It wasn't long ago that artificial intelligence (AI) started as a revolution, and the world paced up with it rapidly. Consequently, we see an evergrowing AI-focused market of possibilities, even in Bangladesh. The industry has much to offer, from a first-rate salary to diverse, hands-on research works.
The story of Intelligent Machines Limited: Working with AI is engaging. Intelligent Machines Limited is one company that started with the dream of empowering Bangladesh's talented youth to solve local business problems with tech solutions. It works extensively in AI and advanced analytics to give businesses technological headway.
Potential to reach unprecedented heights: "The medicine that costs Tk 15, would you like to help make it one-tenth of its current price without compromising anything, but by making it more efficient to produce and distribute? Not for its applications in Bangladesh, you can make fundamental contributions to the core body of knowledge. Have you ever wished you could have lived in the early time of scientific discoveries? Well, you are living in one now!" stated Oli Ahad, the founder and CEO of the company. AI needs to be normalised in the industry to allow its growth, so thinks Mr Ahad.
"We are in its early start-and everyone in the ecosystem is building the blocks as they are trying to make progress. First came mechanisation, then electricity and the internet. The inventors, early adopters, regulators, and everyone in the ecosystem needed to work their ways ahead. What could help this acceleration? The understanding level grew. We should stop giving AI the special treatment that we do now, to allow the growth," he added.
"Engaging with local resources is also of tantamount importance. From engineering to data annotation and beyond, the more widely we empower local talent, the faster we can build a thriving AI ecosystem," said Tamjeed Sayeed Kashem, finance lead of the company.
The recruitment process at Intelligent Machines: The brand arranges position-based coding assessments, followed by a cultural get-to-know to see if the employee is the fit for them or not, and vice versa. The recruiters hire engineers through Workera.ai and Codility to compare the performance-level of local interviewees with global interview performances taking place at brands like Google. The brand encourages employees to have business knowledge, not only technical skills.
Python and MySQL are on-demand languages. One needs to be good at scripting languages like Python and know database services like MySQL. Questions for an AI Engineer's post would include deep-learning frameworks. To work with backend tech, one needs to answer data structures and algorithms-related questions. For eligibility as an analytics engineer, one needs to answer the data visualisation questions and have a good grip on Python.
The journey of eGeneration: eGeneration is a Bangladeshi brand providing technological services to its clients. In addition, the company specialises in AI and machine learning. The brand has created AI-based IT solutions on national levels.
Research opportunities with AI: Sabbir Arif Siddique, technical architect at eGeneration, shared his insights on the bright sides of pursuing a career in AI. Mr Siddque, a Summa Cum Laude graduate from United International University, Bangladesh, is an Erasmus Mundus, EU - Full Funded Scholar to Computational Intelligence Group, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
"Research and development in artificial intelligence is now a reality in Bangladesh. A noticeable number of CSE students with experience in AI and ML (machine learning) research are finding their way into the industry. Collaboration between local brands and academia can take AI-based development to a much greater height. In addition, showcasing our local AI products to the international market will create more business opportunities. Support from the government and BASIS in this regard is significant."
AI offers cutting-edge technology. It's one of the main components of the 4th Industrial Revolution. B2B (Business-to-business) relationships, entertainment industry, educational sectors rely on AI. Every industry requires data-driven decisions. With AI, data analysis becomes a way to analyse customers' tastes.
As a captive career opportunity: Why would AI be a captivating career option? AI stays as magic as its application surpasses the human brain in abilities and precision. An AI system doesn't forget while the human brain does.
Pattern recognition, a way to identify anything/anyone through the analysis of their records, is one way of applying AI to numerous daily-life applications. AI also ensures job stability since there is always a demand for exploration, the trends and consumers' interests change, statistical models shift accordingly. "AI allows you to create products that are rare yet on-demand, for example, aBangla Chatbot," said Mr Siddique.
"I have led an AI project named 'h‡š¿i Af¨_©bv-Smart Receptionist' for ICT Division. The system can replace manual reception services in universities, hospitals, and banks. The system integrated Bangla speech synthesis, speech recognition, and automatic question answering. The system can talk in Bangla with any guest. It will identify a visitor using facial recognition and access the previous conversation in the cloud to better serve the visitor much quicker than a human receptionist," he added.
The recruitment at eGeneration: AI projects, research projects related to Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, or other AI fields are encouraged from the applicants. Applicants need to face one written test and show their programming knowledge. A decent academic result is an added advantage.
AI boosts the idea that technology is like magic. The Bangladeshi AI industry needs enthusiasts, skilled and optimistic minds to grow. Global recognition of the Bangladeshi AI industry would facilitate its development.
The writer studies Computer Science at East West University.
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