Well, why would you need a PhD? A lot of applied engineering doesn't require you to be doing cutting edge things. You still need to spend time learning existing things in the field, but that is a lot less uncertain than finding something new to write about.
Also a lot of places where recent ML type stuff is useful requires some knowledge other than ML. For instance in quantitative finance this stuff might be useful, so a lot of people who've done finance will do a short course to complement existing skills rather than taking several years out to do research.
Also a lot of places where recent ML type stuff is useful requires some knowledge other than ML. For instance in quantitative finance this stuff might be useful, so a lot of people who've done finance will do a short course to complement existing skills rather than taking several years out to do research.