Whether you're chasing roles—or attracting them.

Until you diagnose that gap, everything else is just noise.

Here's what changes when you do:

You stop applying to everything and start being considered for the right things.
Your story becomes clear—not just to you, but to the people making decisions.
Confidence returns because you're no longer guessing.

Clarity doesn't come from doing more.

It comes from diagnosing the right thing first.

Senior careers don't need more tactics.
They need better diagnosis.

If you're trying to change what's not working in the next 3 months—start here.

DM me CAREER DIAGNOSTIC and let's find the real gap.

Most senior leaders undersell themselves without realizing it.
 
Not because they lack the results.
Because they were trained to let the work speak.
 
But at executive levels, silence reads as uncertainty.
 
"How do I assert my value without sounding arrogant?"
 
So they downplay.
They soften.
They hedge.
 
And the market reads hesitation where there should be conviction.
 
Executive confidence isn't volume.
It's clarity.
 
It's stating:
"I've owned this scale."
"I've influenced at this level."
"I'm ready for this mandate."
 
Without apology. Without embellishment.
 
Many accomplished professionals were rewarded for humility internally.
External positioning requires something different: calibrated assertion.
 
Not bravado. Not self-promotion theatre.
Just grounded authority.
 
Confidence at this stage isn't about personality.
It's about structural clarity in how you present:
 
Your scope.
Your judgment.
Your enterprise impact.
 
It's learned. It's practiced.
 
And it changes how the market reads you.

If urgency wasn't a factor, what decision would you make?

Remove urgency for a moment.
No financial pressure.
No timeline anxiety.
No external expectations.
What move would you choose?

Many senior professionals make reactive decisions at this stage:
Taking roles two levels down.
Accepting mandates that water down their trajectory.
Pivoting without strategic logic.

Not because they lack ambition.
But because urgency compresses perspective.

When fear drives positioning, signal weakens.
When clarity drives positioning, signal sharpens.

If urgency wasn't steering the wheel, you'd likely:
Choose a mandate aligned with where you're headed.
Articulate your leadership identity more boldly.
Decline roles that don't match your level.

Here's the truth:
Strategic career decisions require enough calm to think long-term.

Sometimes the real work isn't updating your resume.
It's pausing long enough to choose from alignment, not anxiety.

If nothing was forcing the clock, what would you decide?
That answer is the direction you already know.

The VP walked out of another "informational" interview feeling confused.

"They kept asking about my team management experience. I've been running P&L for three business units."

Here's what happened.

At senior levels, capability rarely stalls careers.
Signal clarity does.

The market read "strong operator" instead of "strategic leader."
Exceptional results got undervalued.
The scope got minimized.
Judgment calls that saved millions became footnotes.

This isn't about working harder.
It's about ensuring the market reads what's actually there.

Most senior professionals assume their track record speaks for itself.
Wrong.

When leadership authority gets lost in translation, decision-makers miss the strategic thinking behind the execution. They see delivery, not direction. Responsibility, not ownership.

The gap between how you see your impact and how others interpret it can cost years of momentum.

The right positioning changes which conversations you're invited into.

If you're sensing this disconnect between your capability and how the market is responding, I have a diagnostic tool that reveals exactly how you're being read versus how you want to be positioned.

DM me SIGNAL for access.

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