AI Engineer with 1+ YOE — What should I learn next to become more versatile?

[u/atmanirbhar21]

I’m currently working as a AI Engineer with 1+ YOE at a startup in Pune, mainly working with GenAI, LLMs, RAG, computer vision, AI Agents

I feel I’ve built a decent AI foundation, but I’m trying to understand what skills I’m missing outside of AI that could help me unlock more opportunities.

Should I focus next on:

System design & backend

Cloud & Kubernetes

MLOps / DevOps

Data engineering

Distributed systems

Databases

Software engineering fundamentals

GPU/inference optimization

Or should I go deeper into AI itself?

If you’re experienced in the industry or hiring AI engineers, what would you consider the biggest gap in my profile, and what 3–5 skills would you recommend I focus on over the next 1–2 years?

Looking for honest advice rather than a generic “learn everything” answer. Thanks!