What makes AI and ML a lucrative career choice in today’s competitive professional realm?

Today’s world is in the midst of a digital revolution, which is impacting business operations and functions across industries. With the advent of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and (ML), this transition has been fast-tracked for many, and those who don’t tap into it quickly risk being left far behind. These technologies are becoming a mainstay for organisations, which now require processes that are self-learning and need to be automated with intelligence in order to streamline and grow their businesses.

How AI and ML are driving job creation and realignment of existing roles:

Apart from being beneficial in terms of operational efficiency, the rising predominance of advanced technologies has raised several questions about whether machines will take over or even eliminate human roles in the workforce. However, according to recent research, it has been found that, even though these new technologies are likely to make a large number of jobs redundant, they will add several others exceeding the number of those that they eliminate. For instance, Gartner research states that by 2020, AI will remove 1.8 million jobs. However, it will create an additional 2.3 million within the same time frame.

In the larger scheme of things, what technologies such as AI and ML are doing is augmenting the roles of the human workforce. In fact, with the rapid pace at which companies across the world have begun implementing them, many new job opportunities have already been created in recent years, striking a balance between the roles of humans and machines. As per a report by ZipRecruiter, AI created 3X the number of jobs that it removed in 2018, across various sectors. Additionally, almost 50% of businesses and employees are already using some form of AI in their operations.

The need for new skills amongst the workforce:

With the rising number of AI and ML-based roles, there is also a simultaneous increase in the demand for professionals with advanced skill sets to match. However, there is a significant shortage of talent in the tech industry to adequately meet these demands, while a majority of people fall short of even the basic skills needed for AI.

As per the same report by ZipRecruiter, the demand for employees who can work with AI-powered software and tools escalated a notable 379% between 2016 and 2018. In the Indian context, the average salary for an AI professional with 2 to 4 years of experience is 16 -20 lakhs per annum, while for 4 to 8 years of experience is 20-50 lakhs per annum. With this, many professionals are realising the need to up-skill or re-skill to help them hop on to the emerging-technology bandwagon and, in effect, secure an advantageous career for the future.

How aspirants can work towards a job in AI/ML:

While the basic skills and education are essential, the tech talent pool needs exposure to the practical application of these emerging technologies to truly make use of their skills. This includes keeping up with the latest industry trends and research as well as gaining exposure with hackathons, working on industry-oriented projects and participating in discussions, which will truly enrich their experience and knowledge.

One of the prime reasons for the lack of employable talent in tech is the fact that a majority of graduates are not confident with even their basic coding capabilities. Within an AI/ML career, it is all the more important to have a good foundation of coding in various languages such as Java and Python and within different contexts and applications such as robotics, networking and logic, amongst others.

This can best be achieved under the guidance of expert mentors in the field while completing such tasks with hands-on experiential learning. Candidates can thus, gain insight into how their skills will be applied dynamically at the workplace, thus equipping them for the AI/ML jobs that they desire.

The advent of emerging technologies has propelled a paradigm shift in today’s workforce across verticals and industries, thus creating the need for more roles as per the new requirements. The demand for AI and ML professionals is already high and is likely to increase in the coming years. However, to secure a place within this highly lucrative field, aspirants must work towards shaping their skills according to the industry-oriented demand and gear up for their practical application for real-world problems.

Not only will this help them with a secure future, but it will open up greater avenues for their professional development. As a result, they will be able to drive the growth of the business as well, with the increased scope for creativity and innovation that AI and ML bring to the workplace.

By Narayan Mahadevan, Founder of Bridgelabz