Here's one career emerging from the AI shift: 'forward-deployed engineers'

"Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian issued a call for "forward-deployed engineers" to apply for jobs in the company's go-to-market AI team. Their task: help non-tech organizations scale up their AI deployments. That term - forward-deployed engineers, FDE for short - has been coming up a lot lately in conversations with CTOs, software engineers, and experts tracking the technology and job markets."

"Google currently has 1,513 openings for that specific role and OpenAI, which just this week launched an organization called the Deployment Company, has 31. Microsoft is on board, too; in March, it partnered with Accenture to launch a forward-deployment partnership. OpenAI's new Deployment Company is, not surprisingly, designed to "help organizations build and deploy AI systems they can rely on every day across their most important work," the company said in a blog post."

"Forward-deployed engineering has seen the fastest growth in jobs created by AI, with the number of positions increasing 42-fold between 2023 and 2025, LinkedIn reported in a study earlier this year. (AI engineer jobs, by comparison, have grown 13-fold in that same time frame.) Vendors and service providers created the FDE position to help clients install AI, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J.Gold Associates."

"Many non-tech firms have taken shots at deploying AI projects internally, without success or quick ROI. Some of the reasons those efforts haven't worked out include poor vision, lack of talent, skimpy budgets, and underestimating the complexity of deploying AI. That's led to the arrival of FDEs - essentially hired guns for AI deployments. They focus on successful outcomes for customers instead of writing code."

Google Cloud is recruiting “forward-deployed engineers” for a go-to-market AI team focused on helping non-technical organizations scale AI deployments. The role is gaining rapid job-market momentum, with LinkedIn reporting 42-fold growth in forward-deployed engineering positions from 2023 to 2025. Google lists 1,513 openings for the role, while OpenAI launched a “Deployment Company” to help organizations build and deploy dependable AI systems and Microsoft partnered with Accenture to create a forward-deployment partnership. Vendors and service providers created the position to help clients install AI. Many internal AI attempts fail due to unclear vision, talent gaps, limited budgets, and underestimated deployment complexity, leading to FDEs who prioritize successful outcomes over writing code.

Read at Computerworld