AI engineer certification: what 23,274 US job ads name
An AI engineer certification is not required by any exam page we checked: start with one entry exam on your target employers' cloud (rented online computing), then an associate exam (next level), and build a project. In October 2026, the exact phrase aws certified ai practitioner appeared in 103 of the 23,274 US AI-engineer ads on Adzuna, a job-ad site.
That phrase is the full name of the AWS (Amazon Web Services) Certified AI Practitioner, AWS's Foundational (entry-level) AI exam: $100, no prerequisite (nothing required beforehand). Microsoft's entry exam for AI on Azure, its cloud, is AI-901 ($99 in the US), and it expects you to know some Python, a programming language. On Adzuna, the exam code ai-901 appeared in 12 of the 1,146 UK AI engineer job ads in October 2026.
Your first step, even with no target job yet: open five job ads for AI engineers near you on any job site and write down which cloud (AWS, Azure or Google Cloud) and which tools they name. That list tells you which exam, if any, to book. If the ads name no cloud, or you cannot find five, the AWS exam is our pick for a beginner who does not code yet.
- Picking one: the best certification by situation
- Reading the data: what US and UK ads name
- Starting from zero: the certification path
- Machine learning roles: how those exams differ
What do ai engineer job ads ask for?
Instant answer from October 2026 job ads. No email needed.
Certificates named
Source: Adzuna job ads, October 2026.
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Show the numbers
| Item | Ads | Share of ads |
|---|---|---|
| AWS AI Practitioner | 103 | 103 of 23,274 |
| AI-901 | 1 | 1 of 23,274 |
| Google AI Professional Certificate | 0 | 0 of 23,274 |
| IBM AI Engineering | 0 | 0 of 23,274 |
| Prompt engineering certification | 0 | 0 of 23,274 |
On this page
- Which certification is best for AI engineers?
- Which AI engineer certifications do job ads name?
- What is the AI engineer certification path?
- Which AI engineer certification does Microsoft offer now: AI-901, AI-102 or AI-103?
- Which machine learning engineer certifications are best, and how do they differ?
- Do AI engineers need certifications?
- What do Reddit posters ask about the best certifications for AI engineers?
- Related roles and where to go next
- Sources
Which certification is best for AI engineers?
The best certification for an AI engineer depends on two things: whether you already write code, and which cloud your employer runs. Here, AI engineer means someone who builds software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) models (programs trained on data to answer questions or make content). The table pairs each common option with the reader it suits.
Terms in the table: Foundational and Fundamentals are AWS's and Microsoft's names for their entry level, and associate is the level above it. Professional is the level Google aims at people with years of industry experience. A course certificate is a record that you finished online lessons, with no supervised exam. Coursera is an online course site, and Jupyter Notebooks is a tool for running Python code in a browser. An agent is an AI system that carries out multi-step tasks on its own.
| Your situation | Certification to consider | Why, in the vendor's terms |
|---|---|---|
| New to AI, no coding yet | Google AI Professional Certificate (course certificate) | Coursera lists it as beginner level with no prerequisites; $49 a month in the US and Canada |
| New to AI, want an exam | AWS Certified AI Practitioner | Foundational; $100; no prerequisite; 65 questions in 90 minutes |
| Know some Python, employer on Azure | AI-901 (Azure AI Fundamentals) | $99 in the US; Microsoft expects Python syntax and familiarity with Azure |
| Building AI apps in Python on Azure | AI-103 (Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate) | Associate; 120 minutes; Microsoft expects experience developing apps in Python; price on Microsoft's page |
| Working with machine learning (training AI models) on AWS | AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Associate | $150 for the MLA-C01 version (the exam's code; English availability ended September 28, 2026); 65 questions in 130 minutes; a newer version is in beta (a trial version), see the machine learning section |
| Three or more years in industry, on Google Cloud | Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer | $200 plus tax; Google recommends 3+ years of industry experience, 1+ on Google Cloud |
| Know Python and Jupyter, want a long course | IBM AI Engineering Professional Certificate (course certificate) | Coursera lists it as intermediate: 13 courses, about four months at 10 hours a week |
Source: AWS, Microsoft Learn, Google Cloud and Coursera pages listed under Sources, checked October 3 and 7, 2026.
If you have not coded before, the Google course certificate in the first row and the AWS exam in the second both ask for nothing beforehand. Our pick of an exam, based on the vendors' entry rules, is the AWS exam if you do not code yet, and AI-901 if you already write some Python and your target employers run Azure. Two Microsoft exams on older lists are gone: AI-900 was retired (no longer offered) on June 30, 2026, and replaced by AI-901, and the Azure AI Engineer Associate certification (exam AI-102) is retired, according to Microsoft Learn, Microsoft's training site.
Which AI engineer certifications do job ads name?
We asked Adzuna how many ads in the US, the UK and India had the words ai engineer in the job title in October 2026. Then we counted the ads that contain each certification phrase anywhere in the text. We track five exact phrases for this job: aws certified ai practitioner, the exam code ai-901, google ai professional certificate, ibm ai engineering and prompt engineering certification.
| Exact phrase searched | US AI-engineer ads | UK AI-engineer ads |
|---|---|---|
aws certified ai practitioner (AWS entry exam) |
103 of the 23,274 | none of the 1,146 |
ai-901 (Microsoft entry exam) |
one of the 23,274 | 12 of the 1,146 |
google ai professional certificate (course certificate) |
none of the 23,274 | none of the 1,146 |
ibm ai engineering (course certificate) |
none of the 23,274 | none of the 1,146 |
prompt engineering certification (no single issuer) |
none of the 23,274 | Not counted |
Source: Adzuna job-ad data, ads with ai engineer in the job title, collected in October 2026, matched by exact phrase. Analysis: CertWorthIt. How we count.
In India, Adzuna listed 2,714 ads with ai engineer in the job title in October 2026, but we did not count certification phrases there, so we have no India figure for any exam. We also do not count AI-103, the AWS Machine Learning Engineer Associate or Google's Professional Machine Learning Engineer in these ads.
Read the zero rows carefully. A cell that starts with "none of the" means our exact phrase did not appear; an ad can still name the same course in other words, such as an "IBM AI certificate" requirement. An exact phrase misses those, so each count is a minimum.
Prompt engineering means writing instructions for an AI model. No one body issues a "prompt engineering certification," so the phrase has no single owner. One course with a similar name is the Prompt Engineering Specialization (a set of linked courses) from Vanderbilt University on Coursera. It has three beginner courses, and Coursera says a ChatGPT Plus subscription (a paid plan for the ChatGPT chatbot) is required. The phrase prompt engineering certification appeared in none of the 23,274 US AI-engineer postings on Adzuna in October 2026.
Do employers care about AI certifications?
Our job-ad count shows the ads that contain each exam's name. It cannot say whether an ad requires the exam, prefers it or mentions it in passing. How a recruiter weighs a certification on a resume when the ad does not mention one is outside our data. Our reading: an exam on your resume shows that you know one vendor's AI services, while a working project shows that you can build with them. Check the five ads from your first step: if none names an exam, you have a first answer for your market.
What is the AI engineer certification path?
The AI engineer certification path has three steps: an entry exam or course to learn the vocabulary, an associate exam once you build with one cloud's AI services, and a project an employer can look at. People who already write Python can start at step two.
Step 1: an entry-level AI engineer certification
For beginners, an AI engineer certification should cost little. Two exams fit, but only the AWS one asks for no coding background. The AWS Certified AI Practitioner is Foundational: $100, 65 questions in 90 minutes, no prerequisite (nothing required beforehand), valid for three years. Microsoft's AI-901 leads to the Azure AI Fundamentals certification. It costs $99 in the US (Microsoft sets the price by the country where you take it), needs a passing score of 700 and does not expire. Microsoft expects knowledge of Python syntax (the rules for writing code) and familiarity with Azure.
For lessons before an exam, Google's AI Professional Certificate on Coursera is listed as beginner level with no prerequisites, at $49 a month in the US and Canada. It is a course certificate, so it shows that you finished the lessons, not that you passed a supervised test. In October 2026, the phrase google ai professional certificate appeared in none of the 23,274 US ads for AI engineer roles on Adzuna. Our Google AI Professional Certificate page covers what it teaches.
Step 2: an associate exam
The associate level is where the exams test building, not vocabulary. On Microsoft's side, AI-103 leads to the Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate certification. It is a 120-minute exam with a passing score of 700, and Microsoft expects experience developing apps in Python. Microsoft associate certifications expire every year. You renew by passing a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn. Microsoft's page shows no price for AI-103; check it when you book.
On AWS, the associate exam closest to AI-engineer work is the Machine Learning Engineer Associate, covered in the machine learning section.
Step 3: a project employers can see
A useful project is small and finished: an app that calls an AI model through a cloud service and answers questions about a set of documents. It has a README file (a text page that comes with the code) that explains your choices and what the app costs to run. Keep it in a public code repository (an online folder where your code is stored and anyone can open it) that you can walk through in an interview. Set a billing alert (a message when your spending passes a limit you set) in the cloud account before you start, and after each session, switch off the cloud services you started.
Coming from software development or data work
If you already build software, you meet part of Microsoft's stated expectation for AI-103, so the entry exam may add little for you. If you work with data, our data-analyst page shows which tools data-analyst ads name, and the pages for data scientists, data engineers and software developers cover the neighboring jobs. Readers whose gap is a degree can turn to our guide to becoming an AI engineer without a degree.
Which AI engineer certification does Microsoft offer now: AI-901, AI-102 or AI-103?
Microsoft's current AI engineer certification path is AI-901 at the entry level, then AI-103 at the associate level. The older names still appear in courses and forum posts, so the dates matter.
| Exam | Certification | Status (Microsoft Learn) | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI-900 | Azure AI Fundamentals | Retired June 30, 2026; replaced by AI-901 | Fundamentals |
| AI-901 | Azure AI Fundamentals | Current; $99 in the US; does not expire | Fundamentals |
| AI-102 | Azure AI Engineer Associate | Retired, with its renewal assessment (the free online test that renews it) | Associate |
| AI-103 | Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate | Current; 120 minutes; renewed yearly at no cost | Associate |
Source: Microsoft Learn exam and certification pages, checked October 3, 2026.
The name "Azure AI Engineer Associate" was the closest match to the job title, and that certification is retired. Holders should check its validity on their Microsoft Learn profile; Microsoft says its renewal assessment is retired too. Our AI-102 vs AI-103 comparison and AI-900 vs AI-901 comparison set the old and new exams side by side.
On Adzuna, a job-ad search site, the code ai-901 appeared in one of the 23,274 US AI engineer listings in October 2026.
Show the numbers
| Item | United States | United Kingdom | India |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS AI Practitioner | 103 ads | 0 ads | 0 ads |
| AI-901 | 1 ad | 1.0% | 0 ads |
| Google AI Professional Certificate | 0 ads | 0 ads | 0 ads |
| IBM AI Engineering | 0 ads | 0 ads | 0 ads |
| Prompt engineering certification | 0 ads | 0 ads | 0 ads |
Which machine learning engineer certifications are best, and how do they differ?
The best certification for a machine learning engineer depends on the cloud the employer runs, and the exams that match the work are the vendors' machine learning exams. The two job titles overlap. On this page, an AI engineer builds software that uses AI models, and a machine learning (ML) engineer trains, tests and runs the models; that split is our working definition, not a vendor's. Google describes its Professional Machine Learning Engineer this way: the engineer "builds, evaluates, productionizes, and optimizes AI solutions using Google Cloud capabilities." To productionize means to put a model into real use.
| Exam | Vendor | Fee | Format | Experience the vendor states |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Machine Learning Engineer – Associate (MLA-C01) | AWS | $150 | 65 questions, 130 minutes, test center or online | Not recorded here; see AWS's page |
| Professional Machine Learning Engineer | Google Cloud | $200 plus tax | 50 to 60 questions, two hours, English or Japanese, online or test center | No prerequisite; 3+ years of industry experience recommended, 1+ on Google Cloud |
| IBM AI Engineering Professional Certificate | IBM on Coursera | Coursera subscription | 13 courses, about four months at 10 hours a week | Intermediate; working knowledge of Python and Jupyter Notebooks |
Machine learning engineer certifications compared. Source: AWS page checked October 3, 2026; Google Cloud page checked October 7, 2026; Coursera page checked October 3, 2026.
AWS's exam has a version change to watch. Its page, read October 3, 2026, listed the English MLA-C01 as available through September 28, 2026, a date that had already passed when we read it. The same page showed an updated exam (MLA-C02) in beta, a trial version, in English only: $75, 85 questions, 170 minutes. Check which version you can book. The older AWS Machine Learning Specialty exam is retired; its last test day was March 31, 2026.
None of the machine learning exams we checked is an entry-level machine learning engineer certification. Google aims its Professional exam at people with years of industry experience, so for a beginner the first exam to consider is the AWS AI Practitioner, or AI-901 if you already write some Python. Our AWS Machine Learning Engineer page covers the AWS exam in detail.
Do AI engineers need certifications?
No exam page we checked presents its exam as a condition for the job, so by the vendors' own rules you do not need one. Employers decide what an ad asks for; the job-ad section shows how often AI engineer listings in the US and the UK used five certification phrases.
Is an AI engineer certification worth it?
An AI engineer certification is worth it when it fills a gap you can name: you can code but do not know a cloud's AI services, or an employer you want to work for writes the exam into its ads. The entry exams cost $99 or $100. By the vendors' rules, the AWS entry exam asks for no experience and AI-901 asks for some Python, while AI-103 expects you to have built apps. Our reading is that the associate level is where an exam starts to reflect the work.
Neither entry exam needs renewing soon: the AWS AI Practitioner stays valid for three years, and Microsoft says AI-901's Fundamentals certification does not expire.
What do Reddit posters ask about the best certifications for AI engineers?
Reddit posters ask which exam to take first, how hard it is and whether employers care. We grouped the questions in the Reddit posts we collected on r/AzureCertification, r/AWSCertifications and r/coursera (Reddit is a discussion site; each "r/" is a forum). Posters are a self-selected group, so the questions show what people ask, not how many hold a view. On the best certifications for machine learning engineers, one of these posts asks about the AWS Machine Learning Engineer Associate; we collected no Reddit posts for Google's Professional Machine Learning Engineer exam.
- How much Python AI-901 needs (r/AzureCertification, June 2026). Microsoft's answer: knowledge of Python syntax, plus familiarity with Azure.
- How to get a voucher, a prepaid exam code, for AI-901 (r/AzureCertification, August 2026). We did not check Microsoft's discount programs; the list price is $99 in the US.
- A software developer who found AI-901 easy asked whether to take it (r/AzureCertification, September 2026). Our answer: AI-103 is Microsoft's associate exam for developers who build apps in Python.
- A poster holding AI-102 asked what to take next (r/AzureCertification, June 2026), and another asked where to start among Azure exams including AI-900 and AI-102 (r/AzureCertification, August 2026). Both AI-900 and AI-102 are retired; AI-901 and AI-103 are the current pair.
- How tricky AI-103 is (r/AzureCertification, August 2026). Microsoft gives 120 minutes and sets the passing score at 700; we have no official pass rate.
- Whether hiring managers care about the AWS AI Practitioner, or whether to aim for the Machine Learning Engineer Associate instead (r/AWSCertifications, July 2026). The AI Practitioner's full name appeared in none of the 1,146 UK openings for AI engineers on Adzuna in October 2026. For machine learning work, AWS places the associate exam one level up.
- How long the AWS AI exam took (r/AWSCertifications, September 2026). AWS allows 90 minutes for 65 questions.
- Whether IBM's AI Engineering certificate on Coursera is worth the time (r/coursera, April 2026, r/coursera, July 2026). Coursera lists it as intermediate and asks for working Python first. The phrase
ibm ai engineeringappeared in none of the 23,274 US openings for AI engineers on Adzuna in October 2026.
Show the numbers
| Item | Fee |
|---|---|
| AWS AI Practitioner: Fees to get certified: Exam | $100 |
| AWS AI Practitioner: Fees to get certified: One retake (optional) | $100 |
| AI-901: Fees to get certified: Exam | $99 |
Related roles and where to go next
A cloud engineer runs the cloud systems that AI apps sit on, and our count tracks the AWS and Microsoft AI exam phrases for that job too. For every AI credential we checked, including options from NVIDIA (a chip maker) and PMI (the Project Management Institute), see our guide to the best AI certifications, and the AI field overview lists our AI pages in one place.
Sources
- Adzuna job-ad counts, ads with
ai engineerin the job title in the US, the UK and India, October 2026; analysis: CertWorthIt. How we count. - AWS, AI Practitioner, Machine Learning Engineer Associate and Machine Learning Specialty, checked October 3, 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, AI-901, AI-900, Azure AI Engineer Associate (AI-102) and Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate (AI-103), checked October 3, 2026.
- Google Cloud, Professional Machine Learning Engineer, checked October 7, 2026.
- Coursera, Google AI Professional Certificate, IBM AI Engineering Professional Certificate and Prompt Engineering Specialization, checked October 3, 2026.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Computer and Information Research Scientists, May 2025 wage figure, read October 7, 2026.
- Reddit threads linked in the text, from the posts we collected.
Edited by Jere Salmisto · Data checked October 7, 2026
Questions people ask
Which certification is best for AI engineers?
For a beginner, our pick is one entry exam on the cloud (rented online computing) that employers near you use. On AWS (Amazon Web Services), that is the AWS Certified AI Practitioner ($100, no prerequisite, meaning nothing required beforehand). On Microsoft's Azure, it is AI-901 ($99 in the US), which expects some Python, a programming language. Once you build AI apps in Python on Microsoft's Azure cloud, the next step is AI-103, an associate-level exam (the level above entry). In October 2026, the exact phrase aws certified ai practitioner appeared in 103 of the 23,274 US job ads for AI engineers on Adzuna, a job-ad search site. That count shows how often employers wrote the phrase, not which exam is best.
What is the best AI certification to have?
The best AI certification to have is the one named in ads for the job you want, on the cloud (rented online computing) that employer runs. For AI-engineer work, Microsoft's associate-level AI-103 (a level above the entry exams) fits developers who build apps in Python, a programming language, on Azure, Microsoft's cloud. Machine learning engineers train and run AI models (programs trained on data to answer questions or make content). For them, AWS (Amazon Web Services) lists its Machine Learning Engineer Associate at $150 for the MLA-C01 version (the exam's code), whose English availability ended September 28, 2026 (see the machine learning section for the newer version). Google Cloud, Google's cloud, offers its Professional Machine Learning Engineer ($200 plus tax), which Google recommends for people with at least three years in industry. We did not count these three exams in US or UK ads for AI engineer roles on Adzuna, a job-ad search site, in October 2026.
Do AI engineers get paid a lot?
We cannot say how much AI engineers earn. We count job ads on Adzuna, a job-ad search site, not salaries, and none of the sources we used gives an average salary, a starting salary or an AI specialist salary for artificial intelligence jobs in the US. The closest official US figure is for a different occupation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the US government's labor-data agency, puts the median pay of computer and information research scientists at $140,300 a year in May 2025. The median is the middle value: half earn more, half less. BLS says that job typically needs at least a master's degree and describes it as designing new uses for computing technology, so it is not a measure of AI-engineer pay.
What is the AI engineer salary at Google?
We have no reliable figure for an AI engineer salary at Google. We count job ads on Adzuna, a job-ad search site, not pay, and none of the sources we used gives Google's pay. The nearest official US number is for a different occupation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the US labor-data agency, gives a median of $140,300 a year in May 2025 for computer and information research scientists; the median is the middle value, so half earn more. For a real offer range, read the pay printed in the Google job ads you would apply to.
Is a machine learning engineer certification worth it?
An ML (machine learning) engineer certification is worth it once you already do the work it tests. ML engineers train, test and run AI models (programs trained on data). Google recommends at least three years in industry, one of them on Google Cloud (Google's cloud), for its Professional Machine Learning Engineer exam ($200 plus tax, two hours). AWS (Amazon Web Services) lists its Machine Learning Engineer Associate at $150 for the MLA-C01 version (the exam's code), whose English availability on AWS's page ended September 28, 2026; associate is the level above AWS's entry exams. On Adzuna, a job-ad search site, we did not count either exam in US or UK AI engineer job ads in October 2026, so our data cannot show how employers weigh them.
Do machine learning engineers need certifications?
No, you do not need a certification to be a machine learning engineer. Here, machine learning engineer means someone who trains, tests and runs AI models (programs trained on data); that is our working definition. None of the exam pages we checked presents its exam as a condition for the job. Google lists no prerequisite (nothing required beforehand) for its Professional Machine Learning Engineer exam (on Google Cloud, Google's cloud), though it recommends at least three years in industry. In October 2026, we did not count any machine learning exam in US or UK AI-engineer postings on Adzuna, a job-ad search site, so we cannot say how often employers name one.
What degree do you need to be a machine learning engineer?
We have no degree data for machine learning engineers, who train, test and run AI models. We checked one vendor's exam for this question: Google lists no prerequisite (nothing required beforehand) for its Professional Machine Learning Engineer exam. The closest official US figure is for a different, research-focused occupation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the US labor-data agency, says computer and information research scientists typically need at least a master's degree. In the federal government, BLS adds, a bachelor's degree may be enough for some jobs. Our guide to becoming an AI engineer without a degree covers the other route.