So, AI companies are hot for "forward-deployed engineers," huh? Give me a break. I read that headline and immediately pictured some poor sap in Silicon Valley getting shipped off to Bumblefuck, Iowa, to explain to a bunch of bewildered farmers why their AI-powered combine harvester keeps trying to harvest the neighbor's prize-winning pumpkins.
Let's be real. "Forward-deployed engineer" is just a fancy term for "customer service rep with a slightly better understanding of Python." These companies, OpenAI and Anthropic included, are trying to dress it up as some kind of cutting-edge, super-valuable skill. OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI companies are looking to hire this 'rare' kind of software engineers They want us to believe these engineers are some kind of rare breed, unicorns who can not only code but also hold the hands of clueless clients.
The quote that really got my goat was the one about learning "what customers in different industries really need." Okay, so what? That's called market research, and it's been around since before the goddamn internet. Are we supposed to be impressed that these AI giants are finally figuring out that different businesses have different requirements?
And then there's this gem: "[Forward-deployed engineers] know that the only valuable software is not how exquisite its code is or how beautiful the language . . . It’s only valuable if it means something for the end customer." No freakin' duh! You mean to tell me that software that doesn't actually do anything useful is worthless? Groundbreaking stuff, people. Someone get this Einstein a Nobel Prize.
I picture these "forward-deployed engineers" – or "Echo" and "Delta" as they're apparently being called internally (because, you know, codenames make everything sound cooler) – stuck in endless meetings, translating tech jargon into plain English for executives who still think the cloud is just someone else's computer.
The truth is, this whole "forward-deployed" thing smacks of desperation. AI companies are realizing that their fancy algorithms are useless if nobody knows how to actually use them. They need boots on the ground, people who can bridge the gap between the theoretical and the practical. And they're trying to make it sound like some kind of revolutionary new job description.
I mean, who are they kidding? A "Fortune 500 bank has completely different needs than a start-up building an AI-native product," said someone or other at one of these companies. Yeah, and water is wet. This isn't rocket science.
The article mentions that these engineers "embed at the start of work to ensure customers get exactly what they need and scale back once companies are up and running." So, basically, they're glorified babysitters. They swoop in, hold the customer's hand until they (hopefully) figure things out, and then disappear. Sounds sustainable.
Offcourse, there's a chance I'm being too cynical. Maybe these "forward-deployed engineers" really are the future of AI. Maybe they're the key to unlocking the true potential of this technology. Maybe... nah, who am I kidding?
Look, I get it. AI is complicated. But let's not pretend that slapping a fancy label on tech support is some kind of groundbreaking innovation. These companies are just trying to clean up the mess they made by building all this cool tech without actually thinking about how it would be used in the real world. And honestly...it's kinda pathetic.
