React Developer β†’ AI Engineer

React Developer to AI Engineer: Build AI-Powered Interfaces

Transform your React expertise into AI engineering skills by leveraging what you already know. React developers have a significant advantage in the AI space, the Vercel AI SDK was built specifically for the React ecosystem, and streaming AI interfaces are essentially sophisticated state management problems you've been solving all along. Your experience with hooks, context, and component composition translates directly to building production-ready AI applications. This path focuses on the React-AI intersection: useChat and useCompletion hooks for conversational interfaces, React Server Components for efficient AI data fetching, and streaming UI patterns that provide instant user feedback. You'll learn to build AI features that feel native to React, think optimistic updates for AI responses, suspense boundaries for streaming content, and proper error handling with retry logic. Beyond the Vercel AI SDK, you'll explore RAG systems with React frontends, vector search visualization, and full-stack AI applications using Next.js. The path also covers essential Python basics for when you need to work with ML backends, but emphasizes staying in your TypeScript comfort zone whenever possible. By the end, you'll have a portfolio of AI-powered React applications demonstrating both frontend excellence and AI engineering depth.

4-6 months
Difficulty: Intermediate

Prerequisites

  • Proficient with React hooks (useState, useEffect, useReducer, useContext)
  • State management experience (Redux, Zustand, or Jotai)
  • Next.js or similar meta-framework knowledge
  • TypeScript proficiency in React projects
  • API integration with fetch or Axios
  • Component design patterns and composition

Your Learning Path