Sorry to say but this sounds like a case of the Entitled Generation. Frustrated because the industry is difficult to penetrate ? And you feel you've been sold something it's not ? This is the same in most industries and jobs. Being Naive is normally the way most of move on from University and get real world experience. You should try working in video games or robotics etc etc. If you want to create change in the world it takes a lot of effort, and a lot of perseverance. It also takes a lot of working on your own research, and constantly learning. It's tough, and it's hard, hence the reward. If you want a dream job it takes experience. I dont mean to be unsympathetic but this sounds to me like you were confused as to what AI is and what its not. And you tried for a few years and gave up. If you wanted to work in General AI you should have stayed on at University and did a PhD. If you wanted to use AI, and tailor it to solutions you should be a software engineer working with AI. Or ML, learn Maths and Programming. But thinking there are amazing jobs that are going to change the world etc, this sounds like Hollywood to me, and we all know that life isn't like that, well not for most of us anyway.