AI Engineer: Salary, Scope, Demand, & Skills Needed for Success

In today’s fast-paced world, technology has been the prime driving force, changing how individuals and organizations carry out their daily routines and operations with maximum efficiency. At present, the popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is rising on a global level, opening up the job scope for a variety of roles under AI and ML. Both these technologies are working together to facilitate complete digitalization globally in time to come. 

Demand for AI Engineering

Artificial intelligence, in the last four years, is said to have encouraged the growth rate of 270% for a variety of business sectors globally. However, people still assume that with the introduction of AI in the workplace, the need for human resources will go down but it is not true. There exist so many job titles to explore when it comes to AI and ML. Today, we will be discussing the complete details of an artificial intelligence engineer job profile.

According to the current market statistics, the demand for AI engineers is increasing significantly in the most industries. The main reason why acceptance and adoption of technology are required by human resources is to benefit from the combination of them together. Before we jump into the nitty-gritty details about the job responsibilities of an AI engineer, let us understand who an AI engineer is.  

Given the current market dynamics, AI engineering is slowly becoming a necessary addition to multiple institutions and organizations. AI engineering is known to be a research field that requires practical knowledge to combine various principles of software engineering, computer science, and system engineering. These principles along with custom human-centered designs are used to create systems with artificial intelligence that meet the human requirements for final mission accomplishment.

In simple words, an AI engineer is an IT expert who needs to plan and implement unique algorithms that help organizations analyze, learn, and predict some of the future possibilities. The main intention or performance factor for an engineer is to create tools and techniques using technologies like AI to replace the human brain for tasks with machinery. An engineer interested in artificial intelligence can specialize in multiple areas including machine learning, deep learning, or artificial intelligence alone. To understand better, let us discuss the key roles and responsibilities of an AI engineer below.

Roles and Responsibilities of an AI Engineer

For a long time, artificial intelligence was considered to be a technology that will destroy the livelihood of human resources by making them obsolete. However, now, with the increasing awareness about the right way to use this technology, various job roles have been introduced by organizations that require expertise in technologies like AI. And, AI engineer is one such job role and the responsibilities include the following.

• Conducting market research to develop new systems and applications that can increase the performance and operational efficiency of a business.
• Communication skills to coordinate the intended AI-driven ideas for system development with the right teams and leaders to analyze which processes will benefit the most with the adoption of AI.
• Pitching the right techniques of machine learning to the software development teams to incorporate in the image recognition application or system.
• Creating unique custom chatbots and ensuring complete maintenance to increase customer satisfaction with this interaction addition.
• Planning and implementing solutions which are driven by technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning that can easily mimic the behavior of the human mind to reduce the time taken to complete tasks by human resources by replacing it with machines.
• Imparting knowledge and introducing the right natural processing language techniques that can easily convert text to voice clips for better data analysis and reporting.
• Developing the right data infrastructure for easy data transformation for organizations through various network systems.

Industry Demand and Career Growth Scope for AI Engineering

According to a market research report, out of all the different countries around the world, the countries that offer maximum job opportunities within the field of artificial intelligence include India. In an industry-level analysis, the majority of the industries today require AI-driven technology and methods to drive their efficiency up, without increasing costs. The top industries looking at AI engineer experts include healthcare, technology, financial services, national security, gaming, retail, etc.

A report in 2018 suggested that the need for candidates with AI skills has doubled in the last three years and is expected to grow the job opportunities available in the market by a minimum of 119% since this need was recognized. Now that we have discussed the growing industry demand for an AI engineer or other job roles within artificial intelligence, let us look into the career growth scope for an AI engineer.

Along with the AI engineer job profile, all other different careers within artificial intelligence are considered future-proof. This is because with the global economy transforming due to the strong backing of technologies like artificial intelligence, it will become mandatory to have this skill set to survive the future competition worldwide. This directly indicates that no matter the level of experience you have or you are starting fresh, the upward spiral of career growth offered for engineers with artificial intelligence knowledge and expertise is increasing every day. Keep learning and putting your knowledge to practical use to become better and explore more job roles within artificial intelligence and other technologies.

AI Engineer Salary Packages in India

Along with other countries that are rapidly adopting AI in their day-to-day operations to minimize costs but maximize returns, India is not far. Multiple industries are actively seeking candidates on a beginner level with the expertise and knowledge of artificial intelligence to start building their abilities while learning about the company’s needs. AI engineer is one popular job role in India and the range of salary packages offered to AI engineers in India begins with a minimum of Rs 3.3 lakh per annum and goes to Rs 24.2 lakh per annum, with an average salary of Rs 8.4 lakh annually. Various factors play a vital role in deciding the estimated salary that an AI engineer takes home monthly or annually, the main one being the years of experience.

If you have an experience as an AI engineer between 2 and 4 years, then your annual salary will be between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 20 lakh, depending on the company you work with as even Facebook, Amazon, Google, etc., are all actively hiring for similar roles. If you have an experience of 4-8 years as a professional AI engineer, then the median salary bracket that you will fall under will be between Rs 35 lakh and Rs 50 lakh on an annual basis. AI engineers in India with an experience of over 10 years easily earn a median salary of Rs 1 crore annually.

When it comes to location, in India, Mumbai offers the highest salary packages for professionals with artificial intelligence expertise at Rs 15.6 lakh annually closely followed by Bengaluru which offers an average salary of Rs 14.5 lakh annually. Let us look at some of the top job profiles within artificial intelligence and their annual salary packages in India below.

• AI Engineer: With salary packages based on experience, they get somewhere from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 15.6 lakh per annum.
• Principal Data Scientist: They get an average salary package of Rs 17 lakh.
• Machine Learning Engineer: They take home an average salary package of Rs 9.5 lakh.
• Data Analyst: They get a starting salary package of Rs 4.97 lakh.
• Research Engineer: They receive an average salary package of Rs 6.50 lakh.
• Data Engineer: They draw an average salary package of Rs 8.35 lakh.
• Algorithm Engineer: These professionals get an average salary package of Rs 5.40 lakh.

Skills Needed For an AI Engineer

Even though a machine learning engineer and an artificial intelligence engineer both fall under the category of artificial intelligence experts, the roles and responsibilities are different for both. It is therefore necessary to improve your chances of securing a job as an AI engineer by developing the necessary skill set. The top skills needed to be an exceptional AI engineer to secure a high annual salary package include the following:

• Good understanding of various programming languages including C++, Java, Python, etc.
• A clear understanding of important mathematical concepts like calculus, linear algebra, statistics, and matrix multiplication. In addition to that, it is important to be aware of necessary algorithms like Gaussian Mixture Models, Hidden Markov Models, and Naïve Bayes
• Awareness and knowledge about the various signal processing techniques available with the appropriate use case understanding of the same, especially to build up advanced algorithm systems
• A strong foundation of algorithm theory to understand necessary subjects like quadratic programming, summations, and gradient descent

After these technical skills, some of the non-technical yet necessary skills required to become an AI engineer include:

• Strong communication skills to explain the numerous concepts with artificial intelligence to software development teams for work efficiency.
• Strong domain knowledge to identify and rectify any challenges in the network system before it breaks down the system.
• For faster development of a scale model, rapid prototyping is also a key skill that helps AI engineers in India speed up their testing of favorable algorithms and codes.

How to Become an AI Engineer? 

After discussing the necessary skills to become a successful AI engineer to benefit from the promising average salary packages for AI engineers in India, it is important to look at how to become an AI engineer. Similar to any other job role, an AI engineer also requires some mandatory qualifications to fall into the right eligibility criteria to explore this job title. Let us now discuss a quick step-by-step pathway to becoming an AI engineer.

• The first step is to get a bachelor’s degree in subjects like information technology, computer science, mathematics, economics, finance, and statistics.
• In addition to completing your bachelor’s degree, you also need to develop the necessary technical skills mentioned above. To do the same, you can explore various certification courses offered by platforms like Hero Vired, that help you gain more knowledge on various concepts of machine learning, data science, and AI.
• You can enrol in  a AI focused certification course and also need to develop some business skills to become an added asset to any organization or company you join with your technical and critical thinking ability.
• Lastly, be very mindful in this next step wherein you need to put your knowledge to practical use by securing internships, fresher jobs, or any other entry-level AI engineer role to enjoy promising annual salary packages in India for AI engineers in India in the future.

Key Takeaways 

The world is awaiting a technological revolution in the coming years and artificial intelligence is said to be a central driving force behind the same. It is becoming a popular technology in various industries all around the world and India is no exception. 

Given this popularity, the demand for candidates with expert AI knowledge is rising rapidly. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2030, the career growth of artificial intelligence experts is expected to be a minimum of 31.4%. As far as India is concerned, the artificial intelligence market in India is valued at approximately $7.8 billion in August 2021.

These numbers are set to grow even further in the coming years and now is the right time to develop the necessary skills to become an expert in artificial intelligence. You not only benefit from impressive annual salary packages in India but also open up career opportunities all around the world as the technology is recognized globally. 

Additionally, you develop both technical and non-technical skills to help you become a more confident candidate for bigger job roles within AI and even machine learning. So, what are you waiting for? Start your journey today to become an AI expert with the right skills.