When people think about artificial intelligence, Python is usually the first language that comes to mind. It has an enormous AI and machine learning ecosystem is simple and easy to learn.

But Python is not the only good choice.

For production applications, especially enterprise systems, Java can be an excellent language for building AI-powered software. Modern Java applications can connect to large language models, run machine learning models, build retrieval-augmented generation systems, process large amounts of data, and expose AI capabilities through scalable APIs.

In this tutorial, we’ll look at why Java works well for AI development and where it fits best.

1. Java Is Already Everywhere in Enterprise Software