Michael Jordan, a mechanical engineer, realized that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will automate most optimization problems in his field, so he decided to learn more about machine learning and AI. He applied this knowledge to create "Gifted", an AI-powered gift-giving tool that uses Clarifai to analyze images of people and suggest gifts based on their surroundings or interests. The tool was built using Amazon AWS Lambda, Twilio, and Python 2.7, allowing users to send MMS with images to receive personalized gift suggestions.