Ayache Bouakaz obtained his Master's degree and his PhD in acoustics in 1992 and 1996 at the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon, France (INSA Lyon). In 1998, he joined the Pennsylvania State University at State College, PA, USA as a post-doc for 2 years. From December 1999 to November 2004, he held the position of associate professor at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His research focused on ultrasound imaging, ultrasound contrast agents, and transducer design.

In 2004, he obtained a position as an Inserm researcher and since 2009, he has held the position of research director in the Inserm Imaging and Brain Institute, where he heads the ultrasound imaging and therapy group. His research focuses on imaging and therapeutic applications of ultrasound.

Ayache Bouakaz has been a "chair professor" at the Jiaotong University of Xi'an in China since 2017. He is the general chair of the international conference IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IEEE IUS) 2016 in Tours, France, and co-general chair of the IEEE IUS 2021. He has served as the vice president of the IEEE UFFC Society in charge of Symposia from 2017- 2020.

He has published more than 214 articles in peer-reviewed journals, more than 100 articles published in conference proceedings, and has filed 9 patents.