I think the most important thing is to ask yourself what your interests and abilities are. After all, no matter what direction you choose, it is your interest and ability that can support us to go on. So, let's take a good look at the differences and connections between the two.

First, big data.

Big data is the comprehensive result of the development of Internet of Things, Web system and information system, among which the Internet of Things has the greatest influence, so big data can also be said to be the inevitable result of the development of Internet of Things. Big data-related technologies closely focus on data, including data collection, collation, transmission, storage, security, analysis, presentation and application. At present, the value of big data is mainly reflected in analysis and application, such as big data scenario analysis.

Second, artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence is a typical interdisciplinary subject, and its research contents focus on six directions: machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, automatic reasoning and knowledge representation. At present, the application scope of machine learning is still relatively wide, such as autonomous driving, intelligent medical care and other fields. The core of artificial intelligence lies in "thinking" and "decision". How to think and act rationally is the mainstream direction of artificial intelligence research at present.

It can be seen that compared with big data, artificial intelligence involves more advanced and high-end fields, so it has higher knowledge content, is more laborious to learn, and requires high personal mathematics and logic ability, but the two are also related.

On the one hand, artificial intelligence needs a lot of data as the basis of "thinking" and "decision-making". On the other hand, big data also needs artificial intelligence technology for data value calculation. For example, machine learning is a common way of data analysis. Among the two main manifestations of the value of big data, one of the main channels of data application is the agent (artificial intelligence product). The greater the amount of data provided for the agent, the better the operation effect of the agent, because the agent usually needs a lot of data for "training" and "verification" to ensure the reliability and stability of the operation.

Therefore, there is no need to completely distinguish between the two, but to lay a good foundation and learn step by step, only the best choice.