Artificial Intelligence - Choosing A Learning Approach Based On Your Current Role

Almost every other day, either one of my colleague, college friend or an online contact from LinkedIn/Twitter will ask me "I have been reading a lot of hype around artificial intelligence and machine learning, I tried to read some of the articles and watched some videos but I really don't know where to start. Can you help or share something?". It is difficult to give a structured answer. It is totally crazy to learn everything about artificial intelligence. This field is so wide that it is easy to hit a roadblock because you started learning it in the wrong way (difficult way) without assessing your readiness.