[{"content":"Anyone who has ever started out coding will remember it. That famous little program — the one where you write a few lines, hit run, and the screen says \u0026ldquo;Hello, Scott.\u0026rdquo; It\u0026rsquo;s barely code. It\u0026rsquo;s almost nothing. But it\u0026rsquo;s everything when you\u0026rsquo;re starting out.\nI found myself there again one evening. This time it was Python, and I was grinning at a terminal like I was seventeen again. That same sense of fun, that same little buzz of I made the thing do the thing. Surprisingly, it still hits the same way all these years later.\nBut I\u0026rsquo;m getting off topic. How did I end up here, one evening, writing Hello World again?\nThe Quote That Started It Like most of us in IT, I\u0026rsquo;ve been consuming more and more content around AI. I\u0026rsquo;ll get to some of my broader thoughts in future posts, but the one that really landed came from Scott Galloway:\n\u0026ldquo;AI won\u0026rsquo;t take your job, but the person who knows how to use it will.\u0026rdquo;\nThat stuck with me. Not in a fear-driven way, but in a right, let\u0026rsquo;s actually do something about this way. Let\u0026rsquo;s take out the fear. Let\u0026rsquo;s move past the \u0026ldquo;turn on Copilot and we\u0026rsquo;re an AI company\u0026rdquo; thinking. Let\u0026rsquo;s get back to basics — set myself a goal, learn properly, brush up on skills, and sit some exams along the way because I love having a target to hit.\nSo I Asked AI to Help Me Plan It I\u0026rsquo;ll be honest — the first thing I did was open Claude and say right, help me build a plan. I gave it a few things to work with:\nI want to get certified in Azure AI — give me the path I want to program alongside the study — Python, because I\u0026rsquo;ve been using it for years with APIs but never gone deep I want to build real projects outside of the study material, not just follow tutorials I want a structure I can stick to across 12 months — something with milestones, not just a reading list I want it to be practical — show me what I can apply to my actual job, not just theory What came back was a structured 12-month bootcamp plan — phased, with certifications mapped to each quarter, Python skills building alongside, and project milestones to keep it real. Was it perfect first time? No. Did I reshape it? Absolutely. But the starting point it gave me in twenty minutes would have taken me days to research and pull together myself. That, right there, is AI being useful — not doing the work for me, but accelerating the thinking.\nOne Week In So there I was, about a week into the plan — working through AI-prescribed Python study, prepping for my first certification, and starting to sketch out a project. And I thought: I should share this.\nNot because I\u0026rsquo;ve got it figured out — I haven\u0026rsquo;t. But because I know there are people out there on a similar journey, trying to work out what AI actually means for them. Not the hype. Not the LinkedIn posts about how AI will replace every job by Tuesday. The real, practical question: how does this change what I do, and how do I make sure I\u0026rsquo;m on the right side of it?\nThat\u0026rsquo;s what this blog is about. I want to figure out what AI means to me, how it impacts the way I do my job, how I can leverage it for myself and the customers I work with — but also cut through some of the noise and share honestly as I go.\nWhat I Think So Far I\u0026rsquo;ll say this — I think this is a fundamental shift. But as with all things in tech, there\u0026rsquo;s a lot of hype and a lot of noise layered on top of it. What I want to do is make sure I\u0026rsquo;m there to fundamentally understand it, not just wave at it from a distance. I want to be in a position to take advantage of it, and in my job, deliver the best results for the customers I work with.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re on a similar journey, stick around. I\u0026rsquo;ll be posting about the certs, the projects, the things that click, and the things that don\u0026rsquo;t.\nAnd if nothing else, I can confirm — writing Hello World still feels great.\n","permalink":"https://scottbehan.dev/posts/post-hello-world/","summary":"A famous two-word program, a Scott Galloway quote, and an evening that kicked off a 12-month plan.","title":"Hello World"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m Scott Behan — based in Northampton, UK, with over 14 years in IT infrastructure and cloud. I\u0026rsquo;ve spent my career designing networks, building cloud environments, and solving problems for enterprise customers. Now I\u0026rsquo;m figuring out what happens when AI lands in the middle of all that.\nWhy This Blog Exists AI isn\u0026rsquo;t coming for my job — but it is going to change it. The way I architect solutions, the way I deploy them, how I accelerate customer journeys, and how I build internal tooling — all of it is shifting. I wanted to understand that shift properly, not just read about it, and not just \u0026ldquo;turn on Copilot and hope for the best.\u0026rdquo; I wanted to get hands-on: earn the certs, write the code, build the projects, and see where AI genuinely adds value versus where it\u0026rsquo;s just noise.\nThis blog is where I document that journey — building new skills, reinforcing existing ones, getting certified, and fundamentally understanding the best way to leverage AI for myself and for customers.\nWhat I\u0026rsquo;m Working On I\u0026rsquo;m currently working through a structured 12-month plan to build real AI skills on top of my existing cloud and networking foundation:\nAzure AI certifications — AI-900, AI-102, AI-103, and AB-100 (Agentic AI Solutions Architect) Python \u0026amp; AI tooling — going deeper with SDKs and frameworks, certifying along the way (PCEP, PCAP, Azure Applied Skills) Hands-on projects — AI agents for practical use cases, RAG chatbots, Semantic Kernel experiments Connecting the dots — figuring out how AI tooling plugs into the infrastructure and architecture work I already do I hold Azure certifications across architecture, networking, DevOps, and identity (AZ-305, AZ-700, AZ-400, AZ-104, SC-300), plus a CCNA and VMware VCP. The AI layer is the next piece of the puzzle.\nWhat You\u0026rsquo;ll Find Here Expect posts on:\nAI in practice — what it\u0026rsquo;s actually like learning AI as an infrastructure person, not a data scientist Certifications — what I studied, what tripped me up, what actually matters on the exam Projects and experiments — building things, breaking things, writing about both Azure architecture — the cloud patterns and decisions I work with, now with an AI lens Career — the pivot from pure infrastructure into AI-focused consulting, and everything in between I\u0026rsquo;m not here to write polished thought leadership. I\u0026rsquo;m here to document the journey — the wins, the dead ends, and the stuff I wish someone had told me before I started.\nGet In Touch The best way to reach me is on LinkedIn. You can also find my projects and code on GitHub.\n","permalink":"https://scottbehan.dev/about/","summary":"IT infrastructure lifer figuring out AI, one cert and side project at a time.","title":"About"}]