Introduction
In May 2023, 3600 job losses were directly linked to AI (in the US), accounting for as high as 5 percent of job losses that month(The Challenger’s report). By 2030, research projects that as many as 45 million jobs will be replaced by AI in the US alone.
It is not all gloomy; a larger number of jobs will likely be created because of AI.
I think it is time to start paying attention to the changes that are taking place in the AI industry and possibly learn about what a career in this field may entail.
This blog post will highlight 7 things you probably didn’t know about AI career, and perhaps pique your interest in pursuing a career in this niche.
Careers In AI – Things To Know
The following is a collection of things many persons may not be aware of regarding careers in AI and the Industry in general.
1. The Job Roles In AI Include Both Technical and Non-Technical Roles
There are a wide variety of job roles in AI. These include both technical and non-technical roles. So if you are from a non-technical background and looking forward to leveraging your skills, you will find a job that suits you.
The Technical AI job roles often have at their core the handling of large volumes of Data. These will often require strong technical competencies in programming, mathematics, and statistics.
Some examples of these technical careers or job roles in Artificial Intelligence are as follows;
- Data Scientist – This deals with extracting useful insights from Data or training a machine model to do such.
- AI Engineer/ML Engineer – which is a combination of Software Engineering and Data Science, includes AI Software deployment
- NLP (Natural Language Processing) Engineer – This is a Specialist AI/ML Engineer with a focus on Natural Language Programming (LLM)
- Computer Vision (CV) Engineer – An AI/ML Engineer specialist in Computer Vision, i.e., how computers can recognize real-world objects.
- ML OPS Engineer – These are Dev/Ops Engineers that integrate Machine Learning into product developments. They for example will use Kubernetes, and Docker to deploy ML Solutions.
- AI Research Engineers – This primarily focuses on the Research and development of AI tools and technologies.
The non-technical roles focus more on how organizations manage or implement AI solutions. They cover the business, client, ethical, and legal aspects of AI products and services.
Some examples of the non-technical AI Careers include;
- AI Product Manager – Partner with the technical team to drive AI product delivery and ensure market success.
- AI Ethicist or AI Ethics Executive – This covers Ethics in the design and implementation of AI solutions, Privacy concerns, Government regulations, etc. Someone with a background in law will find this very satisfying.
- AI Sales Representative – which is a marketing role.
2. There Is High Demand and Salaries Are Competitive
AI technology is revolutionary, and there is huge anticipation that it is going to bring about major changes in the way businesses are run. This has led to massive investments by large corporations in AI
Demands for professionals with AI skills are at an all-time high and the trajectory is likely to continue. According to a report by Grand View Research, the annual growth is 37.3 percent from 2023 to 2030.Â
With huge demands come high salaries. Many jobs in the AI space can easily exceed the $100,000 mark in the US, making them among the highest-paying tech jobs.
Here are some examples of what you may earn as a professional with a career in artificial intelligence. (Averages based on data from Glassdoors and Builtin Employment statistics)
| S/N | AI Career/Job Title | Salary Per Annum |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Data Scientist | $125,609 |
| 2. | AI/ML Engineer | $155,888 |
| 3. | NLP Engineer | $157,002 |
| 4. | Computer Vision Engineer | $164,056 |
| 5. | AI Research Engineer | $218,000 |
| 6. | ML OPS Engineer | $148,000 |
| 8. | AI Product Manager | $218,000 |
| 9. | AI Ethicist | $138,000 |
3. AI Jobs Also Abound in Non-Tech Industries
One interesting and often challenging aspect of AI technology is that it is a general-purpose technology – that means you can use it to solve various problems.
This means that AI Career opportunities are not limited to the Tech Industries, you can leverage AI skills across multiple Industries with deal with significant amounts of data. Some of the industries besides Tech where AI Skills are in demand include;
- Finance and Banking Services
- Healthcare Delivery
- Advertising and Media and Advertising
- Transportation and Automotive
- Entertainment
- Education and Training
- e-commerce
- Manufacturing
- Agriculture, etc.
The specific job examples where your AI skills are needed will depend on the unique challenges of the Industry.
For example, as an AI professional in healthcare, you may use your skills to assist Clinicians in medical diagnosis or in personalized medicine.
Or in Finance where such AI skills are in use for market analysis, fraud detection, or creating custom banking products for customers.
According to Grandview Research, Finance, and Healthcare are the largest AI market with the potential to employ more AI skills.
| S/N | Industry | AI Market Capitilization | Growth Rate (Projection) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Security Market | $25.22 billion (2024) | 19.02% (2024-2029) |
| 2. | Banking, Insurance and Finanacial Services | $22.5 billion (2022) | 32.5% (2023-2032) |
| 3. | Healthcare | $22.45 billion (2023) | 36.4% (2024-2030) |
| 4. | Media and Advertising | $12.64 billion (2022) | 26.6% (2023-2030) |
| 5. | Manufacturing | $3.8 billion (2022) | 33.5% (2023-2032) |
| 6. | Automotive and transportation | $2.71 billion (2022) | 24.1% (2022-2030) |
| 7. | Education | $1.82 billion (2021) | 36% (2022-2030) |
4. AI Job Roles are Often Interdisciplinary
Since AI is a general-purpose technology, and cuts across several industries, a career in AI will often demand that you work with professionals from other fields.
If you are using AI for medical diagnosis in healthcare, you will normally need be work with physicians for their professional input.
Or when you use AI to design an educational/training course, a teacher on the subject will need to be a part of it. The same is true for most other industries.
This also means that a professional in any field can learn AI skills relevant to their core functions and leverage AI skills to improve their efficiency and productivity.
It is therefore important that someone who aspires to a career in Artificial intelligence should learn to work in a team. Good interpersonal skills are often a requirement.
5. It is Possible to Get AI Jobs Limited Academic Background (a Degree)
Before now, many of the jobs in AI were mostly academic and research roles. These were often for people with strong academic backgrounds (PhDs, MScs.). However, with AI going mainstream and demands for AI skills exploding, that changed quickly.
There are now a lot of opportunities for people with limited academic backgrounds in AI to work in the field. What is needed in many instances is practical skills in using AI to solve industry problems.
Get the skills, show that you can do the job and you will find a willing employer. It helps with some form of validation (IT Certificates) but University degrees are now not an absolute requirement.
There are AI certifications and training from some tech companies like Google, IBM, and Microsoft that can help you kickstart a career in AI. You may want to consider some of these AI Certification. (See review of REVIEW OF IBM AI CERTIFICATIONS -WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW)
Conclusion
Pursuing a career in the Artificial Intelligence niche is at the moment very exciting. The demand for AI skills is high and salaries are very lucrative. There are opportunities both in technical and non-technical roles. And are often interdisciplinary, cutting across different industries.
Unlike a few years ago, there are now some opportunities for people with limited academic backgrounds. The emphasis is more on having practical and useful AI skills to provide solutions. Certifications are helpful.
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