Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence

Northeastern’s MS in Artificial Intelligence program prepares you for leadership in a field impacting every aspect of daily life:

• Go beyond learning AI as a tool—understand applications and impact through an interdisciplinary lens across fields like law, cybersecurity, environment, healthcare, business, finance, and more.
• Develop advanced skills in algorithms, data science, robotics, and machine learning.
• Build experience and connections at an institutional leader in human-centric and responsible AI.
• Choose an academic track that matches your career goals, whether you aim to become a specialist, researcher, or consultant.
• Structure your program to allow time to complete an internship, with guidance in finding and interviewing for placements from our Silicon Valley-based career advisors

Study Options

• Customize your studies with full-time or part-time options
• Options for students with a strong foundation in computer science and mathematics, as well as for students with more contextual knowledge (e.g., military, health, finance) who need to strengthen their foundational tech knowledge

Career Outlook for Master’s in AI

There is a huge demand for AI professionals with graduate degrees:

• AI is predicted to make organizations 40% more efficient by 2035 (World Economic Forum)
• The average salary of an AI engineer is $128,220 per year (Glassdoor, 2024)
• According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, careers in artificial intelligence are projected to grow 21 percent from 2021 to 2031.

Curriculum

Curriculum with distinct career paths and interdisciplinary and ethical perspectives

Prepare for leadership in one of three career tracks:

1) Specialist in applied AI disciplines → Specialization Track

Develop deep expertise via two courses in one of the five AI fields listed below (plus one additional course):

Vision

• Pattern Recognition and Computer Vision
• Special Topics in Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Vision
• Advanced Computer Vision

Intelligent Interaction

• Game Artificial Intelligence
• Computer/Human Interaction
• Theory and Methods in Human-Computer Interaction
• Human Cognitive Processes

Robotics and Agent-Based Systems

• Reinforcement Learning and Sequential Decision Making
• Robotic Science and Systems
• Mobile Robotics
• Robotics Sensing and Navigation

Machine Learning

• Reinforcement Learning and Sequential Decision Making
• Data Mining Techniques
• Advanced Machine Learning
• Deep Learning
• Unsupervised Machine Learning and Data Mining
• Statistical Inference
• Introduction to Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition
• Statistics for Bioinformatics

Knowledge Management and Reasoning

• Natural Language Processing
• Information Retrieval
• Data Mining Techniques
• Special Topics in Data Science

2) Doctoral studies and research → Thesis Track

Dive into research in preparation for a PhD program and career in research and development. The Thesis Track allows you to immerse yourself in Northeastern’s rich research environment in AI.

• Master’s project
• Thesis
• Four semester hours from the Specialization Track or electives course lists

3) AI strategist or consultant → Coursework-Only Track

Gain a bird’s-eye view of AI that qualifies you to lead on big-picture issues as a strategist or consultant in the field. You’ll take core courses through the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and electives from a range of the many colleges at Northeastern University, an R1 research institution.

• 12 semester hours from any specialization or elective courses

View the Full Curriculum

Experiential Learning

The MS in Artificial Intelligence (AI) prepares you for a leadership role in AI through collaborative projects, research opportunities, and the real-time challenges of corporate partners. Northeastern is known as the top institution for co-ops and internships. Khoury College takes a fully experiential approach to AI, believing that successful AI implementation is based on a loop between machines and humans.

Develop programs that solve problems

Through work in AI, you can:

• Bring a voice to the speech impaired.
• Help drive advances in climate resilience.
• Assist the medical field in predicting disease outbreaks.
• Improve processes and remove algorithmic biases in the financial services and fintech industries.
• Increase ethical implementation of AI to assess cybersecurity risks.
• Bridging industries and technologies to improve daily life.

Hold a co-op or internship in the field of AI

You can opt to include 4–8 months of full-time, paid work in the field of AI as part of your program experience. Northeastern provides Silicon Valley-based career coaching and other support services to students as they search for, interview, and place in internships. Students have successfully completed placements at Amazon, Ford Motor Company, Roche/Genentech, Goldman Sachs, Nok Nok Labs, Sway AI, U.S. Soccer Federation, and more. You can also opt to carry out this work in AI at your current company.

Research at Northeastern

Get a roadmap to reach your goals

Your experiential opportunities are closely integrated with both your course curriculum and the advising system. Northeastern career services staff will support you in finding and succeeding in your experiences. A team of academic advisors will also help guide you.