AI Engineer Salary in Top Countries

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

According to Statista, by 2023, the big data business world will reach $77 billion. With technological advancements and the upsurge in data, big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are here to stay. Up until now, it was assumed that technology is only for big businesses. But, it has become evident with the growth in technology that artificial intelligence and machine learning have incorporated into our daily lives.

Artificial intelligence is used in a lot of our day-to-day activities such as digital assistants, self-driving vehicles, email filters, predictive searches, product recommendations, maps, or music recommendations. 

Applications of Artificial Intelligence

There are various applications of artificial intelligence, including –

• Healthcare industry – AI is greatly beneficial in the field of healthcare. With AI, professionals can reduce time and cost by executing processes quicker. It is also helpful for decision-making and research in the healthcare industry.
• Education – In the field of education, automated grading systems are designed and implemented using AI, making it easier and better for students as well as teachers.
• Social media – In the digital era, social media apps such as Instagram and Facebook are must-haves. When we use these apps, our data is stored and analyzed for each user to have a personalized experience.
• Tourism – In the tourism industry, AI drives predictive analytics which is used to understand and predict price patterns. With this, travelers can check when to get tickets if they want to travel somewhere.
• Autonomous vehicles – One of the biggest innovations in technology is self-driving or autonomous cars. AI is used in autonomous vehicles in various ways such as adjusting directions based on current traffic conditions for one to reach their destination the fastest.

AI is one of the hottest topics in 2021. With that, the demand for artificial intelligence engineers is increasing. Let’s take a look at the job profile and salary of an AI engineer.

An AI Engineer is responsible for building artificial intelligence models using machine learning algorithms. They are also responsible for using deep learning neural networks for drawing business insights, that are used to make business decisions for an organization. Depending on the goals they want to achieve, AI Engineers also create strong or weak AIs. To develop as well as maintain AI systems, AI Engineers use various tools and techniques.

The job profile of an AI engineer includes – 

• Building AI models from start for the benefit of different departments of the organization
• Automating infrastructure used by the data science team
• Setting up as well as managing the product infrastructure and development of artificial intelligence
• Converting ML models to APIs, for usage by other applications
• Performing statistical analysis for organizations to make business decisions using the tuned results

How to Become an AI Engineer?

If you are an aspiring AI Engineer, you should follow these steps to start your career

1. Consider getting a graduate degree – For kickstarting your career as an AI Engineer, you should consider getting a master’s degree in computer science, cognitive science, data science, or mathematics. It isn’t mandatory, however, it can help professionals develop their skill set as well as boost their earning potential. 
2. Certification course – There are several online AI training certifications and courses that you can pursue, to increase your skills and knowledge in the AI field.

Apart from the educational requirements and certificate courses, professionals also need to possess technical and business skills.

Skills Required by an AI Engineer

If you are a professional looking forward to becoming an AI Engineer, you’ll need various skills, including –

• Coding – Coding skills are a must for a professional aspiring to become an artificial intelligence engineer. Being skilled in programming languages such as Python, Java, C++, and R is essential for beginning one’s career in artificial intelligence.
• Statistics and probability – Apart from coding skills, one should also have knowledge of probability and statistics along with linear algebra. These skills come in handy when learning about different AI models such as Naïve Bayes, linear discriminant analysis, and Hidden Markov Models.
• Understanding of algorithms and frameworks – To execute machine learning models easily, AI engineers need to understand various ML algorithms such as Support Vector Machine or KNN. They also need to have a working knowledge of deep learning models such as recurrent neural networks or convolutional neural networks, to build and implement AI models. Deep learning algorithms can be executed using frameworks such as Theano or Caffe, hence, knowing frameworks is also essential.
• Big data and Spark – As an AI engineer, you will be working with heaps of data. Hence, you need to be proficient in big data technologies such as Spark. These include Cassandra, Hadoop, and MongoDB.
• Soft skills – Apart from technological skills, an AI engineer requires several soft skills such as being a team player and communication skills to become successful in their career.

Salary of AI Engineers in Top Countries

Since the career path of an AI engineer is one of the most lucrative options, all over the world, the demand for AI professionals is at an all-time high. Let’s take a look at the average salary of an AI engineer in the top countries –

1. India – In India, the average annual compensation for an AI engineer is around Rs. 8 lakh, for an entry-level position. As they move up the ladder, an AI engineer can expect a salary of about Rs. 50 lakh per annum.
2. US – In the United States, the average annual salary of an AI engineer is around $111,262 to $151,622 depending on the position.
3. UK – In the United Kingdom, the average salary of an AI engineer is £50,000-£60,000 per annum.
4. Canada – The average salary of an AI engineer in Canada is close to $92,000 to $123,099 (CAD) per annum.
5. Australia – In Australia, an AI engineer can expect to earn around AUD 90,000 to AUD 110,000 per annum.
6. Germany – An AI engineer can earn an average annual salary of around €85,000.
7. Singapore – The average annual compensation of an AI engineer in Singapore is around S$75,000.