What AI Developers Do

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping entire industries and redefining what's possible within the IT sector. With more and more news coming out about AI and each new capability it has, it’s expected to become curious about what an AI developer would bring to the table if they were to join your team. After all, AI is expected to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, according to a recent PwC report. This rapid growth has led to increased demand for skilled AI developers, so if you’re looking to hire one of these IT professionals, it’s about time to get informed on the subject. In this article, we'll explore the key responsibilities and essential skills of AI developers to give you a clearer understanding of how they could help your business grow. Ready to dive in? Keep reading to learn more about AI development!

What Is AI Software Development?

AI software development involves creating programs that can perform tasks typically requiring human intelligence. These tasks include recognizing speech, making decisions, and translating languages. At its core, AI software development is about building systems that can learn, adapt, and improve over time. This type of development usually centers around one question: What problem/gap are you trying to solve? For instance, you might want to automate customer service communications or analyze vast amounts of data for insights. Having a well-defined goal gives any AI development project a greater chance of success.

Naturally, data is at the core of AI development. Collecting and preprocessing data is crucial before you greenlight an AI-based project, as it must be accurate, relevant, and well-organized to drive the work forward. According to a report by IBM, poor data quality costs the US economy around $3.1 trillion annually - so let’s just say that high-quality data helps avoid costly errors. Model development is another great part of what AI projects really are all about. These models are built using machine learning algorithms, which allow the system to learn from previously recovered data. The most common techniques include supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning. Choosing the right model is key to achieving your project goals. 

Once the model is built, it needs to be trained. AI development involves feeding large datasets and tweaking parameters to different models in order to improve performance. Training can be resource-intensive, often requiring powerful GPUs and significant computational power before moving on to testing. At this stage, the model will run on new data to see how well it performs. It's a way to validate that your AI solution works in real-world scenarios before the final stage: deployment. Now, deploying AI models into production means integrating them into your existing systems. This might involve setting up APIs or using cloud services to ensure scalability and reliability. While it requires extra work, monitoring the model's performance post-deployment ensures it continues to meet business needs.

What Is an AI Developer?

An AI developer is a specialist who designs, builds, and implements artificial intelligence systems. Their role is crucial in creating intelligent applications that can automate tasks, analyze data, and make decisions. These sought-after IT professionals work on developing algorithms that allow machines to learn and adapt. These algorithms are the foundation of any AI system, enabling it to process information and improve its performance over time. To give you a practical example, an AI developer might create a recommendation system for an eCommerce platform to learn from user behavior to suggest products.

In order to complete your projects, AI developers utilize programming languages such as Python, R, and Java, and leverage frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch to build models for tasks like natural language processing, computer vision, and predictive analytics. AI developers collaborate with data scientists to preprocess and analyze large datasets, ensuring the quality and relevance of data used to train AI models. They also engage in continuous testing and refinement of these models to enhance their accuracy and efficiency. 

While this doesn’t fit your traditional job description, AI developers need to stay ahead of the latest advancements in the field, incorporating cutting-edge techniques and tools into their projects. They often work in interdisciplinary teams, applying AI solutions across various industries such as healthcare, finance, and robotics, aiming to solve complex problems and improve operational efficiency. Their role is critical in transforming theoretical AI concepts into practical, real-world applications that drive technical innovation.

What Does an AI Developer Do? Key Responsibilities of AI Developers 

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AI developers play a crucial role in transforming raw data into actionable insights and intelligent applications, and their usual tasks span various stages of AI project development, ensuring the creation of robust and efficient AI solutions. According to Indeed, the demand for AI skills has increased by 344% since 2013, highlighting the need to understand how they can benefit your organization, whether or not you should recruit them, and what you could ask them during an interview. Here are the key things an AI developer does:

1. Algorithm and Model Development:

 AI developers design and implement algorithms that enable machines to learn from data. They create models using techniques like machine learning and deep learning. These models are the foundation of AI systems that perform tasks such as image recognition, natural language processing, and predictive analytics.

2. Data Collection and Preprocessing: 

According to a survey by CrowdFlower, data preparation accounts for about 80% of the work in AI projects. This is an essential part of these professionals’ day-to-day work, as AI developers gather, clean, and preprocess data to ensure it is suitable for training models. This involves handling missing values, normalizing data, and transforming raw data into a format that the model can understand. 

3. Model Training and Optimization: 

Once data is prepared, AI developers train models by feeding them data and adjusting parameters to improve performance. This process is iterative and can be computationally intensive, using techniques like cross-validation and hyperparameter tuning to optimize models for accuracy and efficiency.

4. Integration and Deployment: 

AI models must be integrated into existing systems to be useful - so AI developers deploy models to production environments, ensuring they work seamlessly with other applications and infrastructure. This step often involves setting up APIs or using cloud services to make models accessible to end-users.

5. Monitoring and Maintenance: 

After deployment, AI models need continuous monitoring to ensure they perform as expected. AI developers track model performance, update models with new data, and troubleshoot any issues that arise. This ongoing maintenance is critical for adapting to changing data and maintaining model accuracy over time, as well as maintaining your applications or products functioning properly.

Typical Applications of AI Development in Various Industries

AI is transforming industries by enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and enabling new capabilities. Here are some key sectors where this type of software development is making the most significant impact:

Healthcare.

In healthcare, AI is changing the game when it comes to both diagnostics and treatment. AI-powered systems can analyze medical images with remarkable accuracy. For instance, a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that AI algorithms detected breast cancer with an accuracy of 94.5%, surpassing human radiologists. AI also assists in personalized medicine by analyzing patient data to recommend tailored treatment plans, improving the outcomes of thousands of patients.

Finance.

As expected, the finance industry leverages AI for risk management, fraud detection, and algorithmic trading. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to identify fraudulent transactions in real-time. According to a report by McKinsey, AI can potentially deliver up to $1 trillion of value annually in the banking sector. AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants can also enhance customer service by providing instant responses to queries, improving customer satisfaction.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing benefits from hiring AI developers through predictive maintenance and quality control. AI systems monitor machinery to predict failures before they occur, reducing downtime and maintenance costs. A study by Deloitte highlighted that predictive maintenance can reduce maintenance costs by 20% and extend the life of aging assets by 20%. AI also improves quality control by inspecting products for defects with greater accuracy than human inspectors.

Retail. 

In the retail industry, AI enhances customer experiences and optimizes supply chain operations. AI-powered recommendation engines analyze customer behavior to suggest products, boosting sales and customer satisfaction. A recent Accenture report showed that AI in retail has the potential to increase profitability by 59% by 2035 - on top of optimizing inventory management by predicting demand trends and reducing stockouts and excess inventory.

Transportation. 

The transportation sector first started utilizing AI to develop autonomous vehicles and traffic management systems. Today, self-driving cars, powered by AI, are becoming increasingly common. The same happened to management systems, which help analyze patterns and optimize signal timings, reducing congestion and attempting to keep car-generated emissions to a minimum.

Ready To Hire AI Developers? We Can Help!

There’s no doubt AI developers play a key role in shaping the future across various industries. Their expertise in building and maintaining intelligent systems is crucial for businesses looking to leverage AI for both growth and efficiency. At DevelopersLATAM, we believe in staying ahead of the curve and would be more than happy to help if you're looking to integrate AI into your operations. With an extensive network of skilled AI professionals, our team can provide the expertise needed to develop and deploy cutting-edge AI solutions tailored to your business needs. Whether you’re looking to hire AI developers or simply get some initial AI support, we’d love to assess your needs in detail during a free strategy call. Contact us today to learn more about our services!