AI Engineers – Playing An Indispensable Role Today and in the Future

In today’s tech driven market, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a disruptive technology that has made our lives easier, comfortable, and smart by integrating machine learning algorithms into various products and services. Do you know who creates these algorithms? AI engineers, of course.

AI and machine learning algorithms developed by AI engineers are being used by businesses to boost productivity and generate huge revenue in the competitive market. There is tremendous scope and potential of development in the field of AI. The most demanding and sought-after career in AI is AI engineering. Students who are tech-savvy are looking to pursue AI engineering and become AI engineers. Eminent organizations across the globe are hiring AI engineers.

What is AI engineering?

  • AI engineering is an advanced and emerging discipline of engineering that mainly focuses on developing smart tools, systems, and machines to improve the lives of people in society.
  • AI engineering covers a wide range of data sets and computing power along with the integration of machine learning algorithms.
  • AI engineers design machine learning algorithms using AI engineering tools and framework.
  • The use of powerful machine learning algorithms helps businesses in taking smart decisions, meeting the needs of customers, and improving customer engagement.

Tremendous scope of work and opportunities for AI engineers

  • There is a great demand for AI engineers from multiple industries and sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, finance, retail, e-commerce, and many more.
  • The average AI engineer salary is around USD 100,000 / annum depending on the hiring company.
  • Leading companies such as TCS, IBM, Google, Wipro, Concentrix, Cognizant, and many more are recruiting AI engineers by offering lucrative salaries.

What does an AI engineer do?

  • An AI engineer makes use of machine learning algorithms and deep learning neural networks to develop AI models.
  • These AI models built by AI engineers help businesses to take the right decisions, which in turn impacts the entire organization.
  • AI engineers use different tools and techniques to develop and maintain AI systems and processes.

Here are the various roles and responsibilities and the scope of work of AI engineers

  • Infrastructure automation for the data science team
  • Developing AI models
  • Testing and deploying AI models
  • Developing MVP based on machine learning
  • Using machine learning to automate various process
  • Conversion of ML models into APIs so that they can be accessed by other apps
  • Coordination between data scientists and business analysts

How to become an AI engineer?

If you are looking to build a career in AI, specifically in AI engineering, you need a professional qualification and the right technical skills along with a lot of soft skills.

Professional qualifications

Artificial intelligence jobs in the market want candidates to meet certain minimum educational qualification requirements.

A student who want to become an AI engineer needs to have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in the following or related disciplines:

  • Information Technology
  • Computer Science
  • Engineering
  • Data science
  • Statistics

Technical skills

If you are planning to apply for AI engineer jobs, you need the following technical skills:

Programming skills

  • In order to become a successful AI engineer, you need to master programming languages such as Java, Python, C++, and R. 
  • AI engineers use these programming languages to develop and deploy AI models.

Knowledge of probability, linear algebra, and statistics

  • The AI models developed using algorithms heavily rely on algebra, statistics, and calculus.
  • Being familiar with the concepts of probability help AI engineers to understand and implement various AI models.

Basics of different tools

The role of AI engineers involves dealing and handling huge volumes of data. Hence, it is crucial for AI engineers to have a basic knowledge of Apache Spark, MongoDB, Hadoop, and other big data tools and technologies.

Soft skills

Apart from technical skills, AI engineers also need to have some soft skills. These include:

  • Analytical thinking
  • Creativity
  • Interpersonal communication skills
  • Pressure handling
  • Active learning
  • Curiosity
  • Decision-making
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Collaboration 

When we talk about AI jobs, there are many of them. Some of the artificial intelligence jobs include AI architect, AI developer, ML engineer, data scientist, business intelligence developer, and others. With AI engineering, there are a plethora of opportunities available for students. The scope and demand for AI engineers will not just be restricted to 2021 but the future years to come as well.

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