If you have 16 years as an swe, then you probably have some connections who have recruited for ml roles already. You may want to reach out to those people and ask what kind of screen mle applicants need to pass. From there, it's a matter of getting your machine learning and data science foundations up to that level.

I've personally worked with people who had longer histories with straight swe who switched into things related to ml, so it can definitely be done. Just don't lose sight of the fact that it is a distinct discipline even if there's an overlap in some of the skills and tools. That will keep you from inflating expectations about how much of your experience is transferable.