LLM Fine-Tuning Decision Framework

Part of Global AI Builder Series: by The Gen Academy

Hosted by Aishwarya Srinivasan & Arvind Narayan and Sinan Ozdemir

Mon, Sep 7, 2026

5:00 PM UTC (1 hour)

Virtual (Zoom)

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Building a career in AI as a non-coder
Aishwarya Srinivasan
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What you'll learn

Compare model improvement paths

Choose between prompting, RAG, fine-tuning, serving changes, and custom models.

Evaluate cost and latency tradeoffs

Estimate quality, maintenance, data needs, and deployment complexity up front.

Know when to fine-tune

Use a decision path for model strategy conversations with technical teams.

Why this topic matters

As open and hosted models improve, the harder question is not whether fine-tuning works, but when it is worth the cost. A clear decision framework helps teams trade off quality, latency, data, maintenance, and deployment complexity before committing to a model strategy.

You'll learn from

Aishwarya Srinivasan & Arvind Narayan

AI Engineers | Building & Teaching @ The Gen Academy

Aishwarya Srinivasan is the co-founder of The Gen Academy and one of the world's most recognized AI educators, with a community of over 1.2 million AI professionals across social platforms. Previously, she led AI Developer Relations at Fireworks AI and spent over a decade building AI products and ecosystems at Google, Microsoft, and IBM. She holds a Master's in Data Science from Columbia University. Known for breaking down complex AI concepts with clarity and honesty, Aishwarya teaches builders how to move beyond demos and develop production-ready AI systems that solve real business problems.


Arvind Narayanamurthy is the Co-founder of The Gen Academy, Previously AI Solutions Architect at Ema, and Founder of Eikos Health. He has built and deployed enterprise AI systems across Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, and high-growth startups, leading initiatives that translated machine learning into measurable business impact. Arvind holds a Master's degree from Carnegie Mellon University. His teaching focuses on first-principles thinking, practical engineering, and helping builders design, evaluate, and deploy reliable AI systems for production.

Sinan Ozdemir

Head of AI Developer Education @ Fireworks AI

Sinan Ozdemir is Head of AI Developer Education at Fireworks AI, where he builds education programs, examples, and community for developers working with fast inference and training. He is the author of 10+ AI and LLM books, founder of Kylie.ai, and a former AI lecturer/author for Pearson and O'Reilly.

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