Machine Learning vs AI Engineer: What Are the Differences?

An AI engineer is a software engineer who specializes in integrating large, foundational GenAI models like GPT into products, focusing on rapid deployment and application. In contrast, a machine learning engineer typically builds models from scratch for more specific tasks, such as fraud detection or recommendation systems. This distinction means ML engineers often require a stronger mathematical background in statistics and calculus, while AI engineers focus more on skills like prompt engineering, RAG, and API integration. While the roles have significant overlap in software engineering fundamentals, the choice depends on whether one prefers building products with existing tools (AI engineer) or developing algorithms from the ground up (ML engineer).