Throughout my academic years in computer science I fell in love with many aspects of artificial intelligence. From expert systems, neural networks, to data mining (classification). I wonder, if I was to transform this academic passion professionally, what kind of AI-related jobs are out there?
The most obvious answer to me are games.
I think games present a very interesting challenge for AI, because you're essentially playing to lose but in a fun way.
You would be surprised at the number of domains where AI-based approaches are used. From optimal industrial control, process management and optimization, to business rules and financial modeling, to text analysis, machine translation, search engines...
Almost anywhere humans have been used to take complex decisions based on data, the amount of data modern electronic communications and acquisitions methods produce has become too much to handle without software. And only "intelligent" (or at least, less single-mindedly stupid) software can handle the complexity of the data, the complexity of the rules, and the numerous failure modes.
I know one software company in my city is using AI, that was developed as a Masters in Engineering project, to detect fraudulent bank/financial transactions. It's pretty interesting stuff. They look for strange recurring payments, or compare account numbers based on known terrorist organizations ...etc. I'm not sure how many people are doing similar work, but i'm sure with the lock-down on financial institutions these days these types of applications will become more prevalent (it's working for them).
Aside from direct application - AI people also are usually hardcore algorithms people by nature, and that kind of knowledge is sought after everywhere.
This may not be a job so much as an oppourtunity, but someone should take ALICE and turn that into a "live chat" help desk.
www.alicebot.org