How to Transform your Career from Software Developer to AI Professional?

How to Transform your Career from Software Developer to AI Professional?
6 min read
27 September 2023

Artificial Intelligence, though newer technology has completely transformed many business operations across all industries.  There are some best AI chatbot tools that have been assisting professionals of all kinds, be it writers, researchers, healthcare professionals, and even software developers.

When we look at AI market, then according to Fortune Business Insights it is growing at a CAGR of 24.3% to reach a market value of $1.586 trillion by 2028. And according to Hootsuite, almost 34% companies globally are currently trying to adopt AI in their business operations and 42% are exploring to do the same.

This has led to an increasing demand of AI professionals and many software developers are also looking to switch to this career path. This article briefly discusses about how one can transform from being a software developer to an AI expert.

If we look closely at both these professions, then software development is little bit related to AI jobs in terms of day-to-day tasks performed and tools they both use. For many software developers, getting into AI job is one of the first preference for their career switch options. And there are several reasons behind it, such as:

  • The software developers have to just upgrade their existing skills
  • they can use the built in machine learning packages in Python and R that can be used for their AI or data science jobs
  • IT professionals like IT Architects and DevOps are best suited to switch to data science professionals as they already have experience of building and maintaining data pipelines enabling machine learning.

Now software developers have started using several AI tools that has made their software development task a breeze. The AI tools that we have briefly explained below, can generate codes, pull request summaries, automate maintenance, migrate code, and can even understand any codebase within seconds. This in turn helps them save a lot of time and effort that these professionals can utilize to upgrade their skill and move to next rewarding career path. Here, let us have a brief look at some of the game changing AI tools for software developers:

  1. Sourcegraph Cody: This AI assistant uses machine learning which can help you answer questions related to your entire codebase, documentation, and code graph.
  2. Stepsize AI: This is good for agile software project teams and proves very helpful for remote teams who face difficulty in communicating and project tracking.
  3. Mintlify: It can automatically generate code documentation saving lot of time for software developers
  4. ChatGPT: It is the most popular Generative AI tool currently that garnered more than 100million userbase in just two months of its launch. It can help generate codes, answer software development related questions, and can assist in your software development project.
  5. Otter: It is one of the most popular AI meeting assistant which can help record audio of meetings, write notes for you, capture slides, as well as generate summaries.

If you are a software developer and have not started using these great AI tools, then better try leveraging these in your work. Having knowledge of these can also help you advance in your career as AI experts. Let me tell you how to transition to an AI expert career.

Master the software knowledge

The first thing is to master what you are already doing. You should have a great command over programming language. You must be well-versed with writing the best-engineered code, must know how to debug when any kind of issue arises and should have an excellent data management abilities to switch to and succeed in Artificial Intelligence Career.

Make your foundation in AI strong

Switching career is a big decision, and switching to a new and advanced technology can be harder. Making your foundation strong with the Artificial Intelligence concepts is highly recommended, over which you can work upon and upgrade your AI skills. Learn about machine learning, foundational algorithms, deep learning, etc.

Make your domain knowledge stronger

You should have a better grasp of the industry you are working in. This includes understanding the business questions you are working to answer. You should also be able to listen about problems, and work out with other professionals in finding the right solution.

Enrolling in the right programs to switch career

With the help of graduate certificate courses in Artificial Intelligence, you will not only learn the AI skills and expertise but you will be able to validate your knowledge in front of the prospective employers. There are several artificial intelligence certification programs available online and offline that you can take advantage of such as certification from Harvard, USAII®, Yale University, Dartmouth College, IBM, Microsoft, etc.

Build Portfolio and Start networking

If you already have a great portfolio of real-world AI projects before applying to AI jobs, then it will give you an extra advantage. So build portfolio, network with other AI professionals, and start your job hunt.

That’s it!

Now that you know the perks of switching into AI career and have understood the process, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get started. Evaluate the skills you possess, list out the AI skills you want to learn, research about the best online artificial intelligence certification programs, and upgrade your career.

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Lucia adams 0
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