What Towards AI does

Towards AI is a privately held AI learning and deployment services company founded in 2019 and headquartered in New York. The company operates a three-in-one model spanning education, consulting, and custom AI development, organized around a content-to-delivery flywheel. Reach assets include the Towards AI Publication (4,000+ writer network), a weekly newsletter reaching 200,000+ subscribers (including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang), a Discord community of 94,000+ members, and the What's AI YouTube channel. These feed the Student Academy, which sells self-paced courses (1,000+ units of the Full-stack AI Engineer course) and the newer 85-lesson LLM Developer Bootcamp launched in November 2024, alongside the 465-page 'Building LLMs for Production' book (8,000+ copies sold, 4.4 stars on Amazon).

The company generates revenue through five streams: one-time self-paced course and certification sales, one-time book sales, professional services for enterprise workforce training (AI literacy, sub-agent productivity, engineering upskilling), custom AI deployment engagements delivered under the Value Creation Consulting practice (Scope → Build → Sustain), and subscription-style access to the LLM Developer conversion program. Enterprise customers include a leading US PE fund (HVAC services buy-and-build), Europol (multi-day LLM pipelines bootcamp for law enforcement), and Veloce IT (UK, automated tender scraping). The leadership team is composed of operators from J.P. Morgan, Palantir, BCG, and SAP.

The proprietary technology stack is a mix of curriculum IP, deployment playbooks, and customer-built AI pipelines rather than a single platform. Documented capabilities include generative AI, RAG / knowledge retrieval, process automation, autonomous agents, and NLP, with the team using third-party foundation models. The book and courses were co-curated with MILA, Activeloop, and LlamaIndex, lending third-party validation to the technical content. The firm positions itself as the 'largest, most trusted AI learning community,' with 500,000+ practitioners trained since 2019 and an active Careers page signaling hiring for Junior AI Engineer, Senior AI Engineer/FDE, and Deployment Strategist roles.

Name

Towards AI

Legal name

Towards AI, Inc.

Website

https://towardsai.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Towards AI is a New York-based AI learning and deployment services company that runs a community-to-delivery flywheel of publication, newsletter, and Discord feeding an Academy, book, and enterprise AI deployment practice serving individual learners, enterprise teams, and PE-backed portfolios.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Education and Training Services

NAICS

Computer Training (611420), Educational Support Services (611710), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

AI Tutoring Systems (Conversational Tutors, Homework Helpers) (EDAFAFAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

AI/ML Engineering & Model Development Services (BPAEAHAF), AI & Emerging Technology Literacy (EDAAAIAJ)

Keywords

• AI education platform
• AI workforce training
• LLM developer courses
• Enterprise AI consulting
• AI community learning

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Self-Paced Online Courses and Certifications: Self-paced courses sold directly via the Academy platform. The Full-stack AI Engineer course has sold 1k+ units. Certifications recognized by hiring teams.
2. Book Sales - Building LLMs for Production: 465-page technical reference book co-written by CTO and CEO, sold 8,000+ copies. Available on Amazon with 4.4 stars, 208 ratings. Used as internal reference inside enterprise AI teams.
3. Enterprise Workforce Training: Enabling non-technical teams with 10x productivity via sub-agents, and training engineering teams to become best-in-class AI engineers. Covers foundations: AI literacy, policy, and governance.
4. Custom AI Deployment and Value Creation Consulting: Custom AI deployments scoped, built, and rolled out for PE-backed portfolios and enterprise clients. Includes AI strategy and value-creation playbooks for leadership. Revenue tied to measurable P&L outcomes.
5. LLM Developer Conversion Course: 85-lesson practical LLM Developer course aimed at converting software developers, ML engineers, and data scientists into LLM Developers. Priced as a one-stop conversion program covering prompting, RAG, fine-tuning, and agent frameworks.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Towards AI is a three-in-one AI company functioning as educator, consultant, and builder organized around a content-to-delivery flywheel. It sells AI and LLM engineering education products (self-paced Academy courses, certifications, the 85-lesson LLM Developer Bootcamp, the "Building LLMs for Production" book) and enterprise services including workforce training programs and custom AI deployments scoped, built, and sustained for PE-backed portfolios, trading firms, and asset managers. Reach is generated through a 200K+-subscriber newsletter, a 94K+-member Discord, a 4,000+-writer publication network, and the "What's AI" YouTube channel, with community-driven patterns feeding back into curriculum and enterprise delivery.

Product overview

Towards AI operates as a three-in-one AI company — educator, consultant, and builder — organized around a content-to-delivery flywheel. The core portfolio consists of: (1) Individual Learning: Student Academy (self-paced courses including the Full-stack AI Engineer path and LLM Developer Bootcamp) paired with the Publication, Newsletter (200K+ readers), Discord community (94K+ members), and What's AI YouTube channel; (2) Enterprise Enablement: Workforce training programs covering AI literacy for non-technical staff, advanced engineering training, and leadership AI strategy, delivered under Enterprise Academy; (3) Custom AI Deployments: Scoped, built, and sustained production-grade AI systems for PE-backed portfolios, trading firms, and asset managers, delivered through Value Creation Consulting. Supporting these is 'Building LLMs for Production,' a 465-page practitioner reference book (8,000+ copies sold) co-authored by the CTO and CEO, and the AI Jobs board connecting practitioners with opportunities. The flywheel is self-reinforcing: content reach attracts practitioners who convert through Academy courses, community compounds learning through real engineering pain, and enterprise delivery grounds everything in production outcomes.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• What's AI YouTube: YouTube channel focused on AI education, one of the longest-running practitioner-facing AI channels online, run by CTO Louis-François Bouchard since 2020.

Products and services

• Student Academy Self-paced online learning platform offering AI and LLM courses, certifications, and cohort bootcamps for individual learners seeking to convert from developer to full-stack AI engineer. Covers prompting, RAG, fine-tuning, agent frameworks, and full-stack AI engineering. Certifications are recognized by hiring teams.
• LLM Developer Bootcamp An 85-lesson practical conversion program designed to transform software developers, ML engineers, and data scientists into LLM Developers capable of building customized pipelines on top of foundation LLMs. Covers prompting, RAG, fine-tuning, and agent frameworks.
• Building LLMs for Production (Book) A 465-page practical reference on building LLM applications, co-written by CTO Louis-François Bouchard and CEO Louie Peters with contributions from 10+ Towards AI engineers and curation from MILA, Activeloop, and LlamaIndex. Covers prompting, retrieval, fine-tuning, RAG, agents, and reliability. Has sold 8,000+ copies, holds 4.4 stars on Amazon with 208 ratings, and is used as an internal reference inside enterprise AI teams.
• Enterprise Academy (Workforce Training) Workforce training practice offering AI literacy, policy, and governance foundations for non-technical teams; sub-agent productivity training; advanced AI engineering training for engineering teams; and leadership programs on AI strategy and value-creation playbooks. Targets PE-backed portfolio companies, trading firms, and asset managers.
• Value Creation Consulting (Custom AI Deployments) Custom AI deployment practice with three phases — Scope (identify high-impact AI opportunities), Build (ship production-grade AI), and Sustain (transfer tools to the client's team for end-to-end ownership). Built for PE-backed portfolios, operating partners, portco CEOs, and enterprise clients, with engagements tied to measurable P&L outcomes.
• Newsletter A weekly human-curated AI newsletter reaching 200,000+ practitioners including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, delivering practical AI news, research summaries, and industry analysis.
• What's AI YouTube Channel One of the longest-running practitioner-facing AI YouTube channels, operated by CTO Louis-François Bouchard since 2020. Provides AI engineering tutorials, conference talks, and practitioner-focused educational content.
• AI Jobs Board A job board connecting AI practitioners with employment opportunities, supporting learners from initial awareness through skill development to career placement.
• Discord Community An active Discord community with 94,000+ members enabling practitioners to ask questions, share patterns from real engineering pain, and engage with alumni from every cohort.
• Publication Towards AI's written content platform aggregating articles, tutorials, research papers, and glossary entries from a writer network of 4,000+ AI practitioners.

Quantifiable outcome

• Hours of finance team time saved per week for PE fund HVAC services client
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability11 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• LlamaIndexminorOthersLlamaIndex co-founder Jerry Liu contributed to and endorsed 'Building LLMs for Production' book, calling it 'the most comprehensive textbook to date on building LLM applications.' Co-written with contributions from 10+ Towards AI engineers and curation from LlamaIndex.
• MILA (Quebec AI Institute)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMILA (Mila - Quebec AI Institute), one of the world's leading AI research institutes, provided curation for 'Building LLMs for Production' book. CTO Louis-François Bouchard was a former PhD student at MILA, establishing a deep academic-industry connection.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Coursera: Coursera is a major online learning platform partnering with universities and companies (including DeepLearning.AI) to deliver courses, certificates, and degree programs. Comparable because it operates in the same EdTech category and competes for the same enterprise upskilling budgets, though it is a broader incumbent rather than an AI-specialist.
• BCG (Boston Consulting Group) - BCG X / GAMMA: BCG's BCG X and GAMMA practices deliver custom AI and analytics implementations for enterprise and PE-backed clients. Broad incumbent peer because Towards AI explicitly competes for the same PE value-creation AI deployment work, but BCG has vastly greater scale, delivery capacity, and brand in the enterprise consulting market.

Direct peers

• Springboard: Springboard offers mentor-led online courses in data science, AI, and software engineering with career coaching and job guarantees. Direct peer because of overlapping AI/data course catalog, mentorship-driven cohort model, and B2B workforce training motion for enterprise upskilling.
• DeepLearning.AI: Founded by Andrew Ng, DeepLearning.AI is a leading AI education platform offering courses, specializations, and the short-course content format. Direct peer because both target the same audience of developers and ML engineers seeking practical AI upskilling, and both monetize via course sales while leveraging founder/practitioner brand.
• DataCamp: DataCamp is a subscription-based data science and AI education platform targeting individual learners and enterprise teams, with courses on Python, ML, and LLMs. Direct peer because of overlapping audience (developers/analysts), similar subscription/self-paced course model, and shared enterprise workforce training motion.
• Insight Data Science: Insight runs fellowship programs that transition PhDs and academics into industry data science and AI roles, plus enterprise training. Direct peer because of the explicit career-conversion positioning and the AI/data practitioner audience overlap, although Insight focuses more on academic-to-industry transitions.

Emerging players

• Maven: Maven operates a cohort-based learning marketplace connecting learners with practitioner instructors, with notable AI and engineering cohorts. Emerging peer because it shares Towards AI's cohort-program format and practitioner-instructor model, though it does not run a free community layer at the same scale nor an enterprise deployment practice.
• FourthRev: FourthRev partners with universities and tech companies (Google, AWS) to deliver tech-focused career accelerator programs with employer outcomes. Emerging peer because it targets the same career-conversion use case as Towards AI's LLM Developer Bootcamp and serves a similar enterprise audience seeking workforce transformation.
• CoRise: CoRise delivers short, cohort-based AI and data courses taught by industry practitioners with an enterprise team-training motion. Emerging peer because of the shared cohort format, practitioner-instructor approach, and enterprise upskilling GTM, though at a smaller community scale than Towards AI.

Others

• General Assembly: General Assembly (now part of Adecco) offers bootcamps and corporate training in tech, data, and AI. Comparable because it serves the same career-conversion and enterprise workforce training use cases as Towards AI's Academy and Enterprise Academy, though it is a broader incumbent without an AI-specialist focus or production deployment practice.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@WhatsAI
• Xx.com/towards_AI
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/towards-artificial-intelligence

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Towards AI