Market valuation experts assigned the global artificial intelligence market a value of $39.9 billion in 2019 with a projected Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 42 percent from 2020 to 2027.

The world is constantly evolving with many technological developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The impact of AI is growing tremendously, it is estimated that the field of AI will offer over 2 million jobs within the next couple of years.

The need for artificial intelligence engineers has enhanced over the past few years. They can experience several exciting knowledge-driven opportunities and can also get an impressive salary.

In this article, let’s understand the ways one can become an AI engineer.

Who is an AI engineer?

An AI engineer is a problem-solver who builds, tests, and applies various models of AI and effectively handles AI infrastructure. They take the help of ML algorithms and an understanding of the neural network to build better AI models.

An AI engineer can work in any of the industries in which AI plays an important role, such as healthcare, retail, manufacturing, automotive, and more.

AI engineer’s average salary per annum is US$116,540 (Glassdoor)

Prerequisites

The first step and the most important aspect to become an artificial intelligence engineer will be to get a bachelor’s degree. An individual has a lot of freedom to choose any specialization from the following:

• Mathematics
• Statistics
• Information Technology
• Computer Science
• Economics
• Finance

Apart from a bachelor’s degree having a master’s degree will be a great added advantage too. One can do a master’s in one of the following fields:

• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Cognitive Science
• Data Science
• Artificial Intelligence

Skills

If a person is wondering how to become successful in the field of AI, then they need to have specific skills so that they can perform the day-to-day work activities without any hassles. One can enrich their skill set by doing an AI certification. Following are the essential AI skills that one should have knowledge about:

· Technical skills

• Programming languages

To keep up with the latest advancements in the tech industry it is important to have knowledge of the programming languages. The most important programming languages to become an AI engineer are as follows:

• Python
• R
• Java
• C++
• Lisp

• Statistics and probability

Statistics is the process of analyzing the dataset to identify the unique mathematical aspects. A person should be familiar with matrices, vectors, and matrix multiplication. A firm knowledge of probability will help them to understand many AI models. With probability, one will be able to comprehend various models that include:

• Hidden Markov Models
• Naive Bayes
• Gaussian Mixture Models

• Deep Learning and neural networks

Deep Learning and neural networks are very useful for complex pattern recognition. A neural network is a system (software or hardware), that works like a human brain. Based on the neural functionality of the human brain, the concept of artificial neural networks is been designed. AI models replicate human understanding, which can also be leveraged for tasks that are far beyond the capabilities of humans. With the help of deep learning and neural networks many tasks are simplified, which include image classification, translation, speech recognition, all of these play a vital role when it comes to artificial intelligence.

·  Audio, video, and language processing

One needs to have a workable knowledge of a few libraries to be able to achieve language processing. Some of these libraries are Gensim and NLTK, followed by techniques like summarization, sentimental analysis, and word2vec. Natural Language Processing (NLP) mixes linguistics and computer science and often it deals with either audio or video.

· Non-technical skills

• Industry knowledge

The most successful AI projects are those that approach the real pain points effectively. It is important to have a good knowledge of the industry in which one is working and the ways one can benefit the business to grow.

• Critical thinking

Individuals should stay updated with the latest industrial trends and data so that they can develop better outputs based on the findings. They should adopt the best business practices and new approaches to AI.

The aforementioned skills play a vital role in the length of an individual’s career as an AI engineer. An individual can boost their skills by doing a certification program. By choosing the best AI certification program one can master their skills set and can have a rewarding career.

Salaries of AI engineers globally

Globally, AI engineering is considered the most rewarding career. Following are the details of few countries that pay amazing salary figures.

• The annual average salary in India is around INR 800,000.
• The average annual salary in Singapore is S$74,943.
• The annual salary in Germany is around €84,574.
• The annual salary in the U.K. is over 60,000 pounds.
• The annual salary in Canada is over C$85,000 on average.
• The salary in Australia can be as high as A$110,000 per year.
• AI engineers who have more than 10 years of experience can earn up to

US$ 1,00,00,000 per annum.

Conclusion

If an individual wants to become an AI engineer then doing an AI certification followed by mastering the skills will help them to land up a better job opportunity with an appealing salary.