Businesses are becoming increasingly data-driven, while Artificial Intelligence (AI) and smart systems are being incorporated into more services and products. In today’s world, AI and Data Science are two of the most important domains in computing and technology.
IT companies worldwide have shifted to strategies that rely on AI while companies in other domains are already implementing data-driven business decisions. With the use of analytics and forecasting, companies can identify threats and opportunities even before they originate from their source. This kind of support while making business decisions can be very useful when trying to maximize business efficiency and profit.
With the help of AI, businesses can serve more customers in an automated or autonomous fashion, thus requiring less manpower and being able to deliver faster services. This also greatly improves the profitability of the business as well the efficiency of any service or product.
There are many graduates hailing from an IT or Computer Science background who wish to now join these fields that truly make a difference in how we interact with technology and how businesses go about their daily business activities. Artificial Intelligence and Data Science are two of the sectors that are extremely lucrative for professionals from other domains as well.
Data Science and AI are both technical sectors and there are certain skills that are absolutely crucial to join these fields. Even the most advanced college degrees do not cover a lot of these key skills and modern technologies that are increasingly important to companies worldwide. Let us take the example of Tableau or Rapid Miner. Most college programs will not feature these tools and technologies.
Professionals or freshers who have completed a Data Science or Artificial Intelligence certification are becoming increasingly valuable to enterprises, especially because they do not need to train these new recruits. Other than company-specific software, those who have completed reputed AI or Data Science courses also know how to use associated software with ease.
Companies desire job-ready individuals who can be brought on board for any project easily. Without the need to train new recruits, companies also get a better ROI on their new hires. This applies to both AI and Data Science. For example, if a potential candidate has a certificate through an online data science or AI course, they are more likely to be shortlisted among candidates with similar academic qualifications rather than individuals who haven’t.
Data Science can be simply described as any process that utilizes structured or unstructured data for business or technical requirements. Now, Data Science is not just the use of this data but the domain also defines how this data can be generated, processed, and modelled in order to be effectively used for the current requirement.
Data Science can be used for product development, business insights, operation analytics, or forecasting. With the help of various tools, algorithms, scientific methods, and even AI, Data Science is able to work with data that is complex or hard to analyze. In order to truly use data to its full extent, it must also be extracted effectively and cleaned of all kinds of noise. Thus, Data Science also deals with this process of noise removal and data pre-processing.
Analytics is an important part of Data Science and involves analyzing data, building predictions, visualizing the data, and making reports. With the help of analytics, data scientists can help businesses make more effective or profitable decisions. Data Science is statistically inclined and uses various statistical techniques for business intelligence.
However, Data Science is not just used for analytics or business decisions but is also used directly in the development of products, software, or tools. For instance, Data Science is extensively used when an Android application is being developed. Data Scientists are crucial for modelling data and integrating data-driven systems into the development pipeline.
What does a data scientist do?
Data scientists fundamentally create models, analyze data and excavate unstructured or raw forms of data. However, the tasks of Data Science professionals go far beyond these. Data Scientists help companies acquire valuable business insights and identify lucrative business opportunities.
With analysis and insights, companies can also fix their inefficiencies and optimize their existing processes. One of the main tasks of a data scientist is storing and managing data while making this data accessible to members of the organization or team. Other than this, they also process, clean, and transform data.
Once the transformed or converted data (from unstructured to structured or other formats) is ready, data scientists are responsible for data warehousing and data modelling. Data mining is also another important job role of data scientists. Mined data can be prepared for analysis and then can be used for data visualizations.
Artificial Intelligence or AI can be described as the ability of machines to display human-like complex intelligence or act autonomously. Let us take machines that act on their own as examples. These machines are programmed to act according to a certain control flow where they take action on certain triggers.
For instance, if a robot is given a set of instructions to follow ‘-If- /Target is acquired/’, then the robot will carry out its instructions in the most effective manner. Similarly, if the same robot is modelled to do something else when ‘-or- /Target is not acquired/’, it will simply carry out the alternative set of instructions.
Many machines and even vehicles use AI-driven systems now. Factory robots, autonomous drones, cleaning robots and self-driven cars such as Teslas are all advanced implementations of AI and computer vision. Computer vision is the ability of machines to see, identify and decipher visual cues or their current surroundings in real time or during a later analytical process.
With the help of AI software, applications and even our mobile devices are becoming extremely easy to use. AI allows these technologies to take quicker action based on their original training pattern as well as how they are being utilized by their users. We are now able to carry out our tasks faster and in a more intuitive way, just because of AI running in the background.
Repetitive tasks are also easily taken care of by AI which gives us more time to spend on things that truly matter. Implementations such as RPA or Robotic Process Automation allow us to do just that. With the help of AI-powered bots, a lot of processes are automated in businesses nowadays. For instance, converting analog or manually-tracked data to digital excel files in an automated fashion can be an example of RPA.
Robotics has also become one of the most important solutions for various kinds of businesses that range from manufacturing to even hospitality. Robots powered by next-gen intelligent systems are taking over deliveries, engineering, exploration, cleaning, serving customers, and might even start selling products to us.
What does an AI professional do?
AI professionals such as AI engineers, AI developers, AI programmers, or AI specialists are tasked with modelling, developing, and training AI-based systems. Machine Learning engineers are also AI engineers who work with Machine Learning training methods for facilitating AI. There are also other AI engineers who work with Deep Learning methods and there are AI specialists who specialize in sub-domains such as Artificial Neural Networks, Computer Vision, or NLP (Natural language Processing).
AI professionals are masters in building and training AI programs, being able to convert the business requirements of a project into an autonomous or smart system that is fully functional. AI systems are not just used for machines and offline software but also on platforms such as Spotify, Google Search, and Uber.
In Spotify, AI helps recommend songs that the user might enjoy depending on the user’s listening history and genre preference. Similarly, Google Search helps fetch the most relevant search results depending on what the user is searching for. These are all implementations of AI that have been designed by skilled AI specialists and developers.
In Uber, depending on your active ride details and the proximity of the drivers nearby, your cab is chosen. These are not randomized and are actively managed by AI-driven systems. AI developers must also work with training data as without high-quality data, AI systems are bound to fail.
Finally, AI developers must also know how to integrate AI systems in other applications, devices, or cloud platforms. Thus, depending on the project, AI developers must also know platform-specific AI integration.
6 Reasons Why Data Science and AI Courses Are in Demand
Here are the top 6 reasons why Data Science and AI courses are in demand:
1. By 2022, the global AI market will reach $62 billion. This is a massive valuation that will be fed into more AI-driven innovations and AI specialists. Thus, AI is a very lucrative sector in terms of domain prospects. Similarly, Data Science has an incredible future as well, with the global value of the sector estimated to reach $140.9 billion by 2024 at a CAGR of 30%.
2. AI and Data Science are being adopted more for various general applications (as compared to specialized applications). This will increase the need for skilled AI and Data Science professionals. More companies are adopting AI-driven processes and using Data Science for optimizing their existing processes. The total revenue of Knowledge Management Systems worldwide has grown by 31.5% to $7,189 million in 2022 as compared to 17.5% in 2021. The revenue of the global AI software market is estimated to grow by 21.3% in 2022 as compared to 2021. Similarly, the Data Science domain has also been experiencing huge requirements in terms of skilled data scientists and data analysts.
3. AI and Data Science professionals are in huge demand and get paid handsome salaries. The average salary of a Data Scientist in India is Rs. 8,60,454 annually. Similarly, an AI engineer gets paid an average salary of Rs. 9,38,849 per annum. These are great remunerations and these professionals only keep getting paid more with time and experience. In India, over 1400 Data Science professionals get more than Rs. 1,00,00,000 (1 crore) as their salaries.
4. MNCs and conglomerates such as Amazon, Walmart, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Deloitte, EY, J. P. Morgan, KPMG, Cognizant, Infosys, Accenture, Capgemini, and many others are all actively looking for Data Science and AI professionals. This is why it is essential to upgrade your skillset in order to join companies such as these.
5. Data Science and Artificial Intelligence are both vast fields with an ample amount of choices when it comes to specializations or sub-domains. One has a lot of freedom in terms of their job role or project in these two sectors. Thus, there is also a lot of job satisfaction that this domain offers. These two domains also help companies and people (or users) in the real world, thus making you more proud of your role.
6. Finally, these courses are also in huge demand due to the two domains also offering a lot of career growth or career prospects. By upskilling, you can take advantage of the great job opportunities that come your way. Similarly, these courses and certifications also help you bag great career opportunities in other domains that utilize AI or Data Science.
Data Science and AI are two of the most lucrative technical domains in India and across the world. Skilled professionals are compensated extremely well due to the complex nature of their work. These kinds of professionals are highly desired by companies and these companies compete against each other to bag the most skilled Data Science or AI specialists.
This is why AI courses and Data Science courses are in huge demand. Data Science courses for working professionals help them learn key Data Science skills while also ensuring continued job prospects.
If you wish to have a career in Artificial Intelligence or Data Science, Hero Vired’s Data Science, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence program is a great first step. It is comprehensive, intensive, and has a loaded curriculum that is in line with the market demands. It can help you be job-ready in Data Science and AI as soon as you graduate from the program.