Want to Learn Generative AI in 2026? Start With These 5 Resources

Level Up Fast: 5 Must‑Read Generative AI Resources

Learning Generative AI

These are the resources that helped me ramp up on Generative AI in 2025, and that I’ll keep coming back to in 2026.

One of the most common questions I get is: “What courses, books, or resources would you recommend to learn AI?” To kick off 2026, I’m sharing the books and online training that helped Generative AI really click for me.

In this post, I’ll focus on books and online courses. I’ll follow up with a separate post on blogs and podcasts.

My go-to AI resources

The list is in no particular order:

1. “Generative AI in Action” – Amit Bahree (Book)

   • The first book I picked up to understand Generative AI end to end.

   • Written by my colleague Amit Bahree, Principal Group Product Manager in the Azure AI engineering team at Microsoft.

   • Starts from the basics and goes deep quickly, with real-world scenarios that make the concepts concrete.

   • If you enjoy this book, I also recommend following Amit’s blog, where he writes about building LLMs and practical GenAI patterns.

2. “Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI” – Ethan Mollick (Book)

   • A book for everyone, not just technologists.

   • Ethan Mollick, a Wharton professor, focuses on how to partner with AI rather than just treat it as a tool.

   • Great for understanding how to think about AI in day-to-day work and life, and an excellent gift for friends and family who are AI-curious.

3. Udemy courses by Ed Donner (Online training)

   • Perfect if you learn best by watching and building.

   • Ed blends business and technology beautifully and currently has three AI courses on Udemy:

     • LLM Engineering, RAG, QLoRA, Agents

     • Complete Agent & MCP

     • Gen AI & Agentic AI for Business Leaders

Ed starts from the basics, builds to advanced concepts, and walks through real projects so you finish with something working, not just theory.

4. “AI for the Rest of Us” – Sairam Sundaresan (Book)

   • A very approachable introduction to AI concepts.

   • Explains how AI works and how to get the most out of it without drowning you in math or jargon.

   • The best part is how accessible it makes some of the more technical ideas.

5. “Reshuffle: Who Wins When AI Restacks the Knowledge Economy” – Sangeet Paul Choudary (Book)

   • One word: wow.

   • This is a business strategy masterclass on how AI is restructuring industries, value chains, and power dynamics.linkedin+2​

   • Read this not to get ready-made answers, but to sharpen the questions you ask about your business, operating model, and career.

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Final thoughts & a question for you

I’m grateful to these authors and instructors for creating such foundational knowledge. Many of these resources focus on principles and mental models, so they’re unlikely to become obsolete any time soon.

If you’ve read any of these books or taken these courses, what did you think?
And what are you reading or watching right now to level up on AI in 2026?