I believe the element of continuous learning in AI makes it more competitive than Data Science. AI systems, especially those based on machine learning, can continuously learn and improve from new data, leading to better performance over time while data science involves periodic analysis and model updates, which can be less adaptive than continuous learning systems.
Data science focuses more on analyzing data to uncover insights, while AI aims to create intelligent systems that can perform human-like tasks. But the two fields are closely intertwined - AI relies heavily on data science techniques like machine learning. I think anyone working in AI needs a strong data science foundation.