We’ve been reporting a lot on forward deployed engineering (FDE) initiatives in recent months. Here are a few cases in point:
- Google Cloud Launches AI FDE’s to Accelerate AI Transformation
- Agentic AI Wars: Will Microsoft, AWS Match Google Cloud’s $750 Million Ecosystem Investment?
The important thing to note is that, while FDE isn’t a new concept, the ubiquity of AI technologies can make them difficult to implement at the enterprise level, which has led to the emergence of FDE as an excellent approach for transitioning AI initiatives from proof of concept to production. To this end, ServiceNow and Accenture have launched an FDE program to help enterprises scale agentic AI.
Turning Agentic AI Ambitions into Production Reality
In this new program, ServiceNow’s AI-native FDE team will collaborate with industry-led Accenture FDEs to support the operating environments of mutual customers. The FDEs and the customers will work together to create effective AI workflows using the ServiceNow AI Platform.
“Forward deployed engineering is how ServiceNow and Accenture turn mutual customers’ agentic AI business goals into value-generating production workloads,” said John Aisien, senior vice president and general manager, Central Product Management, Security & Risk at ServiceNow.
“We’re not simply handing over instructions. Our teams are in the customers’ environments, implementing ServiceNow, customer & third-party building blocks, and demonstrating the resulting value metrics in the ServiceNow AI Control Tower.”
Customers signing up for the FDE program will get access to over 300 pre-built AI agent skills and agent workflows on the ServiceNow AI Platform.
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Combining Technical Expertise with Business Execution
While AI technology is readily available, harnessing its power is something that many organizations are still trying to navigate.
What sets this particular FDE program apart is that it includes technical experts from ServiceNow teams who have the intrinsic knowledge required to build agentic AI workflows into the company environment through the ServiceNow platform. And, support from Accenture, means providing the business implementation expertise needed to create faster strategic outcomes, such as improved operations, reduced costs, and enhanced customer experiences.
The key differentiator here is that together, ServiceNow and Accenture can deliver purpose-built agentic AI workflows for customers and do so with a laser focus on what works for that company, in the industry they operate, thanks to this combination of customer expertise and AI-native architecture.
Final Thoughts
For enterprise AI providers, forward deployed engineering has emerged as an excellent strategy to increase customer success, not only in the short term but in regards to longer, large scale adoption, and promote platform adoption enterprise-wide. As organizations move beyond AI experimentation and start shooting for measurable business outcomes, these providers are increasingly embedding technical experts alongside their customers.
This collaboration helps to address some of the core challenges related to data, integration, governance, and deployment. This hands-on approach, although not new, has been totally reinvented for the AI era and delivers more value than ever because it not only reduces the time required to achieve value from AI but also increases the likelihood of successful implementations. When you consider the transformational potential of AI technologies, that’s no small feat.
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