Desire to switch career from SDE to ML/Data Science

YOE : 5 Back in university I studied ML and Data Science and wanted to build a career in the same field. But my first organisation gave me a sde project, one thing lead to another and now I have worked in 3 companies as a full stack SDE. I dont enjoy it and dont really have any competitive advantage over others. The thought of going back to ML/ DS keep coming back. But then i dont think they’ll pay the same for having no industry experience in that field. And it’ll only get worse if i delay it. Any advice?