Artificial Intelligence (AI) has blossomed into an interesting field with an expansive potential for the coming years. Of all the technologies that are making the rounds these days, AI is certainly the top one. Becoming an AI engineer can prove to be highly beneficial for a bright future. But the main question is how to become an AI engineer?

This blog highlights everything one needs to begin their journey as an AI engineer. The steps that should ideally be followed to gain prowess and subsequent success are discussed here. Let’s start by uncovering what an AI engineer is.

What Is An AI Engineer?

An AI engineer is a skilled professional with the knowledge and skill to use artificial intelligence and machine learning methods. They utilize these skills for developing systems and applications. These enable companies to increase efficiency, increase profits, make better business decisions and cut costs. These are highly skilled and learned professionals.

Their focus lies in developing processes, tools, and systems to enable the application of AI in the real world. Artificial intelligence has become such a common part of our lives that we don't find it odd when there’s a prevalent use case. For instance, any app wherein the machine mimicks human functions uses AI. Such apps are everywhere and are a big part of our lives.

Key Responsibilities of An AI Engineer

Organizations using AI have an imperative place for skilled and trained AI engineers. These professionals craft an AI strategy for the organization and solve problems with this technology. They build AI production and development infrastructure to implement it in the next step. While the responsibilities might differ depending upon the organization, these are certain fixed ones.

• They conduct statistical analysis. The results are interpreted and used to optimize and enhance the company’s decision-making process.
• They build AI models from zero. Analysis and implementation are used to help product managers and stakeholders.
• They create and manage the entire AI production & development infrastructure.
• ML models are transformed into APIs. Later, these are integrated with other apps.
• They automate the AI infrastructures for data science teams.
• They collaborate with different teams to ensure the adoption of AI and associated best practices.

How To Become An AI Engineer?

Anyone who is just starting out in this field would certainly wonder how to become an AI engineer. There are a few key steps that can be followed and certain things that are essential to get started. This section explores it all.

Earn a Bachelor’s Degree

Becoming an AI professional means having a strong academic background. This includes a bachelor’s degree in an associated field like data science, electrical engineering, or computer science. This base is essential to equip the learner with programming and core mathematical skills.

Aspirants must have in-depth knowledge of mathematics, ML, software engineering and algorithms & data structures. Along with these core concepts, awareness of other lined areas will be beneficial too. These include computer vision, robotics or natural language processing (NLP).

A master’s degree in the right field can bring in plenty of additional benefits. This degree provides a better understanding of the aspirants’ advanced level understanding of AI concepts, zest to learn and specialized knowledge. Those intent on going for specialized roles (like reinforcement learning or deep learning) or research-oriented roles will benefit more.

Very few AI engineering roles state a master’s degree as a compulsion. In most cases, it’s just a beneficial addition. That said, it does have many perks like networking opportunities during the degree, opening specialized fields, and advanced understanding.

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Gain Essential Skills

Every job title has certain essential skills that must be learned. For AI engineers, common technical and soft skills are mentioned here.

A) Technical Skills-

• Programming Languages- Python, C++, Java, JavaScript, and R are some common programming languages that must be perfected to become a pro in this field. Each language has different uses. It’s important to understand which ones must be learned and when.
• Big Data Analysis- It’s important to know about analyzing humongous data sets and extracting essential insights from them. Knowledge of big data analysis tools like  Google Cloud Platform, SparkSQL and Apache Flink is imperative.
• AI & ML Services- Knowledge of cloud-based ML and AI services by major providers (like AWS, GCP and Azure) is important. The pre-built models, tools and APIs are essential for success.
• Data Modeling & Engineering- Data makes up the foundation of AI, which is why AI engineers must have in-depth knowledge of data engineering and modeling. Gaining knowledge of NoSQL and SQL is imperative. Understand main tools like AWS S3, Hadoop and Apache Spark.
• ML Models- ML Algorithms and models like supervised & unsupervised learning techniques, recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are needed.

B) Soft Skills

• Communication & collaboration
• Critical thinking
• Continuous learning
• Domain knowledge

Get Specialized Training & Certification

Excelling in any tech field is all about getting trained and certified. The scope of AI engineering is no different. This section also requires the aspirant to pick a good training course to learn the fundamentals from industry professionals. A good certification is always an add-on that can be explored for better career opportunities.

Gain Practical Experience

The world of AI is constantly evolving and getting better. Having theoretical knowledge is important, but it’s also important to gain practical experience. Every company that has the scope for an AI engineer will judge them primarily on the basis of their hands-on knowledge.

Conclusion

This blog has covered the key points and steps involved in answering the question of how to become an AI engineer. It’s an evolving field that requires a good deal of education and knowledge base. This narrows down the line of people who can set out to enjoy a career in this field.

This point, however, is a benefit for those who are serious about etching a career in this field. The road is long and certainly requires constant learning, but the outcome will be worth it.