Become an AI Engineer Fast: Skills, Projects, Salary

An AI engineer is the new 'hot' role in the tech scene, and many people are eager to land this job. However, it's important to understand that becoming an AI engineer in just a few months is a myth. The reality is that it will take longer, but that doesn't mean you can't fast-track the process. An AI engineer is a software engineer who specializes in the use and integration of foundational GenAI models like Claude, GPT, and BERT. They don't build these models from scratch like data scientists or machine learning engineers; instead, they use them for specific purposes.

For example, an AI engineer may embed a chatbot on a shopping website to help customers find what they need or add a coding assistant in an IDE. Since AI engineers are specialized software engineers, they need to know fundamental software engineering practices and have a strong understanding of AI systems. This skill set is in high demand today, and salaries for AI engineers can reach $200k-$300k per year.

To become an AI engineer, you need to go through several stages. First, it is quite difficult to break into AI engineering with no previous experience. You should aim to become a data scientist or software engineer for at least a year before considering a pivot to AI engineering. Personally, I recommend starting as a software engineer since it is more closely related to the AI engineering role. It's crucial to learn the tools and technologies needed for this profession, such as Python and SQL.

Secondly, alongside your full-time job, you will need to upskill yourself on the basics of AI and machine learning to ensure you are making quick progress on your journey. You don't need to have a PhD level of understanding, but basic knowledge in mathematics, statistics, and machine learning algorithms will help you understand how models work. You should know about topics like linear regression, decision trees, and neural networks.

Finally, the timeline depends on how quickly you can land a job as a software engineer or data scientist. With a solid background, you can secure roles in about six months. After that, it's advisable to stay in this role for another year before attempting to switch to AI engineering to ensure you've covered the basics.