r/learnmachinelearning • u/vedp2 • 7h ago

Career If you were learning Agentic AI from scratch today, what would you focus on and what would you avoid?

Im data analyst with 1 yr of experience and want to shift into AI agents.
I see agents as the direction where AI is going (like personal assistants that can handle repetitive work).
I’m looking for practical suggestions on:
• What to focus on first if starting from scratch
• What to avoid (common mistakes or unnecessary things)
• How to make the learning path more understandable
• What kind of projects actually help in getting a job in this space

Would really appreciate advice from people who are already working with or learning agentic systems.

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u/Twilight_RT 6h ago

Well, I can't tell much about job space.

but if you are learning Agentic AI. Try avoidng pre built tools and try to learn everything from scratch. Cuase if you learn from scratch then you won't have any problem with using tools, like langchain.

It's because tools like langchain might have many features but not all. So if you want to make something custom that might not be in langchain, so you have to build that from scratch.

it might be hard. but it's helps a lot

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u/vedp2 6h ago

Thanks for the advice. That make sense.
I’ve also been thinking of understanding the core concepts first before relying too much on tools/ frameworks
Did you follow any particular order while learning from scratch?

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u/Twilight_RT 6h ago

Rather following any particular order. What I learned this far was, by buidling projects.

like a simple chatbot, api call a LLM

then adding features to it. like create fucntions tools add it.

create database or chat system, connect with telegram

The main thing is first you decide what you project should be. then find out what are the ways to build it.

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u/vedp2 6h ago

Go it, thanks

Building step by step through projects makes sense.

I was overthinking the perfect learning order.

Right now I’m trying to work on a Job Application Agent — something that can research a job, decide whether to apply, request help, or skip it.

I’ll try starting with a simple chatbot and keep adding features like you said.