Forward-deployed engineering closes the distance between a product team and the messy reality of a customer's environment. The engineer works directly with the workflow, constraints, data, integrations, and stakeholders that determine whether a system actually succeeds.
The output is not simply a consulting report. It is a working system, integration, automation, or technical path that can be operated and improved after the engagement.
For AI, this model is especially useful because the hard part is rarely choosing a model. It is connecting the model to reliable data, tools, permissions, evaluation, observability, and business processes.