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Indian-origin ex-Meta executive shares tips for building career in AI: 'Don't assume you need PhD'
Devi Parikh, a former Meta executive and the co-CEO of an AI startup, has shared practical lessons for young professionals hoping to build a career in AI.
An Indian-origin artificial intelligence expert who spent over 15 years in research, academia and big tech has shared practical lessons for young professionals hoping to build a career in AI.
In an interview with Business Insider, Devi Parikh, a former senior director of generative AI at Meta and the co-CEO of an AI startup, stressed that a PhD is no longer a prerequisite for cutting-edge work in the field.
Parikh, 41, who lives in San Francisco, said her interest in AI began in the early 2000s when she studied electrical and computer engineering in college and was introduced to pattern recognition. She went on to complete a PhD in computer vision at Carnegie Mellon University in 2009, years before large language models and generative AI dominated conversations in tech.
“But we had the same goal: make machines more intelligent,” Parikh told Business Insider.
Parikh shared that she moved between research and teaching roles before spending time as a research scientist at Facebook AI Research in 2016. Over the years, she divided her time between Meta’s AI lab in Menlo Park and teaching computer vision at Georgia Tech, before eventually transitioning to Meta full-time in 2021. She later rose to become a senior director of generative AI.
Then in 2024, she left Meta to co-found an AI startup called Yutori with her husband and a close friend.
What did Parikh learned about getting into and succeeding in AI?
Reflecting on her career, Parikh said one of the biggest misconceptions about AI is that a PhD is essential. While advanced degrees are important for certain academic paths, she believes many aspiring practitioners can gain valuable experience by working at startups, large tech labs or through hands-on projects powered by open-source tools and online communities.
“If you keep putting in the time and effort to whatever you're doing, you'll be able to stand out, and you'll also have learned a bunch of skills along the way,” she said.
At Yutori, she noted, hiring decisions focus more on real-world experience, model training skills and performance in technical interviews than on formal credentials.
How to keep your professional identity flexible?
Parikh also emphasised the need to remain adaptable in a fast-changing field. Parikh recalled how some researchers resisted the shift to deep learning over a decade ago because they were too attached to older tools or professional identities. Her own work evolved from computer vision to multimodal systems and, eventually, generative models.
“If I'd held onto my identity as a computer vision researcher without exploring these other things, I would've missed out on opportunities,” she said.
The 41-year-old urged aspiring AI professionals to pursue work they find genuinely interesting rather than optimising purely for career strategy. She said some of the most rewarding moves in her career, including leaving a senior role at Meta to start a company, were driven by curiosity rather than clear guarantees.
(Also Read: US tech co-founder says he'll pay $100,000 per day for H-1B talent: 'Will set up recurring payment')
Parikh’s advice for young professionals
Above all, she stressed the importance of following ideas through to completion. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Parikh said she launched a YouTube series featuring candid conversations with AI researchers.
“I thought seeing the human side of the AI researchers we put on a pedestal would show folks in the community they could have a similar level of impact,” she said.
The project, she said, increased her visibility and reinforced her belief that finishing what one starts often opens the door to new opportunities.
“If you haven't seen something through to the end, it can't have its impact or lead you to the next thing. If there's something you'd like to do, just go do it, instead of overanalysing and not taking steps forward,” Parikh said.
