AI Engineering for Non-Engineers

You do not need a computer science degree to build with AI. You need to understand what AI engineering actually is: connecting language models to real problems through APIs, prompts, data, and simple, well-tested code. This book teaches that craft from zero, in plain language, with working projects instead of theory lectures.

Jake Morrison shows how language models really behave, how to set up a clean workspace, and how to make your first API call within the opening chapters. From there you learn prompts as instructions, just enough Python to be dangerous in the best way, and how to get structured output you can trust instead of hoping the model behaves.

Inside, you will learn how to:
• Make API calls and read model responses with confidence
• Write prompts that work like precise instructions
• Use Python for AI projects without a degree or bootcamp
• Get structured, reliable output from any language model
• Build a document summarizer and a question answering system
• Add embeddings, semantic search, and tool calling
• Evaluate, secure, and deploy an AI application that lasts

The middle of the book is a workshop. You build a document summarizer, a semantic search engine, a question answering system, a data analysis assistant, a customer support assistant, and a research agent, each one a complete, tested project that teaches a core engineering skill by doing it.

This book is for analysts, operators, founders, marketers, career changers, and curious professionals who can use a computer and want to build real things with AI. If you have ever finished a coding tutorial and still could not build your own project, this book closes that gap.

Finish with a capstone that takes you from idea to tested prototype, plus the evaluation and security habits that separate demos from dependable tools. Start at chapter one and ship something real.