Data Scientist or Artificial Intelligence Engineer: Which career to go for?

Both the data science as well as Artificial Intelligence industry is growing at a fast rate. While the data science industry is expected to grow 36% by 2031, the AI market will also be growing at a CAGR of 21.3% during the same period as quoted by Polaris Market Research. In the coming years, the demand for both data science, as well as AI professionals, is going to soar high. And this has created a big dilemma among students and young professionals in choosing the best option among them.

Therefore, here in this article, let us talk about the differences between both these industries, the difference in the job profiles, and the career outlook, and will see if there is any similarity between both. I hope, by the end of this reading, you will have a clear mind about these profiles and will be in a better position to choose your career path.

What is Data Science and what do data scientists do?

Let us first talk about the data science industry. As per Exploding Topics, an estimated amount of 328.77 million data is generated every day. Imagine the humongous amount of data being generated that serves as a great resource for various organizations. With the help of these various kinds of data, companies from various industries can improve their business operations, solve their operational problems, enhance customer experience, and take their organizations to new heights.

Data Scientists are the key professionals who make it possible. Right from designing the problem statement to building a data science project and solving a model to mitigate the problem, data scientists have an important role to play. If you become a data scientist, your day-to-day life will include these works:

• Communicating with stakeholders regarding the business problems
• Collecting data from various sources
• Analyzing data and visualizing data in easy to understand manner
• Communicating the results to the management so that they can make data-driven informed decisions

There are various tools you will be working on as a data scientist: Python, R, SQL, Tableau, TensorFlow, Hadoop, etc.

Artificial Intelligence Industry and the Role of Artificial Intelligence Engineer

In the past few years, Artificial Intelligence has grown exponentially. There are around 59,000 AI companies globally. Not only investment, the revenue of the AI industry has grown more than double in 2023 which is $209 billion as compared to $95 billion in 2021.

Artificial Intelligence refers to developing systems that can do tasks that otherwise would require human intelligence to do them. For example, automated vacuum cleaners, autonomous vehicles, automated content writers, stacking robots, etc. Earlier, all these tasks were done by humans which have been completely replaced by artificial intelligence which requires minimum to no human interference. In fact, they can do the job with more accuracy and in much lesser time improving the overall efficiency and productivity of these machines.

Certified AI Engineers have a major role to play in designing these systems. They use their skills and expertise in Artificial Intelligence technologies, machine learning algorithms, and mathematics to develop AI models. The day-to-day life of an AI Engineer includes:

• Developing algorithms for AI models
• Converting machine learning models to application program interfaces
• Building, testing, deploying, and improving AI models
• Setting up and managing AI development processes
• Developing and maintaining efficient AI systems

To become an AI engineer, I highly recommend getting certified by reputed institutes. The competition in this domain will be larger than ever. And with the right Artificial Intelligence engineer certification, as offered by MIT, USAII®, and IBM, you can distinguish yourself from the crowd. With these certifications under your belt, you will be able to demonstrate your expertise in the AI field to employers.

Talking about the monetary benefits

Now, let’s talk about the salary which data scientists and artificial intelligence engineers take home. Salary is one of the most important factors that influences the career selection process and thus it should not be neglected.

As per Glassdoor, the average salary per year of

• Data Scientists is  – $1,52,265
• AI engineer is – $1,60,873

The highest salary in both these profiles can go up to $200,000. And the starting salary can be as high as $100,000 with a minimum salary of $80,000.

So, we can conclude in terms of salary, both the job profiles are equal and have great monetary benefits.

Which career path to choose?

AI and Data science are the fastest-growing job profiles as ranked by the World Economic Forum, and both provide great career opportunities to talented candidates. While the data science industry will require you to work on programming languages and data, and expect you to have enough domain or business knowledge, AI professionals need to have lesser or no business knowledge. AI is a highly technical field where you will have to work on machine learning algorithms and design AI systems.

So, depending upon your work interest and technical knowledge you can easily decide which career to go for.