The RAG Playbook: Retrieval Techniques for Production AI

Part of Global AI Builder Series: by The Gen Academy

Hosted by Aishwarya Srinivasan & Arvind Narayan and Arjun Patel

Tue, Aug 18, 2026

12:00 AM UTC (1 hour)

Virtual (Zoom)

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Mastering Agentic AI: Certification by The Gen Academy
Aishwarya Srinivasan and Arvind Narayanamurthy
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What you'll learn

Design Better RAG Storage

Learn how indexes, embeddings, chunking, and metadata shape what your RAG system can retrieve.

Match Retrieval Methods to User Queries

Use Pinecone to choose between dense, keyword, visual, hybrid, scoped, and agentic retrieval.

Benchmark and Improve RAG Retrieval

Build a trusted 5–10 query benchmark to measure retrieval changes and catch regressions quickly.

Why this topic matters

RAG helps AI applications find the right information before generating an answer. But the quality of that answer depends entirely on how the data is stored, searched, and retrieved. Arjun will show how to use Pinecone to choose the right retrieval method, structure data effectively, and improve RAG accuracy across different types of user queries.

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.

Arjun Patel

Senior Developer Advocate @Pinecone

Arjun Patel is a Senior Developer Advocate at Pinecone, where he helps developers build production-ready AI applications using vector databases, RAG, and agentic AI. He creates technical content, open source examples, and hands-on workshops that simplify complex AI concepts into practical building patterns. Before Pinecone, Arjun worked across data science and NLP, and holds a degree in Statistics from the University of Chicago

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