As data center investments mount, two of the tech industry’s biggest players expanded their efforts to mobilize forward deployed engineers with the expertise to drive customer AI adoption.
On Friday, Anthropic rolled out the Claude Frontier Academy, an AI training program backed by $100 million in initial funding. The LLM builder wants to train 10,000 FDEs — Frontier Deployed Engineers in Anthropic parlance — by the end of next year, according to the announcement. Engineers from five big consulting firms — Accenture, Bain, Capgemini, Deloitte and McKinsey — will join peers from investment bank Morgan Stanley and pharmaceutical multinational Novo Nordisk in the inaugural cohort.
“We want those who graduate to set the standard for how AI gets built inside a business,” Steve Corfield, global head of business development and partnerships at Anthropic, said in the announcement.
AWS is offering two technical credentials for FDEs along with three free training protocols for the emerging role, the company said in a Monday blog post. The cloud giant invested $1 billion in an engineering unit tasked with embedding thousands of AI deployment experts inside customers’ teams to accelerate agentic AI adoption.
Credentials give partners a self-service option for cultivating AI deployment expertise. AWS is offering FDE training pathways on the Skill Builder online learning platform under three headings — ground, orchestrate and prove. Engineers can use the training modules to establish eligibility for the FDE validated certification, which requires completion of one of the prescribed pathways. Those who complete all three pathways can apply for the FDE advanced credential.
“The pathways give partner organizations a structured way to build, assess and scale,” the company said in the announcement. “Customers can choose the delivery model that fits: first-party AWS FDE, an AWS-led engagement with partner specialists or partner-led FDE.”
The FDE model was an existing strategy that’s been retooled for AI as it spreads across the channel. Google Cloud began recruiting AI-focused FDEs in May. In July, Microsoft sent AI engineers to Accenture, Capgemini, EY, KPMG and PwC as part of a $2.5 billion investment in an FDE business unit.
Caylent, an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner, has been doing FDE work for at least six years, Jason Cutler, SVP of Anthropic consulting and engineering at the managed services provider, told Channel Dive. The firm was one of the first to join the Claude Partner Network when it launched in March.
“The amount of folks that are going to need help with AI deployment is above and beyond what exists in the market today,” Cutler said. “What we’re seeing with Anthropic, OpenAI, AWS and Google is meeting the customers where they are right now.”
In May, OpenAI broke the seal on a standalone consulting business seeded with $4 billion to fund FDE initiatives. The LLM builder also purchased an AI consulting firm, which added 150 deployment engineers to its ranks.
At this moment, FDEs are in short supply. There are currently roughly 2,000 engineers who fit the job description, according to Gartner Senior Director Analyst Mukul Saha. There. The industry could absorb four times that many, he told Channel Dive.
The ramp up is going to take time. DXC Technology promised tens of thousands of Claude-trained engineers in June. A month later, the IT services provider had 86 ready to deploy.
