Are you Artificial Intelligence-tentive?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has moved out from the pages of science fiction to emerge at the forefront of technological revolutions of the 21st century. It has successfully made its way to numerous sectors such as Retail, Finance, Healthcare, Hospitality, Automotive and IT Services and showed its potential to completely revolutionize and cause a quantum shift in how society functions.

With industries betting big on this change, India with its huge millennial workforce is set to face the unique impacts of automation - from jobs to quality of life - more than any other country. Artificial Intelligence is expected to create 2.3 million jobs by 2020, replacing the 1.8 million it will eliminate.

The time has come for Indian technology professionals to stop fearing AI and demonstrate if they are AI-tentive. But, what would it take to harness artificial intelligence and be AI-tentive? Let’s explore.

As per the industry-accepted definition, an Artificial Intelligence Engineer works with algorithms, neural networks, and other tools to advance the field of artificial intelligence in some way. These professionals may work on various types of artificial intelligence in different industries to develop computer systems, that are able to perform tasks which normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making and translation between languages.

To become an AI Engineer and emerge as AI-tentive, one should possess few skills which includes bachelor’s degree that can be in Computer Science, Mathematics, Information Technology, Statistics, Finance or Economics.

The next step is to fine tune your technical skills. An important thing to note here is that in order to become an AI Engineer one not only needs to be good at programming but also good at Software Development techniques and practices. You also need to be knowledgeable, both theoretically and practically about Design Patterns, Statistics and Mathematics, Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning & Neural Networks among other concepts. Without Business skills, an AI engineer is incomplete. Some of these skills include Analytical Problem-Solving, Effective Communication, Creative Thinking, and Industry Knowledge.

In a nutshell, AI Engineers are expected to have high problem-solving skills to be able to mine large amounts of data for patterns, possess a deep understanding of algorithms, and have math expertise, Knowledge of Python operations, data visualization tools, and Big Data is also recommended. It is a well-known fact that many positions in AI, ML and Data Science in India are vacant due to lack of talented resources and this skill gap is only going to worsen in the future.

Hence, an ecosystem needs to be created to train AI professionals with educational institutes that needs to scale up and be better equipped for the increasing demand. A change in curriculum as well as the introduction of new courses, specifically dedicated to higher studies in the fields of AI, ML, Big Data, and Cloud Computing, is an urgent need of the day. Companies need to invest in staff training and development to increase the chances of successful AI adoption. They can do this by exposing their workforce to the tech-enabled future of work with AI interfaces, ML and automation.

To train one’s workforce, a thorough analysis of the industry requirements, company size, and data needs should be considered. In order to upskill the workforce, online courses in AI and Machine Learning from Edureka have proven to be very helpful to companies to stay relevant in this age.

Forward thinking organizations, have already started integrating AI in their daily operations. AI can learn very well but it cannot learn flexibly (yet) but you can by upskilling. If you allow AI to do the grit work, this can create a huge opportunity to embrace the qualities that humans excel at, like creativity and intelligence.

Ultimately, the way to be AI-tentive is to understand the potential of AI and look for opportunities to implement positive change. If you succeed in being AI-tentive, you may find that AI revolution allows you not only to survive but to be an even better version of your human self.

By Vineet Chaturvedi, Co-Founder, Edureka