Artificial intelligence (AI) is seeping into every part of society, which means a huge number of job opportunities.
AI development is the future. According to Accenture’s Technology Vision 2017 report, 85pc of executives plan to invest extensively in AI-related technologies in the next three years.
Based on the findings of its report, Accenture predicts that, in five years, more than half of companies’ customers will select their services based on AI instead of a brand.
With this in mind, it’s natural to expect companies to start pouring investment into building on their AI and, in turn, more jobs in AI development will appear.
However, while AI is advancing rapidly, it’s still relatively new and the jobs in AI development are only starting to develop themselves.
For those interested in a career in this field, it can be hard to know where to look, or even what kind of jobs there are in the sector.
Where are the AI jobs?
Accenture itself is a good place to start in terms of companies offering AI careers. Accenture Labs in Dublin aims to put the most innovative technologies to work, and it is constantly on the lookout for AI researchers, consultants and analysts.
Online retail giant Amazon is also investing in AI through its machine learning platform and Amazon Echo. Apple, Google, Salesforce and Twitter have all acquired several AI start-ups, highlighting their increasing interest in this sector.
As one of the leaders in AI and machine learning, IBM is another good place to look for research positions.
In 2015, Intel foresaw AI coming down the pipeline and bought Saffron Technology in 2015. Now, there are frequent positions available in AI development within the Saffron AI solutions group.
Earlier this year, AI firm InsideSales announced that it was coming to Ireland and is expected to hire as many as 120 people.
What are the jobs like?
When it comes to the jobs themselves, an AI or machine learning researcher would be expected to seek improvements to algorithms and find ways to apply it to new domains.
In AI software development, you would have to develop the systems that can apply machine learning to an input data set.
AI development is so broad that, depending on the kind of work you want to do, there are several layers you can approach. Do you want to be a programmer? A software developer? A data scientist? A robotics engineer?
If you want to chase the latest trends in AI for your career, data and machine learning should definitely be your first search. From a business point of view, AI development is veering towards data mining and analysis, in order to help companies identify key patterns.
Machine learning is a key skill for almost any career in AI development. That means you will probably need a computer science degree or equivalent qualification, a knowledge of probability and statistics, and programming or data science experience.
