By David DeFusco
When Katz School students enrolled in Professor Jiang Zhou鈥檚 Artificial Intelligence course this semester, they expected to learn about real-world AI applications. What they didn鈥檛 expect was a firsthand story about risk, resilience and turning classroom skills into a real company shared by someone who once sat in those same seats.
Shikshit Gupta, a 2024 graduate of the Katz School鈥檚 M.S. in Artificial Intelligence, returned to campus to speak about his entrepreneurial journey and his startup, Alfamodo Lifestyle, an AI-powered fitness and wellness platform. For students unfamiliar with artificial intelligence or startups, his message was clear and relatable: AI is not just about complex technology. It鈥檚 about solving real problems, step by step, even when the odds are stacked against you.
After graduating, Gupta stood at a crossroads familiar to many students. 鈥淢ost of my friends were applying for jobs, chasing stable paychecks and predictable careers,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 chose something very different. I chose to build my own company.鈥
That decision came with serious challenges. As an international student living in the United States on an F-1 visa, every move carried legal, financial and emotional weight. 鈥淭here was no safety net, no guaranteed income,鈥 said Gupta. 鈥淛ust belief and a vision that refused to leave me alone.鈥
Gupta explained that his desire to build something of his own started years earlier. Coming from a family with no successful business background, he felt a strong need to try anyway. While studying AI at Katz, he began to see gaps in the way artificial intelligence could be used to create products that truly help people. Fitness became his focus. He wanted to build something deeper than step counting or calorie tracking, something that could guide users, understand their goals and grow with them over time.
That idea eventually became Alfamodo, now a real AI-powered fitness app used by thousands of people. The platform helps users generate personalized workout and nutrition plans, log activities using voice or images and track progress in a meaningful way. Gupta emphasized, however, that building the technology itself was not the hardest part.
鈥淐reating the AI wasn鈥檛 the main challenge,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he hardest part was building the company from scratch鈥攄esigning the app, understanding how users think, learning how to present the product.鈥
As an AI engineer, he had to teach himself design, marketing and user psychology. He worked long nights, faced setbacks and spent most of his limited resources on the company while watching peers settle into stable careers. Slowly, though, things began to change. Gupta raised pre-seed funding, allowing him to invest in better AI systems and infrastructure.
鈥淭hat moment changed everything,鈥 he said. 鈥淔or the first time, someone else believed in my vision strongly enough to invest in it.鈥
For Professor Zhou, Gupta鈥檚 story perfectly reflected the core goals of his AI course by prioritizing practical and applicable skills that translate directly to the workforce. The curriculum focuses on the tools businesses are actively seeking, such as optimization, deep learning, retrieval-based systems and agent-like AI, while keeping problem-solving at the center.
Zhou explained that students in his class don鈥檛 just learn theory. They work on projects inspired by real industry challenges, learn how to frame problems clearly and practice presenting solutions to different audiences. 鈥淭hey have to solve the entire problem from beginning to end,鈥 he said, 鈥渁nd they have to communicate the value of their solution.鈥
That emphasis was clear in Gupta鈥檚 journey. Skills he developed in class, especially through hands-on projects and his capstone experience, helped him build Alfamodo鈥檚 first version and navigate everything from deployment to presenting his idea to investors. Zhou said Gupta鈥檚 ability to connect technical work to real business needs made his talk especially powerful.
Students were also struck by lessons rarely highlighted in technical programs: pricing strategies, customer feedback, marketing and legal compliance. Zhou noted that Gupta鈥檚 willingness to learn outside his comfort zone stood out. 鈥淗e kept learning about regulations, customers and business while staying focused and persistent,鈥 said Zhou.
Perhaps most inspiring to students was Gupta鈥檚 mindset. He encouraged students, especially international students, not to wait for the perfect moment. 鈥淭he heart of this story is not technology,鈥 said Gupta. 鈥淚t鈥檚 choosing uncertainty over comfort. If you have something in mind, start today. Things will begin to fall into place once you commit.鈥
For Zhou, that message captures what modern AI education should be about. 鈥淎I allows people to build faster and cheaper than ever before,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he real value now is vision, problem identification and communication. Shikshit鈥檚 experience shows students that AI can be a tool not just for employment, but for creating something meaningful.鈥
