GenArchitects Academy

Forward Deployed AI Engineering

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About Course

👋 A welcome from your AI strategist

Forward deployed engineers are where AI meets reality: messy data, real users and nervous security teams. This course is the playbook every FDE needs from day one, from discovery to a pilot the customer actually adopts.

Work through it at your own pace, try every practice task before opening the model answer, and look for my 🏛 Architect’s Notes along the way.

Mahesh Raja Vandyala
AI Strategist and Enterprise Architect · LinkedIn

Take AI from impressive demo to deployed, adopted and valuable inside real customer environments. Follow Jordan Hayes, a forward deployed engineer, through a full engagement with a fictional insurer: from a vague “transform claims with GenAI” to a production system used by 120 claims handlers.

Who it’s for

Engineers who want to work directly with customers: aspiring FDEs, solutions and applied AI engineers, technical consultants. Prerequisite: the AI Builder course or equivalent engineering experience, plus the 3 common courses.

What makes this course different

  • One end-to-end engagement: discovery that changes the plan, a prototype that disappoints then improves, a security review that nearly stalls, a sceptic who becomes a champion
  • Real worked numbers: triage time 22 → 9.5 minutes, routing accuracy 87.5% → 93%, cost per claim, a full-scale business case
  • Field templates: discovery interview guide, pilot scope one-pager, security review pack checklist, pilot readout
  • Practice with model answers, including a stakeholder-conflict role-play, plus scenario quizzes and Architect’s Notes

What you’ll learn

  • The FDE role, habits and engagement lifecycle
  • Discovery and scoping of fuzzy problems
  • Rapid prototyping on real data within enterprise constraints
  • Enterprise integration: SSO, permissions, security reviews, systems of record, MCP
  • Customer-specific evals and translating metrics into business value
  • Production rollout, adoption, handover, and stakeholder management

Format

6 modules + capstone · 20 lessons · 6 scenario quizzes · about 6 weeks, with a simulated customer engagement capstone.

Last reviewed: November 2026; reviewed quarterly.

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Course Content

Module 1 — The FDE Role and Mindset
What forward deployed engineers do, how the role differs from neighbouring roles, the habits of great FDEs, and the engagement lifecycle.

  • 1.1 Meet Jordan: What a Forward Deployed Engineer Does
  • 1.2 Habits of Great FDEs
  • 1.3 The Engagement Lifecycle, and Where It Breaks
  • Module 1 Quiz: The FDE Role

Module 2 — Discovery: Scoping Fuzzy Problems
Run discovery that uncovers the real problem, map stakeholders, workflows and data, and turn a vague request into a signed, measurable pilot scope.

Module 3 — Rapid Prototyping on Customer Data
Build a thin vertical slice on real data within the customer's constraints, and run a demo that ends in a decision.

Module 4 — Enterprise Integration
Identity and permissions, security reviews, systems of record and data platforms, and reusable connectors with MCP.

Module 5 — Evals and Proving Business Value
Build customer-specific eval sets with domain experts, translate model metrics into business outcomes, and run a pilot readout that earns the production decision.

Module 6 — Production Rollout, Adoption and Stakeholders
Roll out safely, drive real adoption, hand over capability, and manage executives, users and conflict.

Capstone — Simulated Customer Engagement
Run a full forward deployed engagement for a fictional customer, from vague request to production-ready pilot readout.

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