Opinions on AI Engineering as a degree? Will it be faddy or future proof?

[GreenSalon2]

DS currently holding offers between mechanical engineering at Sheffield, Edinburgh and QUB. AI engineering at Bristol and somewhere else (can’t remember!).

I do understand the very substantial differences between each discipline but know nothing about the sectors and how much AI will reduce job opportunities.
Anyone with knowledge or opinions?

I know it’s hard to predict future as world of work is undergoing such rapid change but I’m hearing doom and gloom from friends/relatives working in programming, tech and in engineering about how much AI is threatening jobs

I'm not convinced AI is threatening jobs in engineering any more than CAD did in years gone by. AI is just a tool. It needs skilled users and opens up new possibilities.

I'm not familiar with AI engineering as a course, but assuming it's an engineering degree rather than computer science the decision should come down to the rest of the course content as they won't spend 3 years just pissing about on ChatGPT 😂

Thr university where I lectured in engineering was slow to integrate AI training, but it's getting there now, so I expect most include some element and if not students tend to be enthusiastic users (some more obviously than others). If the AI engineering courses include machine learning and predictive AI they could add a very useful element to your son's future employability.

Annnnd, i immediately revise my response! The Bristol course is essentially a computer science degree hosted in Engineering. Totally different to Mech Eng so it depends what he wants to do. Applied AI for engineering will definitely be useful though. Sorry that's probably not very insightful!

Thanks. It’s two quite different disciplines and career paths but friends and relatives in both are telling me that both sectors are changing employability wise due to AI. I’m so confused as it’s not my world at all career wise.

If he has plans to continue his education and eventually do a PhD, he will likely be very employable in the AI field. If he stops at a Bachelors, it will be incredibly difficult for him to enter the job market as it currently stands, and that doesn't look to be changing any time soon. Through my work I talk to a lot of people in this field, and the ML/AI engineers are mostly saying the same thing; this field is moving incredibly quickly and the knowledge they gained from their undergraduate degrees is already outdated and they need to be consistently learning to keep up. Those who have PhDs are typically on salaries I could have never even fathomed.