diff --git a/.github/workflows/docker.yml b/.github/workflows/docker.yml
index 478156e..800d6d3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docker.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docker.yml
@@ -40,6 +40,14 @@ jobs:
           context: ./backend
           push: true
           tags: jahleelt/commutesmart-backend:latest
+      
+      - name: Build and push ml-service image
+        if: false  # Change to true or conditionally enable later
+        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
+        with:
+          context: ./ml
+          push: true
+          tags: jahleelt/commutesmart-ml:latest
         
       - name: Final success message
         if: always()
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ml.yml b/.github/workflows/ml.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e89116
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/ml.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+name: ML Service CI
+
+on:
+  push:
+    paths:
+      - 'ml/**'
+      - '.github/workflows/ml.yml'
+  pull_request:
+    paths:
+      - 'ml/**'
+
+jobs:
+  build-ml:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout code
+        uses: actions/checkout@v3
+
+      - name: Set up Python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+        with:
+          python-version: '3.11'
+
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        working-directory: ml
+        run: |
+          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
+          pip install -r requirements.txt
+
+      - name: Run basic test (placeholder)
+        working-directory: ml
+        run: |
+          echo "Running placeholder ML tests..."
+          python main.py &  # if main.py is FastAPI, this just checks it runs
+          sleep 2
+          curl -f http://localhost:8002/ || echo "Did not respond"  # Optional check
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 2b0f3bf..d6e35bf 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -12,4 +12,16 @@ services:
   backend:
     build: ./backend
     ports: 
-      - "8080:8080"
\ No newline at end of file
+      - "8080:8080"
+    depends_on:
+      - ml-service
+
+  ml-service:
+    build:
+      context: ./ml
+    ports:
+      - "8002:8002"
+    environment:
+      - PYTHONPATH=/app
+    volumes:
+      - ./ml:/app
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ml/.gitignore b/ml/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f8cdfc4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ml/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+# Python
+__pycache__/
+*.py[cod]
+*$py.class
+*.so
+.Python
+build/
+develop-eggs/
+dist/
+downloads/
+eggs/
+.eggs/
+lib/
+lib64/
+parts/
+sdist/
+var/
+wheels/
+share/python-wheels/
+*.egg-info/
+.installed.cfg
+*.egg
+MANIFEST
+
+# Virtual Environment
+venv/
+env/
+ENV/
+.venv/
+.env/
+
+# Environment variables
+.env
+.env.local
+.env.development
+.env.test
+.env.production
+
+# IDE
+.vscode/
+.idea/
+*.swp
+*.swo
+*~
+
+# Jupyter Notebooks
+.ipynb_checkpoints
+*.ipynb
+
+# ML/Data Science specific
+# Trained models
+*.pkl
+*.joblib
+*.h5
+*.pb
+*.onnx
+*.tflite
+models/saved/
+checkpoints/
+weights/
+
+# Data files
+*.csv
+*.json
+*.parquet
+*.feather
+data/
+datasets/
+raw_data/
+processed_data/
+
+# Logs
+*.log
+logs/
+mlruns/
+runs/
+
+# Cache
+.cache/
+.pytest_cache/
+.coverage
+htmlcov/
+
+# OS
+.DS_Store
+.DS_Store?
+._*
+.Spotlight-V100
+.Trashes
+ehthumbs.db
+Thumbs.db
+
+# Temporary files
+*.tmp
+*.temp
+temp/
+tmp/
+
+# MLflow
+mlruns/
+mlartifacts/
+
+# Weights & Biases
+wandb/
+
+# TensorBoard
+tensorboard_logs/
+
+# Docker
+.dockerignore
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ml/Dockerfile b/ml/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..557d240
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ml/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# TODO ml/Dockerfile (this is a production ready placeholder)
+
+FROM python:3.11-slim
+
+WORKDIR /app
+
+# Avoid caching issues
+COPY requirements.txt .
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
+
+COPY . .
+
+CMD ["uvicorn", "main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8002"]
diff --git a/ml/__init__.py b/ml/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/ml/main.py b/ml/main.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b3e99f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ml/main.py
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+from fastapi import FastAPI
+from fastapi.middleware.cors import CORSMiddleware
+import uvicorn
+
+app = FastAPI(title="CommuteSmartAI ML Service")
+
+# CORS middleware for frontend communication
+app.add_middleware(
+    CORSMiddleware,
+    allow_origins=["http://localhost:3000"],  # Your frontend URL
+    allow_credentials=True,
+    allow_methods=["*"],
+    allow_headers=["*"],
+)
+
+@app.get("/")
+async def root():
+    return {"message": "CommuteSmartAI ML Service is running"}
+
+@app.get("/health")
+async def health_check():
+    return {"status": "healthy"}
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    uvicorn.run(app, host="0.0.0.0", port=8002)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ml/requirements.txt b/ml/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eea56cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ml/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+fastapi==0.104.1
+uvicorn==0.24.0
+pydantic==2.5.0
+numpy==1.24.3
+pandas==2.0.3
+scikit-learn==1.3.0
+requests==2.31.0
+python-dotenv==1.0.0
\ No newline at end of file