I started partway through, but I don't think it's too early. People use Academia differently, some include minimal information and use it to connect with other researchers that they're interested in. Others, like myself, have filled out more information about their research/clinical interests, publications, and CV. I like it because our university page does not include much for individual students, so this is my main professional presence on the web. Since you have a publication, people might search your name, and it would be nice for a professional page to pop to the top of the results page.
Also, like I mentioned on another post, Academia lets you know when people have searched for you, what search terms they used, and what they looked at (e.g. your profile, paper, or CV). It doesn't get more specific as to the person (just at the country level) who searched for you, but I found it helpful at various stages: when I was teaching in grad school, I included my course information and contact, when I was applying for internship and postdoc, I made sure I had everything looking nice and included a CV at that point. I can't recall for internship specifically, but for postdoc interviews people definitely searched for me, and I was happy my professional page was at the top of the list for them to find.
Can you tell I'm a big fan? 🙂
