How to Build an AI Portfolio With or Without Coding?

I gave a name to my newsletter—the master. Today’s newsletter breaks down how you can build an AI portfolio with or without coding.

I added news and resources about how junior devs cannot code, and grok-3

In today’s edition:

• AI Roundup— junior developers cannot actually code

• Dive Deep Drill— how to Build an AI Portfolio With or Without Coding?

• Build Together— here’s how I can help you

AI Roundup

I found these resources, content, and news this week.

— [news] New Junior Developers Can’t Actually Code

— [news] Grok 3: The next-gen ‘truth-seeking’ AI model

— [news] AI better at scanning animals’ faces for signs of stress and pain

My recent LinkedIn post

Dive Deep Drill

You can consider many things in your portfolio, not just projects.

If you cannot code, I recommend you to start coding in Python—start here.

Coding will give you a better understanding of jargon and you can communicate with the engineering team as well.

The steps below are for you if you can code or not.

Let’s dive in!

How to Build an AI Portfolio Without Coding in 7 Steps

I have been sharing my knowledge online for 3 years now.

One constant thing is getting new opportunities.

Show what you have done.

There are different ways you can show your work if it does not involve coding.

1/ Live Projects

Proof of work will put you above your competition.

If you can show what you have built then it will be a star on your resume.

Make sure they are hosted live somewhere.

If you don’t have the coding part, you can write a blog with these sections:

• What problem did you work on?

• How did you approach the problem?

• What results did you get for the business?

Use AI tools like v0, lovable, CursorAI, etc. to create projects.

You can check one small tool I created using v0 in 5 minutes to get testimonials from my audience:

I will encourage you to submit your experience, it will take 10 sec.

2/ Certifications

No one can teach you how to lead a successful AI product.

85% of AI development fails because of a variety of reasons.

You work in chaos and certifications will not help solve the real-world AI mess.

But,

If you still want to go for a certification, I will recommend you to do these 2 things:

• choose an established individual creator who has credibility in the AI community

• whatever you learn make sure you apply the knowledge right away

certifications are not for every profile in the tech space

You decide by reading this: AI Certifications are a Waste of Time

3/ Personal Story

Write your story or the about section for yourself.

People trust people, not machines, not ChatGPT, or any generated text.

be yourself.

4/ Talks and Sessions

You can pick an idea and present it to other people in the space in a live discussion environment.

You will get questions and feedback right away to build your solid understanding.

Here is one of mine that was on How LLMs work[Linkedin].

5/ Blog or Newsletter

You can use LinkedIn to post the idea of that blog and check if you get any traction.

LinkedIn is the best platform for validating your ideas right away.

If you got the traction go and write the blog on that idea as it is already validated.

I will recommend you create a newsletter because on LinkedIn you cannot own the audience.

You will not have the email address of your audience.

So use a platform like BeeHiiv or any other platform where you have an email list.

Here is my newsletter: the master(you currently reading)

6/ Join Paid or Free Communities

You can join my free community on Discord.

paid communities are way better than free ones.

hosts of the communities are more focused and action-driven, can solve your problem, have no spam, and have like-minded knowledge transfer.

7/ Research and Publications

pick different ideas in your industry, hire an intern if possible, and write a research paper or create a thesis for your research.

make sure the idea you choose will be directly proportional to the area of your expertise.

research takes a lot of time and energy but is worth it as it will make 3 things better:

• business-aligned ideation of your AI idea

• research skills—whether the idea will work or not

• understanding of different innovative solutions available around the same problem

Let me summarize it for you

1. Live Projects - without coding
2. Certifications - no need for most profiles
3. Personal Story - humans need humans not machine
4. Talks and Sessions - present your ideas in the community
5. Blog or Newsletter - own your audience with a newsletter
6. Join Paid Communities - way better than the free community
7. Research and Publications - star on your profile

(Don’t think you need to code everything to show your value in AI)

Want to work together? Here’s How I can help you

• AI Engineering & Consulting (B2B) at Dextar—[Request a Brainstorm]

• You are a leader?—join the [AI leadership academy]

• AI Training for Enterprise Team—[MasterDexter]

• Get in front of 50k+ AI leaders & professionals—[Sponsor this Newsletter]

I use BeeHiiv to send this newsletter.

Paper Unfold

A series in which you will get a breakdown of complex research papers into easy-to-understand pointers. If you missed the previous ones:

• AI Agents for Computer Use [Paper Unfold]

• Future Of AI - Large Concept Models [Paper Unfold]

• DeepSeek-R1 - A Step Towards AGI [Paper Unfold]

• Agents are Not Enough [Paper Unfold]

• Attention Is All You Need [Paper Unfold]

PS: Reply to this email if you want me to write on the topic you are interested in.

—Him