312 School — Applied AI Research Lab

Applied AI
Research Lab

We study how agentic AI restructures DevOps, Platform Engineering, and SRE work — and build the blueprints for what comes next. You're not a student here. You're a research member.

Join as Research Member See the research ↓
$200k–$300k+
Target total compensation with agentic AI skills
$5k
Membership fee
Ongoing
Flexible. Because you already have a job.

The problem.

Every company is figuring out AI on their own. There's no shared standard for how agentic AI should work in infrastructure. It took 10 years to somewhat unify Kubernetes and Terraform setups across companies. We're at day zero with agentic AI.

AI keeps changing — you can't learn it once. You already have a job. You need something that keeps up with the pace and fits your life. And if you're just using AI for personal productivity or to close more tickets faster, you'll end up doing more work in the same amount of time, with more code to troubleshoot, and mental burnout.

We're building the shared research base that doesn't exist yet.

How it works

This is a research lab, not a lecture series.

Research, not lectures

Short sessions. Real implementation. Your own environment.

60–90 minute sessions, 1–2× per week. Foundational + production-grade tracks. You learn a concept, then go implement it at your actual job or personal environment. You bring findings back. The lab improves.

Collective intelligence

100+ engineers. 100+ companies. One shared research base.

That's our vision — eventually expanding to thousands. Each member experiments in their own real environment — different clouds, different tooling, different constraints. The collective output is worth more than any single company's internal R&D.

Career positioning

Triple validation for your next role.

By the time you interview, you have: (1) Claude Certified Architect credential, (2) Research member at an applied AI lab — continuously contributing, (3) Real agentic AI projects you built and can walk through in detail. That's a different profile than "I used Copilot to write some Terraform."

What research members build

Real systems. Tested across real enterprise environments.

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Self-correcting IaC agents

Write Terraform, Helm, Dockerfiles — push to CI/CD, feed failures back to the agent, iterate until production-ready. Fully autonomous validation loops.

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Multi-agent workflows & orchestration

Coordinate multiple agents across planning, execution, validation, and rollback. Not single-prompt tools — real multi-step agentic pipelines.

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AI-driven incident response

Paste an alert — the agent checks Kubernetes, logs, load balancers, traces the root cause, and recommends a fix. You supervise. It does the legwork.

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Test case generation at scale

Leverage your infrastructure knowledge to have agents generate hundreds of validation tests — unit, integration, end-to-end — for any codebase.

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Replacing paid SaaS

Build your own monitoring, alerting, and operational tooling with agents + open source. Eliminate million-dollar vendor contracts that no longer make sense.

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AI harnesses for core job functions

Claude Skills, managed agents, MCP integrations, custom tooling — applied to Terraform, Helm, Kubernetes, AWS, security, incident handling, and more.

We're biased toward Claude, but what you learn is transferable to any LLM and tooling. The patterns, architectures, and validation approaches work across models.

Your company won't give you a 50% raise. Another one will.

Research members target $200k–$300k+ total compensation. The skills you build here — and the way you present them — are designed for that range.

Companies are already asking candidates to demonstrate how they set up their workspace with AI agents. This isn't hypothetical — Bay Area companies are screening for it in interviews right now.

The math: $5k membership → positioned for a $30k–$100k+ salary jump at your next role. And you practice most of it during your current work hours.

Research tracks

Early preview. Subject to change as AI evolves — that's the whole point. CCA-F exam readiness is embedded in the foundational track.

Foundational

CCA-F Exam Readiness

  1. Claude Code for Platform Teams
  2. MCP Server Integration & Tool Design
  3. Agentic Architecture Fundamentals
  4. Multi-Agent Orchestration & Hooks
  5. Prompt Engineering for Structured Output
  6. Context Management & Production Reliability
  7. CI/CD Pipelines with Claude Code
  8. CCA-F Exam Prep & Scenario Walkthroughs
Production Grade

Applied Platform Engineering

  1. Self-Correcting IaC Agents — Helm, Terraform, Dockerfiles & more
  2. AI-Driven CI/CD Feedback Loops
  3. Test Case Generation for Infrastructure at Scale
  4. Repo Architecture for AI-Assisted Development
  5. Context-Aware Code Decomposition & Token Optimization
  6. Building Custom Claude Skills
  7. Production Validation Patterns for AI-Generated Code
  8. Multi-Agent Pipelines for Infrastructure Automation

Pricing

Be part of the research. Stay at the top.

$5,000
Membership · flexible installments
  • $1,000 down payment — secures your spot
  • $500/month × 8 months starting June 1st
  • Then ~$100/month maintenance for ongoing access
  • Pricing locked through June 1, 2028
Join Now — $1,000 down See Full Pricing Breakdown →
If you get laid off — payments pause, but your access continues.

Built on transparency.

We start with a 1-on-1 founder-member interview. We learn how you use AI today, your professional goals, your salary. Your goals become our shared goals.

Employers are already winning big — their costs drop as they reduce headcount. The people with agentic AI skills will capture a share of that value. The people who don't will be the ones getting replaced.

This is for you if:

  • You're in DevOps, Platform Engineering, or SRE
  • You believe AI is the future
  • You're open-minded, positive, and willing to embrace change
  • You want to be at the top — not a victim of the shift
  • You're willing to stay educated, focused, and supportive of each other

We're building this whether you join or not.

But you should.

Join the Lab Telegram Channel

Not ready yet? Join our Telegram for updates, session dates, and discussion.

AI is making news. Big news.

The shift is already happening — 2026 alone.

May 4
OpenAI — "The Deployment Company" — $4B raised at $10B valuation. Backed by TPG, Brookfield, Advent, Bain. Buys the change managers — enterprise sales cycles are the bottleneck, not the model.
$10B vehicle
May 4
Anthropic + Blackstone JV — $1.5B joint venture with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs to deploy enterprise AI services across PE portfolios. $300M each from anchor partners.
$1.5B JV
May 1
Pentagon — IL6/IL7 AI contracts — DoD seals deals with SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Microsoft, AWS, Oracle, Reflection to run AI on Secret & Top Secret networks. Anthropic excluded over autonomous-weapons stance.
Federal AI-first
Apr 29
Amazon Q1 — $181.5B revenue — AWS growth re-accelerated to +28% (fastest in 15 quarters). AI revenue run rate >$15B. Cash capex hit $43.2B in the quarter — implying ~$200B for 2026.
+28% AWS · $200B capex
Apr 24
Google → Anthropic — up to $40B — $10B immediate at $350B valuation, $30B milestone-based. Plus 5 GW of compute via Google + Broadcom starting next year. Big Tech's largest single AI bet to date.
$40B · 5 GW
Apr 24
Microsoft + OpenAI — revised pact — Exclusivity dropped. OpenAI cleared to serve models from other clouds (AWS, Oracle). Both sides reset for the multi-cloud era.
Multi-cloud
Apr 24
Project Prometheus — $10B at $38B val — Bezos's new AI lab focused on "physical AI" for aerospace, automotive, manufacturing. Vertically integrated industrial intelligence — owns the data-rich industries it optimizes.
Physical AI
Apr 24
Cohere + Aleph Alpha merger — Canadian–German tie-up creates a $20B transatlantic sovereign AI powerhouse. Geopolitical alternative to US Big Tech for EU public sector / GDPR-bound enterprise.
$20B sovereign
Apr 22
Infosys + OpenAI — Strategic collaboration to fuse OpenAI models with Infosys Topaz Fabric. Helps enterprises move from AI pilots to production-grade software modernization.
Topaz × OpenAI
Apr 20
Anthropic + AWS — $100B compute — Largest single compute commitment in history. 10-year deal locks in capacity for training on 1M+ Trainium2/Trainium3 chips. Amazon's $25B equity stake circles back as AWS revenue.
$100B · 10yr
Apr 17
Anthropic — Claude Design — New enterprise product for visuals, prototypes, slides. Valued at $800B+. Opus 4.7 released same week — most capable model for agentic coding.
$800B+ val
Apr 15
Thoma Bravo + Google Cloud — PE firm's 580+ portfolio companies ($300B+ combined) get Gemini access for building AI agents across software.
$300B+ portfolio
Apr 14
Novo Nordisk + OpenAI — Strategic partnership across drug discovery to commercial ops. Full integration by end of 2026. After cutting 9,000 jobs.
Pharma + AI
Apr 2026
Uber + Claude Code — CTO: "The budget I thought I would need is blown away already." Usage surged past every projection. Anthropic moved enterprise pricing to usage-based.
Budget blown
Apr 2026
88% of orgs now use GenAI — Up from 71% in 2025. GenAI market hit $161B. Average ROI: $3.70 per $1 invested. 97% of execs deployed AI agents in the past year.
88% adoption
Mar 27
OpenAI — $122B raise — Enterprise now 40%+ of revenue. Codex at 3M weekly active users (up 5x). APIs process 15B tokens/minute. Building "unified AI superapp."
$122B raised
Mar 17
Accenture + Databricks — Launched Accenture Databricks Business Group for scaling AI agents on enterprise data. 7th consecutive year as top SI partner.
Agents at scale
Mar 16
IBM + NVIDIA at GTC — Expanded partnership to move enterprise AI from pilot to production. Blackwell Ultra GPUs on IBM Cloud in Q2.
Pilot → Prod
Mar 12
Anthropic — $100M Claude Partner Network — Anchor partners: Accenture, Deloitte, Cognizant, Infosys, McKinsey, BCG, PwC. Claude Certified Architect certification launched.
$100M fund
Mar 12
Accenture + Anthropic — Training 30,000 professionals on Claude. Claude Code holds over 50% of the AI coding market. Deployed to tens of thousands of developers.
50%+ market
Mar 12
Cognizant — Opened Claude access to entire 350K global workforce. Embedding into client modernization.
350K people
Mar 9
Microsoft + Anthropic — Claude integrated into M365 Copilot Wave 3. "Copilot Cowork" built with Anthropic. 90% of Fortune 500 use Copilot.
400M users
Feb 24
PwC + Anthropic — Enterprise agents for finance and healthcare. Claude Cowork in regulated industries. AI agents for claims, compliance, network ops.
Regulated AI
Feb 2026
Infosys + Anthropic — Integrated Claude & Claude Code into agentic AI platform. Dedicated Anthropic Center of Excellence. Starting with telecom.
CoE launched
Feb 12
Anthropic — $30B Series G — Closed at $380B valuation. Revenue: $1B (end 2024) → $14B ARR. 70% of Fortune 100 use Claude.
$380B val
2026
JPMorgan Chase — AI moved from "experimental R&D" to "core infrastructure." 200K+ employees onboarded. $1.5B annual value.
200K onboarded
Oct 6, '25
Deloitte + Anthropic — Claude deployed to 470K+ employees across 150 countries. 15K professionals being certified.
470K people
2026
Big Tech AI Spend — Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft investing $650B+ combined in AI infrastructure.
$650B+
Signal: Hyperscaler capex hit $700–725B in 2026 — up 77% YoY. 76% of orgs now have a Chief AI Officer (3× last year). AI server spending: 17% of total IT (+49%). Global data center power: 1,100 TWh — equivalent to Japan's national consumption. Claude Code at >50% AI coding market share. AI coding assistants now write 41% of all code.
May 7
Cloudflare — ~1,100 cut (20% of 5,156 staff) the same day Q1 beat estimates ($640M revenue, +34% YoY). Founders cite a 600%+ surge in internal AI usage in 3 months — engineering, HR, finance, marketing running thousands of agent sessions daily. Prince: "roles at the company that just aren't the roles we need for the future." Framed explicitly as agentic AI-first restructuring, not cost-cutting. $140M–$150M restructuring charges. Stock −18% after-hours.
−20% · ~1.1K
May 5
Coinbase — ~680–700 employees cut (14%). Restructuring around "AI-native pods" — flatter org, no "pure managers," small human teams managing fleets of AI agents. Armstrong: engineers do in days what used to take weeks.
−14% · ~700
May 5
Freshworks — ~500 cut (11% of workforce) the same week revenue rose 16% to $228.6M. AI now writes >50% of Freshworks' code. Restructuring sales and management layers around automation.
−500 · 11%
Apr 28
Microsoft — voluntary buyouts — Voluntary retirement offered to ~8,750 US employees (~7% of US workforce). Funds the $115B–$135B 2026 capex plan.
−8.75K · ~7%
Apr 27
Salesforce — support team — Customer support headcount cut 9K → 5K after Agentforce AI agents deployed. Benioff: "I need less heads."
−4K · ~44%
Apr 24
Meta — formal RIF — Confirmed 8,000 cuts (~10% of 79K) plus 6,000 open reqs frozen. Layoffs begin May 20. 2026 capex guided to $115B–$135B for AI buildout.
−8K · 10%
Apr 22
Intel — 15% of workforce cut. Cancels major chip fab projects in Germany and Poland. Struggling to recover from earlier AI missteps as rivals lock in TSMC capacity.
−15% · fabs killed
Apr 15
Snap — 1,000 employees (16% of workforce). AI generates 65% of new code. CEO: "crucible moment." Stock +11%.
−1K · 16%
Apr 14
Novo Nordisk — Cut 9,000 jobs under new CEO, then immediately partnered with OpenAI. Fire humans, hire AI.
−9K
Apr 6
Bolt — Cut 33% of staff amid new AI focus. One-click checkout company pivoting to AI-driven operations.
−33%
Mar 31
Oracle — 162K → ~132K. Up to 30,000 cut via 6 AM emails, no warning. Funds $156B AI buildout.
−30K · ~18%
Mar 19
Crypto.com — CEO: roles that "do not adapt to the new AI reality will simply disappear."
−12%
Mar 11
Atlassian — 16K → ~14.4K. CEO cited changes needed for the "AI era." Transferable skills spared.
−1,600 · 10%
Mar 2026
Epic Games — 1,000+ workers cut amid financial losses and AI restructuring.
−1K · ~6%
Feb 27
Block — 10K → ~6K. Dorsey: "Intelligence tools changed what it means to run a company." Stock +24%.
−4K · ~40%
Feb 2026
Baker McKenzie — ~10K → ~9K. Global law firm — structural shift toward AI across legal services.
−1K · ~10%
Feb 2026
eBay — ~13K → ~12K. ~800 workers cut to boost AI investment. Additional ~500 in March.
−1.3K · ~6%
Jan 28
Amazon — 16,000 corporate jobs eliminated. Second major round in 3 months after $80B+ in AI investment.
−16K · ~1%
Jan 27
Pinterest — ~2.8K → ~2.4K. Reallocating resources to "AI-focused roles and AI-powered products."
−420 · 15%
Jan 2026
ASML — 44K → ~41K. Citing "efficiency" despite record AI-driven chip orders.
−3K · ~7%
Jan 2026
Autodesk — ~14K → ~13K. "Strategic shifts" pivoting focus toward AI.
−1K · ~7%
2026
Dell — 137K → ~126K. Citing AI-driven efficiency. Reducing headcount to fund AI.
−11K · ~8%
Ongoing
Meta — ~72K workforce. Multiple rounds, ~700 in one week. Reports of planning up to 20% total cuts.
up to −20%
Big picture: 92K+ tech jobs cut by end of April 2026 — running ~864 per day. ~48% directly attributed to AI. Zuckerberg's "honest math": more compute spend = fewer people. Snap says AI writes 65% of its code; Freshworks >50%. Coinbase, Block, Salesforce now restructuring around "AI-native pods" — no pure managers, humans orchestrating fleets of agents. Entry-level support and analyst roles compressed up to 40%.