Data Scientist vs AI Engineer: Career Guide for 2024

Here is a comparative guide for data scientist vs AI engineer

Data science and AI engineering are two of the most sought-after and lucrative careers in the tech industry. Both fields involve working with data and artificial intelligence, but they have different goals, skills, and responsibilities. In this article, we will compare and contrast data scientists and AI engineers based on their roles, responsibilities, skills, salaries, and prospects.

What is Data Science?

Data science is the process of drawing insightful and valuable conclusions from vast and diverse data collections. Data scientists use a wide range of tools and techniques to analyse data and deliver their results to stakeholders, including programming, statistics, mathematics, machine learning, cloud computing, and data visualisation.

What is AI Engineering?

AI engineering is the study of developing, assessing, testing, and deploying intelligent systems capable of performing tasks without the need for human intervention. The AI Engineer uses machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and other subfields of AI to design solutions that were previously thought to be unattainable.

Data Scientist vs AI Engineer: Roles and Responsibilities

Data scientists and AI engineers play distinct but complementary responsibilities throughout the data lifecycle. Data engineers lay the groundwork and structure for data, whereas data scientists utilise it to uncover insights and solutions.

Data Scientist Responsibilities

• Define business challenges and questions that can be solved using data.
• Collect, clean, and preprocess data from several sources.
• Analyze data using statistical and machine learning approaches.
• Create, train, and assess predictive and prescriptive models.
• Communicate data insights and suggestions to stakeholders.
• Deploy and manage data products and solutions.

AI Engineer Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain AI systems and architectures
• Implement the data extraction, ingestion, transformation, and loading (ETL) operations.
• Integrate data from various formats and sources.
• Optimize AI performance, scalability, and reliability
• Ensure AI quality, security, and compliance
• Support data scientists and analysts with AI access and queries

Data Scientist vs AI Engineer: Skills and Tools

Data scientists must have a solid foundation in mathematics, statistics, and machine learning, as well as coding and data visualisation abilities. AI engineers must have a strong background in computer science, software engineering, and database administration, as well as expertise in a variety of AI technologies and platforms.

Data Scientist Skills and Tools

• Mathematics: Linear algebra, calculus, probability, and optimization
• Statistics: Hypothesis testing, descriptive and inferential statistics and confidence intervals.
• Machine Learning: Supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning, classification, regression, clustering, dimensionality reduction, and feature engineering
• Programming: Python, R, SQL, and other scripting languages
• Data Visualization: Matplotlib, Plotly, Seaborn, Tableau, and other visualization tools
• Cloud Computing: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other cloud services
• Data Science Frameworks: Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras, and other machine learning libraries

AI Engineer Skills and Tools

• Computer Science: Data structures, algorithms, complexity, and design patterns
• Software Engineering: Object-oriented programming, debugging, testing, and version control
• Database Management: SQL, NoSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, and other database systems
• AI Technologies: Machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, natural language processing, speech recognition, and other AI subfields
• Programming: Python, Java, C++, and other high-level languages
• AI Frameworks: TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras, OpenCV, NLTK, and other AI libraries
• AI Platforms: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Watson, and other AI services

Data Scientist vs AI Engineer: Salaries and Prospects

Data scientists and AI engineers are among the highest-paid and most in-demand professionals in the tech industry. According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a data scientist is US$113,309, while the average salary for an AI engineer is US$114,121.

How to Become a Data Scientist or an AI Engineer?

To become a data scientist or an AI engineer, you need to have a strong foundation in mathematics, statistics, computer science, and AI, as well as practical skills in programming, data analysis, and AI development. You can acquire these skills through formal education, such as a bachelor's or master's degree in data science, computer science, AI, or a related field, or through online courses, boot camps, certifications, and self-study. You can find data science or AI projects on platforms like Kaggle, GitHub, or Coursera, or by participating in competitions, hackathons, or internships.

Conclusion

Data science and AI engineering are two exciting and rewarding careers that offer ample opportunities for learning and growth.