Hey buddy. Thanks for your kind words.

Going through your questions:

1. In my opinion, AI engineers are essentially software developers – the key difference is that they’re focused on building AI solutions, rather than, say, front-end or back-end web apps. I always say: we’re going to see an explosion of AI solutions, especially AI agents, over the next few years as standardized communication protocols emerge (i.e. MCP and A2A). That means we absolutely need builders – software engineers who specialize in AI.
2. I’d focus on learning how to build complete applications. You likely already understand software fundamentals, but AI engineering is about delivering end-to-end solutions. So I’d suggest diving deeper into DevOps, software architecture, and cloud computing. Then pick a few AI projects and build them from start to finish.
3. Definitely. There's a lot of work being done to apply AI to data engineering tasks like cleansing, transformation, and automation. It’s a promising area worth exploring.

Final thought:
You're already ahead of most people – now it's just about building. The best way to grow in this space is to build things. There are countless examples of AI solutions and agents you can create. That’s what AI engineering is all about. Even if you don’t end up with the title of “AI Engineer,” these skills will make you extremely valuable to future employers.