Azure AI Certifications

This week I took two Azure AI Certifications and PASSED! I had studied but was also pretty surprised that I had been able to handle these more technical items. When I shared this on Twitter, I started getting lots of questions so let’s talk through the basics.

First of all, keep in mind that all these certifications do have a cost associated with them. However, you can take Microsoft Virtual Training Days which can give you a free exam voucher.

The two exams I took were the AI-900 Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals and the AI-102 Designing and Implementing a Microsoft Azure AI Implementation. My experience is in the Power Platform and Microsoft Dynamics 365. I have been using AI Builder as part of the Power Platform and had an understanding of Cognitive Services, but I had not worked with it directly.

Azure AI Fundamentals

I did the Microsoft Virtual Training Day for the Azure AI Fundamentals to start. Additionally, I worked through some of the Learn materials for that exam to prepare for the class. The class was very helpful for understanding types of Artificial Intelligence models and the building blocks. There were also several helpful demos. Keep in mind that some of the videos/demos were a bit outdated for example discussion of Facial Recognition (which now has limited access) and QnA Maker (which is being retired). I still found this very beneficial.

Designing Azure AI Solutions

I spent most of my time prepping for the AI-102 as this was more out of my comfort zone and is a deeper dive into the same material. The Learn content for the exam is great with detailed labs. I did some of the labs on the free, provided virtual machines and I did some on my machine. All of this can be done with free Office and Azure trials.

I also watched this YouTube overview of AI-102. It was a great overview of the content and helped to make some of the topics easier to understand.

Next Steps

I hope all of this helps answer some of your certification questions and find some resources to keep learning. Keep in mind that everyone has a different experience with the exam. I enjoy taking tests and have fun taking certifications. I also have a very specific routine that I follow that helps me succeed (always have a bagel, same test center, etc.). Additionally, I have the advantage of working at a large partner which provides me with discounts, practice tests and such. Please do not judge your exam experience against mine! We are all different!

My drive to do this was to prepare for the 3 conferences I have coming up this fall! I will be giving an introduction to AI in the Power Platform at each of these events. Make sure you check out my Events page to learn more and get discount codes!

Let me know if this helps you pass the exam!