Dive Brief:
- Cognizant launched a Google Cloud AI deployment unit it plans to staff with Gemini-trained AI specialists, the two companies said Monday. The Gemini Frontier Capability Group will house more than 18,000 of its branded Frontier Certified Engineers to help clients build and deploy Gemini agents, according to the announcement.
- The move deepens an existing partnership between Google Cloud and Cognizant, which adopted Gemini Enterprise internally a year ago and added Google Workspace to the package in February. The IT services and systems integration firm launched a customer-facing practice with promises of forward deployed engineers in April.
- In the intervening months, Cognizant created the Frontier Certified Engineer and Frontier Business Operator designations and ran 55,000 of its associates through Google’s Build with Gemini AI training program. “The new group is where that experience goes to work every day,” Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S said in the Monday announcement.
Dive Insight:
Cognizant’s engineers join the ranks of the fastest growing job designation in the tech industry, as model builders, hyperscalers and IT consulting firms rally talent to help customers plow through AI adoption barriers.
Earlier this month, AWS rolled out an FDE certification initiative after funneling $1 billion into a discrete FDE business unit over the summer. Anthropic leaned on partners to deliver AI adoption assistance in June, adding services tracks to its freshly minted Claude Partner Program and opening a Claude Frontier Academy with an initial goal of training 10,000 engineers.
OpenAI and Microsoft jumped into the FDE fray with hefty investments, despite Gartner warning that most vendor-led AI deployment interventions will fail by 2028. The analyst firm cautioned organizations to be on the lookout for providers packaging traditional IT consulting as FDE-level assistance and charging a premium for hastily rebranded services.
Tech companies are racing to secure AI engineers willing to work in the field. FDE job postings surpassed 7,300 in the first nine months of the year, up from less than 200 in 2023, according to labor market analytics firm Lightcast. Recruiters are currently competing for just a couple thousand practicing FDEs, Gartner Senior Director Analyst Mukul Saha told Channel Dive in September.
AuxoAI, a startup with plans to grow the pool of available AI engineering talent, raised $20.7 in series A funding this week. The company touted “forward deployed experts,” a designation that combines AI strategy and engineering expertise, as a model for helping enterprises navigate technology and process change. Venture capital firm NTTVC led the funding round.
Cognizant has been building out its AI capabilities and workforce through alliances and internal initiatives for more than a year. The company partnered with Microsoft to build industry-grade AI tools in December and inked a deal with Palantir Technologies, the software vendor credited with forging the first FDE practice, in February.
Frontier Certified Engineers are distinct from a generic FDE, according to Cognizant.
“A traditional forward-deployed engineer is primarily focused on deploying a company’s AI platform into a client environment,” Cognizant told Channel Dive in an email. “Our Frontier Certified Engineers are ... model-agnostic builders who combine technology, domain and business expertise to reimagine how work gets done, build the AI-native system, and stay accountable through architecture, engineering and last-mile deployment.”
The company plans to have 200,000 trained Gemini associates by the end of the year, according to the Monday announcement.
