AI Engineer Salary- The Ultimate Guide for 2024

Want to become an AI Engineer? Check out this detailed AI Engineer salary guide to understand how much can you make as an AI engineer based on various factors- experience level, companies, and location.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) market will be worth 190 Billion USD by 2025.  As of June 2022, there are 18,380 open vacancies for AI Engineers in the United States, while India has 2,740 openings for the role of an AI Engineer. According to World Economic Forum (WEF), AI-enabled automation will add 133 million new jobs by the end of 2022. These statistics are clear indicators of the growth of AI engineer jobs.

Before we move on to the AI Engineer’s salary information, we will delve into the roles, responsibilities, and skills you need to possess. 

Who is an AI Engineer?

AI Engineer works with Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence techniques, such as Neural Networks, Natural Language Processing, etc., to develop AI-based systems and applications. Data Science is integral to the job responsibilities assigned to an AI Engineer. 

The job of an AI Engineer comes with many responsibilities, including data preparation, AI programming, algorithm design, data analytics, and a lot more. Once data preparation is complete, constructing Machine Learning-based models is an equally significant part of the job role. Machine Learning is one of the most important technologies in AI. As an AI Engineer, you will perform the following tasks and responsibilities: 

• Massive development of Machine Learning algorithms and predictive models as per business requirements

• Conduct experiments and tests on machine learning

• Prepare and analyze the data sets.

• Coordinate with the other teams, such as data management, information security, electrical engineering, etc., to integrate the AI modules

• Pattern matching, feature extraction, and pattern recognition 

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Skills Required to Become an AI Engineer

In the following two sections, we will cover the technical and non-technical skills necessary to become a successful artificial intelligence engineer.

Technical Skills Required to Become an AI Engineer

• Programming Skills: You need good knowledge and understanding of object-oriented programming languages, such as Python, Java, R, C++, etc. These languages are easy to learn, and understanding multiple knowledge will broaden your capabilities. 

• Linear Algebra, Statistics, Calculus: You must develop a good understanding of key concepts of Linear Algebra, Statistics, and Calculus. You may have to use vectors, matrix multiplication, derivation, and integrals in your AI engineer job. Statistical concepts and models, such as Gaussian Distributions, Naïve Bayes, Hidden Markov Model, and Standard Deviations, are also significant to have an edge in the AI market. 

• Algorithm Theory and Applied Maths: You also need solid algorithm theory expertise. Skills in applied maths and algorithms will enable you to understand the subjects and areas such as Quadratic Programming, Gradient Descent, and Summations. 

• Signal Processing Techniques: It will be crucial for feature extraction. It will enable you to perform time-frequency analysis and advanced signal processing algorithms. 

• Language, Audio, and Video Processing: These skills will allow you to work with two critical work areas under AI. These are linguistics and computer science, such as text, audio, or video using natural language processing. 

• Reinforcement learning and computer vision are also the areas you can explore and should expand your skills to land an AI Engineer job. 

As an AI Engineer, you can work on several AI technologies and neural networks are one such area playing a pivotal role in the field of AI. You need to be well versed with the neural network and deep learning architectures to solve speech recognition, translation, image classification problems, etc. 

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Non-Technical Skills Required to Become an AI Engineer

As a professional, you shall have domain knowledge of the organization you will be associated with in the future. For example, banking organizations are actively incorporating AI into their infrastructure. The same goes well with the education or healthcare sector. Domain knowledge of such sectors will be vital for successfully executing the AI-based applications and programs per the respective workflows and lifecycle. 

Regarding non-technical skill-set, communication is the key skill in a professional role, and the role of an AI Engineer is not an exception. You will work with diverse teams and stakeholders, and communication will be significant to work effectively. Similarly, analytical, team-building, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills are essential.  

AI Engineer Salary - What’s the Average Artificial Intelligence Engineer Salary?

AI Engineer salaries vary based on experience and the job location, and also, the compensation may vary from one organization to the other for the same role. We will cover the salaries offered by some of the market giants and then continue to cover these details based on the countries and experience levels. 

AI Engineer Salary – By Experience

ArtificiaI Intelligence Engineer starting salary is undoubtedly higher than the salary of other enter-level roles in IT, such as Software Engineer, Software Developer, etc. You can look for AI Engineer Salaries on Glassdoor or AI Engineer Salaries on Paysa to easily observe the difference. Within the field of AI, the AI Engineer’s salary is not the same as AI Research Engineer’s Salary or AI Machine Learning Engineer’s Salary.

AI Engineer starting salary and AI Engineer senior-level salary has a vast difference. According to Glassdoor, the average salary of an AI Engineer in the United States is $119,297, and the figure can drop to $78,000 and go as high as $150,000 or more.

In every professional role, salaries tend to increase with experience, and this is because the skill set expands with real-world experience in the role. The salary of an ArtificiaI Intelligence Engineer with 10+ years of experience is more than the individual with five years of experience.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an emerging technology with a massive scope. Combining AI with other technological skills can also make a significant difference. For example, as per NY Times, AI professionals with just a few years of experience and a good skill set can earn an average base salary between $300,000 and $500,000 per annum. The demand for AI professionals is increasing daily, and there is a large set of opportunities for entry-level, mid-level, and senior-level professionals.

Professionals looking to start their careers often have several questions about the entry-level salary for an AI Engineer as one of the prominent ones. We have classified the artificial intelligence engineer salary bracket based on the years of experience to answer all such questions.

Junior/Entry-Level AI Engineer Salary

This group includes professionals looking to start their careers in AI. It divides into two groups. The first group consists of freshers with no professional experience. These include college students who have completed their academic studies and are willing to join organizations as artificial intelligence engineers. The second set comprises professionals with a few years of experience, primarily in IT. They may be looking to upskill and switch from an existing role to the role of an AI Engineer. In both cases, the professional experience of working as an AI Engineer is limited or not present at all. However, they may have completed AI internships or artificial intelligence courses with relevant backgrounds and knowledge of AI and associated technologies.

The annual entry-level AI engineer salary ranges between $53,579-$1,84,575, with the average being $99,445/year.

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Mid-Level AI Engineer Salary

This is the group of professionals already working in AI and similar fields. They may have three to eight years of experience as AI engineers, Machine Learning engineers, or any other data science roles. Since these professionals have real-world experience in AI and impressive skills, they get a higher salary compared to entry-level professionals. These professionals may already be equipped with the skills in data analysis, data visualization, data migration, data modeling, etc. They may also have skills and experience in deep learning, natural language processing, neural networks, etc. The demand for mid-level AI Engineers is massive. Mid-Level AI professionals can, therefore, demand a salary hike of up to 80% owing to their skills and experience. The hike in other roles is usually in the range of 20-30%. 

The average base salary of a mid-level AI Engineer is $100,000 to $150,580.

Senior AI Engineer Salary

This is a group of professionals with over ten years of experience in the field of AI. Since AI is still an extremely novel technology, finding professionals in this bracket is not easy. Most of the professionals are still new to the technology.  However, the ones who started early on can assist the organizations in expanding their AI infrastructure and convert the organization to a scalable and innovative business firm. The demand for senior-level AI Engineers is prominent in fields such as banking and finance, automobile, e-commerce, healthcare, and many others. 

Senior AI engineer salary range lies anywhere between $150,000 to $200,000. The figure can further increase with added benefits and with the presence of other skills in machine learning, Business Intelligence, etc.

Thus, the AI Engineer salary range based on experience in the US is as follows:

• Entry-level: Between $53,579-$1,84,575, with the average being $99,445/year.
• Mid-level: Between $100,000 to $150,580.
• Senior-level: Between  $150,000 to $200,000.

AI Engineer Salary – By Company

The above table includes a list of the top companies offering multiple roles in the field of AI. The salaries included are average salaries with entry to intermediate levels of experience in AI. We have used sources, such as Glassdoor, organizations’ websites, Indeed, etc., to provide you with the authentic figures as illustrated in the images below. 

Leaders in the cloud market offer interesting opportunities for AI. Amazon, for example, is a leader in the field of Cloud Computing. The company offers consumer and business-oriented AI services and products, leading to numerous job vacancies for AI Engineers and other roles. Amazon Echo, for instance, has brought AI in personal assistants for the users in the form of Alexa. Lex, Polly, and Rekognition are other significant AI-based services. Google is also a leader in AI and data analytics and has acquired several AI start-ups in the last few years. Google Cloud also sells several AI and Machine Learning services to the business. Tensor AI Chip project is an interesting AI-based project by Google. 

IBM has been a technology giant for several decades and has been actively working in the area of AI. IBM Watson is the AI-based cognitive service by the company. It provides AI software-as-a-service to the end-users to deliver cloud-based analytics and AI services. The strong cloud platform of IBM enables it to provide exception AI services to its customers. 

Microsoft is another major name in the tech market, offering a combination of consumer and business-oriented AI services and applications. Cortana is a digital assistant by Microsoft and is now available for Smartphones, and Chatbot Zo is an interesting AI-based application. Microsoft Azure is a widely used cloud service that provides significant opportunities for AI Engineers to explore. 

Nvidia is also working extensively in AI and Machine Learning. The technological model of the organization relies on the further development of the GPUs using AI technologies combined with cloud frameworks. One of the target areas for the company is autonomous vehicles. 

Google AI Engineer Salary

• The average annual Google AI Engineer salary is $1,11,005 in the US, while the average annual income for Google AI engineers in India ranges between ₹1,90,430 - ₹2,06,939 per annum.

• The average base salary for a Google artificial intelligence engineer is between $70,000 and $150,000 per year.

Azure AI Engineer Salary

The average Azure AI engineer salary in the United States is $166,650 per year, with salaries typically ranging from $140,000 to $212,500 per year.

Microsoft AI Engineer Salary

In the United States, the average Microsoft AI Engineer salary is $134,357, while the range is often between $115,883 and $150,799.

Amazon AI Engineer Salary

In the United States, the average yearly compensation for a Lead AI Engineer at firms like AMAZON.COM INC is $178,614, with the lowest income being $148,746 and the maximum salary being $200,950.

Tesla AI Engineer Salary

Automobile industries are actively working in the field of AI with large-scale testing and experiments on self-driving vehicles. Tesla and Volvo are two market giants in this sector. The average annual Tesla AI Engineer salary in the USA is $219,122, while the salary of a Computer Vision Engineer at Tesla, USA, is USD 121,753 on average. AI Software Development Engineer's salary varies depending on the experience level, work profile, and job location. 

AI Engineer Salary – By Location

Currently, AI engineering is among the most lucrative career paths globally. As covered earlier, the Artificial Intelligence jobs market is aggressively growing with an increase in the demand for artificial intelligence engineers in the United States, India, China, the UK, and other parts of the world. However, the salary details will differ if you look for AI Engineer jobs based on the specific location. The difference in the salaries depends on several factors, including the country's tech market, currency rate, employment rate, tax structure, etc.

United States, Europe, Germany, Canada, China, India, and United Kingdom are some of the top countries you can explore if you have an interest in artificial intelligence (AI) career opportunities.

AI Engineer Salary in US

• According to Glassdoor, the average pay for an Artificial Intelligence Engineer in the United States is $119,297 annually.

• In the United States, the average compensation for a Lead ArtificiaI Intelligence Engineer is $164,014; however, the range is typically between $151,909 and $183,173.

• The average annual salary for artificial intelligence engineers in the US is around $11,878.

• As per Indeed's research, the average artificial intelligence engineer’s salary in the US is $132,807 per year.

• The San Francisco Bay Area stands out regarding high salaries, with average salaries reaching $139k per year, while Los Angeles offers the lowest salary at $95k per year.

AI Engineer Salary in India

• The annual average salary for an artificial intelligence engineer in India is ₹9,40,436, according to Glassdoor. Their average pay is higher than the machine learning engineer salary in India, which is ₹8,38,399 per year.

• According to AmbitionBox, AI engineer salaries in India range from ₹3,30,000 to ₹24,20,000, with an average yearly income of 8.3 lakhs.

AI Engineer Salary UK

• In the United Kingdom, an AI Engineer's income normally ranges from £93,267 to £29,283, with the average compensation being £52,260 annually.

• If you search for ‘AI Engineer salary London’, you will see that London offers a higher pay which normally flows from £1,07,598 to £36,426 per year, with the average salary being £62,605.

AI Engineer Salary in Canada

The Artificial Intelligence Engineer’s salary in Canada normally ranges from CA$1,55,900 to CA$68,014 per year, with an average annual salary of CA$1,02,973.

AI Engineer Salary Singapore

In Singapore, the average monthly income for an AI Engineer is SGD 5,000, with the highest being SGD 6,470 and the lowest being SGD 3,740.

AI Engineer Salary Malaysia

The average monthly income for an artificial intelligence engineer in Malaysia is MYR 4,000, with the highest being MYR 5,900 and the lowest being MYR 3,240.

AI Engineer Salary Australia

In Australia, an artificial intelligence engineer earns an average yearly pay of A$95,500, with salaries ranging from A$1,06,000 to A$85,000 per year.

How to Hone Your AI Skills?

The salary details of an artificial intelligence engineer are fascinating. However, a lot of hard work and dedication are necessary to build an impressive portfolio in AI. To begin a career in Artificial Intelligence (AI), you need to determine the specific role you wish to take up. For example, an AI Engineer's role differs from that of an AI Research Engineer. Qualification is important to be eligible for the role you select, and most companies prefer a master’s degree in Computer Science/Information Technology/Mathematics/Cognitive Science, etc.

Artificial Intelligence Engineer is one of the tech roles with massive opportunities and spectacular compensation. Even at the entry level, the salaries offered by the companies like Google, IBM, Ford, Nvidia, and others are higher than the other tech roles. AI is a huge market in the UK, US, Europe, India, China, and many other countries.  You can obtain an edge in the AI market with adequate technical expertise and skills combined with domain knowledge, communication abilities, and analytical skills. Organizations are looking to hire candidates with diverse skill-set. The best way to hone your AI skills is to build a project portfolio on novel tools and technologies in AI, Data Science, Cloud Computing, etc. ProjectPro's data science and machine learning projects have been vetted and created along with industry experts from Uber, JPMorgan, and Paypal. This ensures relevance in the big data and analytics industry and provides the content that matters the most for mastering artificial intelligence skills.

FAQs on AI Engineer Salary

1. What is the monthly salary of AI engineer?

The monthly average salary of an AI engineer is $9,941 in the US and ₹78k in India.

2. Are AI engineers rich?

AI engineers are rich since their average salary ranges between $115K and $201K per annum.

3. Is AI engineer a good career?

AI engineer is a good career as there is a growing demand for AI professionals worldwide. Furthermore, the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts a 31.4 percent growth in data science and mathematical science jobs, which are crucial to AI, by 2030.

4. Are AI Engineers in Demand?

AI Engineers are in great demand as there are over 50k job openings in the US. Moreover, artificial intelligence engineers will continue to be in demand in the coming years, considering the rising demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning.

5. Which country is best for AI Jobs?

The USA is definitely one of the best countries for AI jobs as it pays a lucrative salary to AI experts.

6. Which country pays the highest salary to AI Engineers?

The USA pays the highest salaries to AI engineers as the AI salary range in the US lies between  $115,000 to $201,038 per annum.

7. Is AI Engineering Hard? 

AI Engineering is hard only if you are not proficient in the essential AI skills and knowledge, however, everything becomes easier if you have the right resources. So, try gaining expertise in AI and other skills necessary for entering the field of AI engineering.

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