Intermediate/senior 6+ years dev - do project experience really matter?

I got no chance to work on AI RAG/Langchain stuff or creating AI applications at my current job, Claude Code isn't provided within the internal network either. Meanwhile, lots of full stack development jobs out there seems to be asking experience developing AI applications.

I was thinking of building my own AI projects to increase my chances given I already drilled Leetcode, system design, did thorough company product research before interviewer screening and still a bit too tight for the amount of rejections I got. I doubt that'd help given my 6+ yoe when companies probably are asking for production experience though ironically AI trend just started like ~2+ years ago and still fresh.

I guess if projects don't really help then I am cooked and weeded out from like 80%+ of the full stack/backend dev job postings which prefers AI Langchain/RAG app exp + Claude Code or sth similar, right? Plus I'd have to only apply to my main tech stack as well so not a lot of options out there really. Of course I'd start a project if it really helps, but as I searched online seems like ppl are like not really for senior-lvl, meanwhile AI just got hyped up like 2 years ago... sounds kinda contradicting isn't it