Best Career Paths in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning in India
As the technology scope in India speeds up, professions related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are becoming the most fascinating and fast-expanding ones. There is a massive demand for AI/ML professionals across various sectors and cities. Therefore, now is the perfect moment to get ready for careers in this field.
We will discuss the top AI/ML career paths in India 2025/26, main roles, what causes the industry to grow, and how to get ahead in the article.
Why focus on AI & ML careers in India?
- In India, there are thousands of job openings forMachine Learning (ML) engineers, Artificial Intelligence(AI) engineers, and other related positions. As an instance, more than 20,000 ML Engineer postings have been recorded in India.
- Change everywhere: the sectors of finance, retail, e-commerce, manufacturing, and health care are rapidly embracing AI/ML.
- Beyond generalist roles, there is a growing demand for specialised roles such as NLP, computer vision, and MLOps.
- The regular salaries and career ladders in India are turning out to be more appealing for AI/ML talent.
Therefore, if you are contemplating a career option or would like to shift to AI/ML, India is a market that has a lot of openings.
Key Career Paths in AI & ML
You can choose any of these top roles that you can target in the future, along with the different roles involved and the path to get there.
-
Data Scientist
- Role & focus: A Data Scientist digs into raw data, experiments with statistical and machine learning routines to find patterns, creates models, and aids in business decisions.
- Why it is important in India: When companies have so much data, they still have to hire people who make sense out of it.
- Typical progression: Junior Data Analyst → Data Scientist → Senior Data Scientist → Lead/ML Architect
- Skills needed: Python or R, statistics, machine learning, data visualisation, domain knowledge, storytelling.