One of the main reasons I started BaoCreates is accountability.

It's easy to say, "I want to learn something." It's much harder to commit to a structured plan and follow through consistently.

This article outlines my learning roadmap for the next 12 months. My goal is not to become an expert overnight. Instead, I want to steadily build practical skills, complete real projects, and document what I learn along the way.

By publishing this roadmap publicly, I hope to stay focused and track my progress over time.

Technology is evolving rapidly, but I believe these four areas complement each other well:

AI is transforming nearly every industry. As a Machine Learning Engineer, I want to continue deepening my understanding of practical AI applications, automation, and AI-powered workflows.

Fabric is Microsoft's unified analytics platform that brings together data engineering, data integration, analytics, and business intelligence. I believe it will play an increasingly important role in modern data ecosystems.

Data is only valuable when people can understand and act on it. Power BI remains one of the most widely used business intelligence tools, making it a valuable skill for anyone working with data.

Projects generate large amounts of data. Learning project controls will help me better understand forecasting, cost management, scheduling, reporting, and decision-making in real-world business environments.

Together, these areas create an interesting intersection of technology, data, business, and problem solving.

Over the next year, I plan to learn:

My focus will be on understanding how data moves through a modern analytics platform.

I want to move beyond basic dashboards and learn how to build reports that support business decisions.

Areas of focus include:

I also plan to build multiple dashboard projects and share lessons learned from each one.

Project controls is a field that combines planning, cost management, forecasting, risk management, and reporting.

My goals include learning:

Most importantly, I want to understand how data and analytics can improve project decision-making.

AI is moving far beyond chatbots.

Over the next year, I want to experiment with:

I believe the combination of AI and data analytics will create powerful opportunities in the years ahead.

Learning is most effective when combined with real projects.

Some projects I hope to build include:

A sandbox environment where I can experiment with Fabric features and document what I learn.

A dashboard focused on tracking project costs and forecasting performance.

A simple system that uses AI to help generate reports and summaries from project data.

A structured repository for organizing notes, lessons learned, templates, and resources.

Instead of waiting until I become an expert, I plan to share what I learn as I go.

Some articles will cover:

My goal is to create a useful record of the journey that may help others who are learning similar skills.

Twelve months from now, I hope to look back and see measurable progress—not only in knowledge, but also in projects completed and lessons documented.

The goal isn't perfection.

The goal is consistency.

One article at a time.

One project at a time.

One lesson at a time.

Thank you for following along.

Let's see where this journey leads.

— Gary Bao