{"id":100546,"date":"2026-03-09T11:56:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T06:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/?p=100546"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:38:14","slug":"ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/","title":{"rendered":"ML Engineer vs AI Engineer: Salary &#038; Career Path"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_76 ez-toc-wrap-left counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #ea7e02;color:#ea7e02\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #ea7e02;color:#ea7e02\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#ML_Engineer_vs_AI_Engineer_on_AWS_Certification_Skills_Salary_Comparison\" >ML Engineer vs AI Engineer on AWS: Certification, Skills &amp; Salary Comparison<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#What_Is_the_Difference_Between_an_ML_Engineer_and_an_AI_Engineer\" >What Is the Difference Between an ML Engineer and an AI Engineer?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#AWS_AI_vs_ML_Roles_in_2026\" >AWS AI vs ML Roles in 2026<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#1_Responsibilities\" >1. Responsibilities<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#2_Tools\" >2. Tools<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#3_Cloud_Services\" >3. Cloud Services<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#4_Business_Use_Cases\" >4. Business Use Cases<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#AWS_ML_Engineer_Certification_vs_AWS_AI_Certification\" >AWS ML Engineer Certification vs AWS AI Certification<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#AWS_MLA-C01\" >AWS MLA-C01<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#AI_Practitioner\" >AI Practitioner<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#What_Skills_are_Required_for_AWS_ML_Engineer_and_AI_Engineer_Certification\" >What Skills are Required for AWS ML Engineer and AI Engineer Certification?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-12\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#Skills_required_for_an_AWS_ML_engineer\" >Skills required for an AWS ML engineer<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-13\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#Skills_required_for_an_AI_engineer\" >Skills required for an AI engineer<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-14\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#AI_Engineer_Salary_vs_AWS_Machine_Learning_Salary_2026\" >AI Engineer Salary vs AWS Machine Learning Salary 2026<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-15\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#AWS_AI_Career_Path_Roadmap\" >AWS AI Career Path Roadmap<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-16\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#AI_Engineer_vs_ML_Engineer_Which_is_Better_for_You\" >AI Engineer vs ML Engineer: Which is Better for You?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-17\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#Choose_the_AI_Engineer_if\" >Choose the AI Engineer if:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-18\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#Choose_the_ML_Engineer_if\" >Choose the ML Engineer if:<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-19\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-salary-career-path\/#FAQs\" >FAQs<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"ML_Engineer_vs_AI_Engineer_on_AWS_Certification_Skills_Salary_Comparison\"><\/span><b>ML Engineer vs AI Engineer on AWS: Certification, Skills &amp; Salary Comparison<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-100546-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AWS_Machine_Learning_vs_AI_Engineering.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AWS_Machine_Learning_vs_AI_Engineering.mp3\">https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AWS_Machine_Learning_vs_AI_Engineering.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ML engineers and AI engineers are closely related. That\u2019s why it is common for professionals to confuse the two. They are a part of the same digital world, but some important differences set them apart.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An ML engineer is a professional who trains the model, whereas an AI engineer builds the intelligent systems using that model.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is important to break down the nuance of <\/span><b>ML engineer vs AI engineer <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to head in the right direction. This is important for a professional exploring a career within the Amazon Web Services (AWS) ecosystem. Understanding the difference helps you choose the right path, hone your skills, and grow your career trajectory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This article outlines the roles, use cases, and why one in particular might be a better fit for you. It also compares the certifications, required skills, and salary differences for both.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_Is_the_Difference_Between_an_ML_Engineer_and_an_AI_Engineer\"><\/span><b>What Is the Difference Between an ML Engineer and an AI Engineer?<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To understand how they differ, let\u2019s start from the basics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ML (Machine Learning) is a part of AI that makes your regular interactions easier without you even realising. For instance, Netflix recommends movies that you might like to watch, or YouTube recommends videos that you\u2019d be interested in. That\u2019s machine learning. It focuses on systems that learn from data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AI (Artificial Intelligence) is a broad ecosystem that focuses on creating machines that mimic human behaviour, like recognising images and sending responses. For example, ChatGPT understands your questions, searches for relevant information, and answers queries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An ML engineer builds and optimises models.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An AI engineer designs and deploys intelligent systems that may or may not include ML models.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Below is a list of differences to help you understand:<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Aspect<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>ML Engineer<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>AI Engineer<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Primary Role<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Improves model accuracy<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Builds end-to-end intelligent solutions<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS Services Used<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amazon SageMaker, AWS data storage and processing services<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amazon Bedrock, Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, AWS Lambda<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Certification Path<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer \u2013 Associate<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS Certified AI Practitioner<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Skills Required<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Understanding of ML algorithms, software engineering best practices, monitoring cloud and on-premises ML resources<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Understanding of AWS Identity and Access Management, building AI pipelines and infrastructure, and conducting analysis<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Career Direction<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS Certified Machine Learning \u2013 Speciality<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS Certified Solutions Architect \u2013 Associate<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use Cases<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data preprocessing, ML pipelines, time series analysis, and model deployment<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Designing AI system, testing and validation, and continuous monitoring<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To better understand how you can contribute to the company as an AI engineer or ML engineer, it is important to know how <\/span><b>AWS AI vs. ML roles <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">differ.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-100554\" src=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Key-Differences-ML-Engineer-vs-AI-Engineer-on-AWS.webp\" alt=\"Differences ML Engineer vs AI Engineer on AWS\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1158\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Key-Differences-ML-Engineer-vs-AI-Engineer-on-AWS.webp 2048w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Key-Differences-ML-Engineer-vs-AI-Engineer-on-AWS-300x170.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Key-Differences-ML-Engineer-vs-AI-Engineer-on-AWS-1024x579.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Key-Differences-ML-Engineer-vs-AI-Engineer-on-AWS-768x434.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Key-Differences-ML-Engineer-vs-AI-Engineer-on-AWS-1536x869.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Key-Differences-ML-Engineer-vs-AI-Engineer-on-AWS-150x85.webp 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"AWS_AI_vs_ML_Roles_in_2026\"><\/span><b>AWS AI vs ML Roles in 2026<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although both are crucial in the model designing and deployment process, the roles significantly differ when comparing an <\/span><b>ML engineer vs. AI engineer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Responsibilities\"><\/span><b>1. Responsibilities<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re wondering what your commitments are as an AI engineer or ML engineer? Below are your scope of roles and responsibilities:<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>AI Engineer<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As an AI engineer, your focus is on deploying models faster by using pre-existing tools. You may use Amazon Bedrock and don\u2019t need to train the models yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On AWS, you must know how to use Amazon Bedrock and related AI services to build intelligent solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It reduces the workload on ML engineers substantially, as you are using pre-trained foundation models, so nothing has to be done from scratch.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Other responsibilities include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Focus on integration, API usage, and GenAI workflows.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Understand project goals and stakeholder expectations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customise and fine-tune models to match the company&#8217;s requirements.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Integrate AI models into applications.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ensure that the systems work accurately.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Work cohesively with teams to align AI solutions with company goals.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>ML Engineer<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As an ML engineer, your job is to build and maintain ML systems. You are also responsible for everything from start to finish. At first, you\u2019ll need to find the right data, clean it up to make it usable, and then test and train models to make them more accurate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On AWS, you must know how to use Amazon core services like SageMaker to build, train, and deploy scalable models.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You are expected to know how to transform raw information into actionable insights. The main responsibilities include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Structure and clean data for easy understanding.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assess model performance to align it with business goals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Integrate new models into existing applications.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Automate workflow so existing models can be retrained with new datasets.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Track performance to timely identify and resolve issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_Tools\"><\/span><b>2. Tools<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Below is a list of tools that you should be familiar with:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-100562\" src=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineers-vs-ML-Engineers.webp\" alt=\"AI Engineers vs ML Engineers\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1006\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineers-vs-ML-Engineers.webp 2048w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineers-vs-ML-Engineers-300x147.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineers-vs-ML-Engineers-1024x503.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineers-vs-ML-Engineers-768x377.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineers-vs-ML-Engineers-1536x755.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineers-vs-ML-Engineers-150x74.webp 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/p>\n<h4><b>AI Engineer<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As an AI engineering expert, you must have an understanding of the following tools:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Programming languages like Python, C++, and Java to build scalable solutions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AI services like Amazon SageMaker, Transcribe, Translate, Comprehend, Lex, and Polly.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS features like SageMaker JumpStart, Bedrock PartyRock, Amazon Q, and Bedrock Data Automation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Retrieval Augmented Generation and its business applications.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS services that help in storing embeddings, such as OpenSearch Service, Amazon Aurora, Amazon Neptune, and Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>ML Engineer<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As an <\/span><b>AWS MLA-C01 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">certification holder, you are expected to have a complete understanding of the following tools:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data formats like Apache Parquet, JSON, CSV, Apache ORC, Apache Avro, and RecordIO.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Core services like Amazon S3, Amazon Elastic File System [Amazon EFS], and Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS streaming data sources like Amazon Kinesis, Apache Flink, and Apache Kafka.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tools like SageMaker Data Wrangler, AWS Glue, and AWS Glue DataBrew explore and transform data.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS Lambda and Spark to transform streaming data.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solve business problems by using AWS AI services like Amazon Translate, Amazon Transcribe, Amazon Rekognition, and Amazon Bedrock.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Validate and label data via SageMaker Ground Truth and Amazon Mechanical Turk.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-100557\" src=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/How-ML-Engineers-and-AI-Engineers-Work-Together-on-AWS.webp\" alt=\"How ML Engineers and AI Engineers Work Together on AWS\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1158\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/How-ML-Engineers-and-AI-Engineers-Work-Together-on-AWS.webp 2048w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/How-ML-Engineers-and-AI-Engineers-Work-Together-on-AWS-300x170.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/How-ML-Engineers-and-AI-Engineers-Work-Together-on-AWS-1024x579.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/How-ML-Engineers-and-AI-Engineers-Work-Together-on-AWS-768x434.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/How-ML-Engineers-and-AI-Engineers-Work-Together-on-AWS-1536x869.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/How-ML-Engineers-and-AI-Engineers-Work-Together-on-AWS-150x85.webp 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_Cloud_Services\"><\/span><b>3. Cloud Services<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The difference between an <\/span><b>AI engineer vs. ML engineer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> becomes clearer if you know how to leverage cloud services in each role:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-100560\" src=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineer-vs-ML-Engineer-Cloud-Workflow-on-AWS.webp\" alt=\"AWS ML Engineer-Certification vs AWS AI Certification \" width=\"2048\" height=\"1118\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineer-vs-ML-Engineer-Cloud-Workflow-on-AWS.webp 2048w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineer-vs-ML-Engineer-Cloud-Workflow-on-AWS-300x164.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineer-vs-ML-Engineer-Cloud-Workflow-on-AWS-1024x559.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineer-vs-ML-Engineer-Cloud-Workflow-on-AWS-768x419.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineer-vs-ML-Engineer-Cloud-Workflow-on-AWS-1536x839.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AI-Engineer-vs-ML-Engineer-Cloud-Workflow-on-AWS-150x82.webp 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/p>\n<h4><b>AI Engineer<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As an AI engineer, you don\u2019t build models from scratch. Rather, the focus is on choosing, customising, and improving existing models. Your cloud use involves:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Focus on service integration and APIs<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Minimal requirement for infrastructure management<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quick deployment using managed and serverless AI services<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Focus on application-layer AI<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>ML Engineer<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a Machine Learning engineer, you will work more closely with cloud-based services to build, train, and fine-tune models at large. Here is how you would use cloud services regularly:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Build preprocessing pipelines and data ingestion<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manage and compute training infrastructure<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monitor and upgrade model versions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Optimise CPU\/GPU usage for training purposes<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"4_Business_Use_Cases\"><\/span><b>4. Business Use Cases<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To understand whether an AI engineer profession is better suited for you than an ML engineer, or vice versa, below are the practical examples that highlight how you can be of use to a company:<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>AI Engineer<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Future-driven companies prefer AI engineers to streamline their workflow and speed up GenAI integration. Your <\/span><b>AWS AI certification <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will come in handy for the following purposes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creating chatbots to automate customer service. This is especially important for e-commerce platforms.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use sensor data to build autonomous vehicles so they can navigate themselves.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scan real-time transactions to identify fraud and unauthorised transactions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create AI-powered tools for quicker diagnosis and patient care.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>ML Engineer<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ML Engineers are in huge demand and already rank among the <\/span><a title=\"top 10 jobs\" href=\"https:\/\/www.coursera.org\/articles\/what-is-machine-learning-engineer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>top 10 jobs<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> globally. Here is how you can leverage your expertise and skills in an organisation:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Design recommendation systems, i.e., suggesting products or services for consumer convenience.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Design data-driven solutions that can quickly detect financial fraud.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Predict churn rate so service executives can retain customers.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"AWS_ML_Engineer_Certification_vs_AWS_AI_Certification\"><\/span><b>AWS ML Engineer Certification vs AWS AI Certification<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>AWS MLA-C01 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and AIF-C01 certifications validate your knowledge and skills in building, deploying, and integrating intelligent solutions into an existing business environment. Below is a quick overview of how the two differ from each other and what skills are required to acquire your desired certification.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-100559\" src=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AWS-ML-Engineer-Certification-vs-AWS-AI-Certification-AWS-Certification-Roadmap-for-AI-Engineers-and-ML-Engineers.webp\" alt=\"AWS ML Engineer-Certification vs AWS AI Certification Roadmap\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AWS-ML-Engineer-Certification-vs-AWS-AI-Certification-AWS-Certification-Roadmap-for-AI-Engineers-and-ML-Engineers.webp 2048w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AWS-ML-Engineer-Certification-vs-AWS-AI-Certification-AWS-Certification-Roadmap-for-AI-Engineers-and-ML-Engineers-300x220.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AWS-ML-Engineer-Certification-vs-AWS-AI-Certification-AWS-Certification-Roadmap-for-AI-Engineers-and-ML-Engineers-1024x750.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AWS-ML-Engineer-Certification-vs-AWS-AI-Certification-AWS-Certification-Roadmap-for-AI-Engineers-and-ML-Engineers-768x563.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AWS-ML-Engineer-Certification-vs-AWS-AI-Certification-AWS-Certification-Roadmap-for-AI-Engineers-and-ML-Engineers-1536x1125.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AWS-ML-Engineer-Certification-vs-AWS-AI-Certification-AWS-Certification-Roadmap-for-AI-Engineers-and-ML-Engineers-150x110.webp 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"AWS_MLA-C01\"><\/span><b>AWS MLA-C01<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earning the <\/span><a title=\"AWS ML Associate Engineer certification\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/aws-certified-machine-learning-engineer-associate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-schema-attribute=\"about mentions\"><b>AWS ML Associate Engineer certification<\/b><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is the first step to being eligible for your dream job as a Machine Learning engineer. It validates your technical ability to build, operationalise, and deploy ML solutions using AWS cloud services.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>Skill Depth<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The exam validates your ability to:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Absorb, validate, and prepare data for machine learning modelling.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Choose general modelling solutions, train models, and continuously analyse performance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Select deployment architecture and endpoints, and configure auto-scaling as per the requirements.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monitor data, model, and infrastructure to identify any issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Implement the best practices, access controls, and compliance to secure the ML resources and systems.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>Difficulty Level<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>AWS ML Engineer certification <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is an associate-level certification, but expects at least 1 year of experience in ML engineering or a related field. It also requires at least 1 year of hands-on experience working with AWS services.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"AI_Practitioner\"><\/span><b>AI Practitioner<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a title=\"AIF-C01\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/aws-certified-ai-practitioner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-schema-attribute=\"about mentions\"><strong>AIF-C01<\/strong> <\/a>is the <\/span><b>best AWS certification for AI engineers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, validating your foundational knowledge of AI concepts and AWS tools. It focuses on whether you can practically apply AI for business applications.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>Skill Depth<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The certification exam also validates your ability to:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Demonstrate conceptual understanding of AI, ML, and GenAI, along with methods and strategies to use them on AWS.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Identify the right way of implementing AI, ML, and GenAI concepts to solve business challenges.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Understand how to apply AI, ML, and GenAI technologies to suitable business use cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use the AI, ML, and GenAI technologies responsibly.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>Difficulty Level<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ideal candidate should have up to 6 months of experience working with AI and ML on AWS. This is a foundational certification, so you don\u2019t necessarily need to know how to build AI and ML solutions on the Amazon Web Services.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Start your journey from <\/span><a title=\"Developer to Engineer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/developer-to-ai-engineer-aws-ai-career-path\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-schema-attribute=\"about mentions\"><b>Developer to Engineer<\/b><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to boost your AWS career path in 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_Skills_are_Required_for_AWS_ML_Engineer_and_AI_Engineer_Certification\"><\/span><b>What Skills are Required for AWS ML Engineer and AI Engineer Certification?<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>AWS ML<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>AWS AI certification comparison <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is essential for assessing the right skills before you attempt the exams.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Skills_required_for_an_AWS_ML_engineer\"><\/span><b>Skills required for an AWS ML engineer<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ideal candidate for the certification should have the following knowledge:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SageMaker capabilities to build and deploy models<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS data storage and processing to prepare model data<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deploying applications on AWS<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monitoring tools to log in and troubleshoot ML systems<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Automate CI\/CD pipelines<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS security best practices to identify and access management, data protection, and encryption<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Skills_required_for_an_AI_engineer\"><\/span><b>Skills required for an AI engineer<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Possessing the following skills are essential to acquire the AWS AI engineer certification:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Core AWS services and their use cases<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS shared responsibility for security and compliance<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS Identity and Access Management to secure access to AWS resources<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AWS service pricing models for 100% transparency<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"AI_Engineer_Salary_vs_AWS_Machine_Learning_Salary_2026\"><\/span><b>AI Engineer Salary vs AWS Machine Learning Salary 2026<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>AI engineer salary at AWS<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the ML engineer salary<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">not only depend on the experience but also on the geographical location. Below is a quick comparison:<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Region<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>AI Engineer Salary<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>ML Engineer Salary<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>USA<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$140,000 \u2013 $220,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$150,000 \u2013 $240,000<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Canada<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CAD 110,000 \u2013 180,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CAD 120,000 \u2013 200,000<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Australia<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AUD 130,000 \u2013 210,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AUD 100,000 \u2013 200,000<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>United Kingdom<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a343,000 \u2013 \u00a377,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a335,000 \u2013 \u00a380,000<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>India<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u20b96 \u2013 \u20b910 LPA<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u20b910 \u2013 \u20b918 LPA<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"AWS_AI_Career_Path_Roadmap\"><\/span><b>AWS AI Career Path Roadmap<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both AI engineer and ML engineer job roles are in demand. While the ML engineering jobs are expected to reach<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/outlook\/tmo\/artificial-intelligence\/machine-learning\/worldwide#market-size\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>$503.40 billion<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by <\/span><b>2030<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the AI engineering market is also growing at a good pace. The numbers directly imply that harnessing your skills can instantly boost your career profile and credibility, making you a suitable candidate in a huge pool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>If you specialise in AI engineering skills, you can choose the following paths:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Computer vision engineer<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NLP engineer<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Robotics engineer<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AI research scientist<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AI product manager<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AI consultant<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>If you are an ML enthusiast, here are the career options for you:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data scientist<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data engineer<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Business intelligence developer<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NLP engineer<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Computer vision engineer<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"AI_Engineer_vs_ML_Engineer_Which_is_Better_for_You\"><\/span><b>AI Engineer vs ML Engineer: Which is Better for You?<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first step towards achieving your dreams is choosing the right field for you between <\/span><b>ML engineer vs AI engineer.<\/b><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Choose_the_AI_Engineer_if\"><\/span><b>Choose the AI Engineer if:<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You enjoy a fast-paced learning environment and have experience in software engineering. The field is ideal for you if you love building new applications from predefined foundation models.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Choose_the_ML_Engineer_if\"><\/span><b>Choose the ML Engineer if:<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You enjoy data pipelines and building models from scratch. It will be beneficial if you have experience in data science and want to optimise AI model performance as a career.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regardless of your choice, the first step to building a career is preparing for the examination. Enrol in a trusted digital course and fill the gaps in your knowledge and skills. You can use learning resources like online videos, practice tests, and guided labs to improve yourself and prepare to pass the examination on the first attempt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Whizlabs\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-schema-attribute=\"about mentions\"><b>Whizlabs<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> offers a hands-on learning experience and the confidence required to clear the AWS certification on the first attempt. With expert-led courses, guided labs and sandbox environments, strengthen your expertise and move a step closer to becoming a certified professional. Enrol and grow your career trajectory with us.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"FAQs\"><\/span><b>FAQs<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><b>1. Is AWS MLA-C01 difficult?<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The AWS MLA-C01 certification is considered moderately to highly challenging, as it is an associate certification. It requires a prior understanding of how the AWS cloud platform works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>2. Which role pays more?<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The salary of a Machine Learning Engineer role is higher compared to that of an AI Engineer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>3. Is AWS AI certification worth it?<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, the AWS AI certification builds your foundational knowledge of how to use GenAI and AWS core services.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>4. What are the career prospects after AWS ML engineering?<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can apply for the position of a data scientist, data engineer, business intelligence developer, or an NLP engineer after acquiring the AWS ML engineering certification.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>5. How does one prepare for the AWS AI certification exam?<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can practise for the AWS AI certification exam through a reputable online course, guided labs, practice tests with exam-like questions, and AWS SimuLearn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>6. Which AWS certification is the most valuable?<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The AWS Certified Solutions Architect \u2013 Associate is the most valuable certification, as it validates your ability to design scalable and secure AI systems using the best AWS practices. The AWS AI certification is the first step to reaching this associate level.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ML Engineer vs AI Engineer on AWS: Certification, Skills &amp; Salary Comparison ML engineers and AI engineers are closely related. That\u2019s why it is common for professionals to confuse the two. They are a part of the same digital world, but some important differences set them apart. An ML engineer is a professional who trains the model, whereas an AI engineer builds the intelligent systems using that model. It is important to break down the nuance of ML engineer vs AI engineer to head in the right direction. This is important for a professional exploring a career within the Amazon [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":444,"featured_media":100550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[184,4760],"class_list":["post-100546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aws-certifications","tag-aws","tag-professional-machine-learning-engineer"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws.webp",2400,1256,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-300x157.webp",300,157,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-768x402.webp",768,402,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-1024x536.webp",1024,536,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-1536x804.webp",1536,804,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-2048x1072.webp",2048,1072,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-24x24.webp",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-48x48.webp",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-96x96.webp",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-300x300.webp",300,300,true],"tptn_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-250x250.webp",250,250,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-640x853.webp",640,853,true],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-96x96.webp",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ml-engineer-vs-ai-engineer-on-aws-150x79.webp",150,79,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Mythili Sivakumar","author_link":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/author\/mythili\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"ML Engineer vs AI Engineer on AWS: Certification, Skills &amp; Salary Comparison ML engineers and AI engineers are closely related. That\u2019s why it is common for professionals to confuse the two. They are a part of the same digital world, but some important differences set them apart. An ML engineer is a professional who trains&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/444"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100546"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100574,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100546\/revisions\/100574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}