How To Become an AI (Artificial Intelligence) Engineer In 2025: A Complete Roadmap

The field of artificial intelligence is taking the world of technology and industrial functioning by storm. With implications and services never seen before, artificially intelligent technologies and software are finding their place increasingly in various industries and services. As a result, the scope of career opportunities in this domain has also grown multifold.

Being a revolutionary development in the technological fields, AI as a career domain is dynamic, booming, and offers diverse exposure to professionals in this domain. Understanding this career can help you navigate the field and establish yourself as a successful AI specialist, and in this blog, we have brought together key information and industry-relevant insights about the career field of AI for you. 

Why Choose a Career in Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Artificial intelligence as a career domain has gained a lot of attention with the advent of new technologies being developed in the field and newer scopes being identified for it. Here are some of the appealing reasons for you to consider a career in AI for yourself if you are a technology professional. 

• Booming Career Field: As already stated, the field of AI is booming currently and is only expected to grow further, offering newer job opportunities and domains for professionals to explore. 

• Lucrative Compensation: The compensation being offered in the field of artificial intelligence is highly competitive, and a professional can earn anywhere between INR 0 to INR 12 LPA in this domain as per the latest statistics. 

• Diversifying Nature of the Career: The applications of AI are not just limited to the technical field in the contemporary industrial scenario. Several industries including the BFSI sector, manufacturing sector, education as well as consulting are actively integrating AI services into their functioning, thus leading to diverse options being available to explore for professionals. 

• Global Scope of Opportunities: AI as a career domain is gaining recognition worldwide with technology giants recruiting workforces from across the globe. Thus, a professional with formal training in AI can explore professional options in India and international corporations. 

• Opportunity to Contribute Meaningfully Socially: The implications of AI and its services are not just limited to maximizing profitability but also relate to larger social impacts. Be it in the field of education, healthcare, consulting, or financial services, AI integration has its pros and cons. By venturing into this career, a professional can contribute meaningfully towards the development of technologies that enhance human welfare and safeguard them against the perils of injudicious reliance on AI.  

• Outlet for Innovation: Since the field is yet in its budding stage, AI can in turn be the right career choice for someone who is looking to combine their innovation skills with technical expertise. With a wide and diverse scope, this field offers ample opportunities for professionals to innovate and devise unique solutions. 

Roles & Responsibilities of an AI Specialist

The job role of an AI specialist is all about the development of AI software and technologies and enhancing their features over time. This includes all responsibilities on an end-to-end basis including the background research, the requisite data analysis, cleaning and processing, development of AI models, fine-tuning them to improve their performance, monitoring their performance and troubleshooting, and so on. 

The major areas of work that an AI specialist or AI engineer can expect to perform have been enlisted below. 

Key Skills Needed for Career in AI 

Technical skills form a crucial requirement for any role related to the field of AI. However, along with technical expertise, a degree of soft skills is also important to thrive in this job. Further details about some of the key skills to develop for this role are provided below. 

1. Technical Skills & Knowledge to Succeed as an AI Specialist

Technical knowledge and applicable skills are important for this domain considering AI is a core technical field. As a result, a good grasp of programming languages, data management, statistics, functional domains like deep learning and NLP, etc. are crucial to working in this field. Some of the core skill areas one can hone to venture into this career are given below. 

Key Skills	Specifications
Programming Languages	Possessing thorough knowledge and proficiency in programming languages such as Java, R, Python, etc.
Data Management & Processing	Venturing into AI calls for skills of handling structured and unstructured data, data processing, data cleaning,g and knowledge of SQL and NoSQL database
Deep Learning	Familiarity with neural networks, deep learning architectures as well as aspects such as CNNs and RNNs for natural language processing
Natural Language Processing (NLP)	Familiarity with the principles and practices in NLP to actively contribute to projects related to AI chatbots, sentiment analysis, text summarisation, etc.
Big Data Analytics	Having skills in managing big datasets, running analytics on them, and consequently possessing knowledge of platforms like Hadoop, Spark, etc.
Mathematics & Statistics	Having a thorough understanding of the principles of mathematics and statistics which are core to artificial intelligence.

2. Soft Skills to Succeed as an AI Specialist

AI as a domain aims to mimic human intelligence, and as a result, professionals who aim to venture into this domain should have a fairly good repertoire of soft skills, interpersonal skills, and emotional intelligence. This is also required to ensure the mindful creation of AI tools and software that do not cause negative consequences for humans. Some of the useful soft skills to possess for an AI specialist are mentioned below. 

Key Skills	Specifications
Analytical Aptitude	Being able to analyze complex data and information, draw patterns, and solve complex problems logically and systematically.
Critical Thinking	Having a critical and analytical mindset to be able to identify assumptions, make and judge arguments, and accordingly solve problems.
Attention to Detail	Being attentive to details, and nuances of datasets, having a knack for precision,n and avoiding errors while problem-solving.
Emotional Intelligence	Being able to grasp and identify human emotions, and address and regulate them in turn to be able to emulate and integrate such knowledge into AI systems for efficient system development.
Communication Skills	Being articulate and expressive while also maintaining a concise and comprehensible tone in expressions, verbal and oral communication, and so on.
Adaptability	Having a flexible approach as well as being able to mold oneself and one’s problem-solving as per the requirements of the situation
Creativity & Innovation	Being a novel and booming field, AI requires the professional to be exceptionally creative and innovative in one’s approach to problem-solving.

What are the Career Opportunities for AI (Types of Options available in AI)

Being considerably diverse in nature and scope, a professional trained in AI can explore several related career domains as well. The compensation in AI is among the most fairly paid ones in the technological fields since it is currently in its booming stage. The job scope and demand for AI (and related domains like machine learning, deep learning, robotics data science, etc.) are also expected to grow further in the future as the field diversifies further and stabilizes. 

Enlisted below are a few of the prospective job domains that a formally trained AI specialist can explore, along with their approximate compensation as perthe latest industrial data across sources. 

Career Option	Average Salary (Per Annum)
AI Engineer	INR 10.11 LPA
Natural Language Processing (NLP) Engineer	INR 10 LPA
Machine Learning (ML) Engineer	INR 9.28 LPA
Data Scientist	INR 9.99 LPA
Robotics Engineer	INR 5.5 LPA
AI Consultant	INR 13.75 LPA
AI Business Analyst	INR 10 LPA
AI Operations Specialist	INR 10.5 LPA
Data Engineer	INR 9 LPA

Career Analysis: Scope of Artificial Intelligence

Being a long-term and high-stakes decision, it is important to understand the scope of a career before deciding to venture into it. Herein, we have elaborated upon the industrial trends in the field, the required investments to become an AI specialist, and the growth trajectory one can expect in the domain in the future!  

1. Demand for AI Specialists: Industry Trends

Some of the prominent industrial trends that provide insights about the domain of artificial intelligence as a career have been provided below. 

• According to a report by the Economic Times, the job market in the technical domain is expected to bounce back from the downturn of 2024, with jobs in the field of AI and data science dominating the market. 
• India is set to position itself as one of the leading players in the field of AI globally, which is leading to a large number of job roles being created in the field for professionals. 
• A report by the Tribune India shows that the sector of AI has grown by nearly 42% between 2022-24, and is projected to further see a growth of 14% in 2025.
• It is predicted that India will witness a generation of nearly 27.3 lakh job roles in AI by 2028, with the most prominent demand being for software application developers, followed closely by web developers and data engineers.

Thus, as can be seen, the overall statistics indicate that AI as a career field is currently seeing rapid growth, and the opportunities and scope in the field are only expected to grow further in the coming years. 

2. Fees & Costs Involved in Becoming an AI Specialist

There are several undergraduate degrees and postgraduate diplomas, degrees, and certifications that one can consider taking up in artificial intelligence and relevant specializations. These courses are available in India in the regular mode, the fully online (OL) mode, and the open-distance mode (or ODL mode), allowing students from diverse financial backgrounds to seek further education in this domain. Some of the most popularly pursued UG and PG courses in the online mode available in artificial intelligence and related specializations are enlisted below along with the approximate course fee for reference. 

AI Courses	Approximate Course Fees
Online BCA in AI & ML	INR 2,00,000
Online B.Tech in Computer Science	INR 3.00,000
Online BCA in Computer Science & IT	INR 1,50,000
Online B.Sc in IT	INR 3,50,000
Online MBA in AI & ML	INR 2,00,000
Online MCA in AI & ML	INR 1,50,000
Online Advanced Diploma in AI & ML	INR 50,000
Executive MBA in AI & ML	INR 2,50,000
Online MBA in Business Intelligence & AI	INR 3,50,000
Online Executive MBA in IT Management	INR 1,50,000

Career Growth Trajectory of AI 

Being a lucratively compensated field, AI jobs offer a significantly steep rise in salary packages and perks that are offered to professionals with growing experience. While a fresher may start on an average of INR 5 to INR 6 LPA, with due years of experience and upskilling, one can expect over a 5x growth in the domain. Hence, not only is the career scope of this field appealing, it is a financially reliable and safe domain to choose as well!

The career growth trajectory in terms of compensation with years of experience has been illustrated below for reference. 

Career Navigator: What Course to Pursue for a Career in AI?

Being a core technical field, AI as a career domain requires the professional to come either from a science or a mathematics background. A student who has pursued science or mathematics/ statistics as a subject at the higher secondary level can then look at pursuing a relevant UG degree (e.g. BCA/B.Tech/B.Sc/B.E. etc.). After completing their Bachelor’s education, they can further focus on completing further education or conversely, start exploring job opportunities in technological companies and firms. However, it is highly important to regularly upskill oneself in this domain as it is a highly dynamic, evolving, and agile field. 

The overall career navigation to practice as an AI specialist in India has been charted below.

Top Colleges & Institutes for AI 

Some of the eminent public and private-sector institutions in India that offer higher education courses in artificial intelligence have been enlisted below for reference. A number of these institutions offer UG and PG qualifications in the regular classroom mode as well as in remote modes like ODL and online mode. As duly accredited institutions from UGC-DEB for offering online courses, their online qualifications carry equivalent value and credibility as regular offline courses. 

Conclusion 

Artificial intelligence as a career domain is one of the most prospective parts of technical careers, and as it is finding increasingly more integrations in several sectors, it is now offering diverse roles and opportunities to AI specialists. With lucrative compensation, the scope for innovation, and rising industrial demand, this can be an apt career option for those in technology seeking to work in the creation of smart software and programs with futuristic scope.