Amazon is creating a dedicated division inside Amazon Web Services (AWS) that will place so-called forward-deployed engineers with customers to help them implement and operationalize artificial intelligence more quickly, the company said on Tuesday. The project carries an initial funding commitment of $1 billion and is designed to accelerate hands-on customer adoption of AI software.
AWS vice president of frontier AI engineering and services, Francessca Vasquez, said the program will send five to six pods of engineers to partner organizations for fixed engagements lasting roughly 45 days. "We have a ton of demand for customers who are asking for our help to really drive agentic AI patterns in their workflows," Vasquez said in an interview prior to the announcement.
Forward-deployed engineers are described by AWS as multi-skilled practitioners who embed directly with clients. They are expected to navigate internal stakeholders, integrate models into production systems and write production-grade code so that models deliver measurable outcomes for users.
The model of embedding engineering teams at customers is not unique to Amazon. Palantir Technologies has operated a forward-deployed engineering function for more than a decade. Other companies including Salesforce, Anthropic and Google Cloud also provide comparable services. Still, AWS executives framed the initiative as a response to a broad increase in customer demand for hands-on expertise to implement agentic and workflow-oriented AI patterns.
Industry observers have noted that forward-deployed engineering roles have become a rare area of hiring growth while many technology companies have reduced headcount during the rapid expansion of AI tools. Box CEO Aaron Levie wrote in a LinkedIn post in May that forward-deployed engineers are "about to become one of the most in-demand jobs in tech." A LinkedIn report cited by AWS noted that demand for forward-deployed engineers and similar roles expanded 42-fold between 2023 and 2025.
AWS said it plans to staff the new unit with "thousands" of employees but did not provide a detailed headcount target. The company indicated it will recruit externally for some roles while moving existing employees into other positions. The hiring plan comes amid an overall reduction in Amazon's corporate workforce; the company has cut more than 30,000 corporate jobs since October.
The new unit was announced at a two-day AWS customer event in Washington, where the company said additional news related to its government cloud offerings is expected. AWS executives framed success metrics for the unit around speed and customer outcomes: the primary measure will be how quickly customers can build a new product or acquire new skills with help from AWS engineers.
"We want to make sure that these customers get value in faster durations than what they’ve traditionally seen in project-based activity," Vasquez said, emphasizing shorter time-to-value as a central objective.
AWS named the National Basketball Association and electronics firm Ricoh among the initial customers scheduled to work with the forward-deployed engineering pods.
Context and implications
- The initiative represents AWS's effort to pair cloud infrastructure and model tooling with hands-on engineering support to ensure AI projects reach production and deliver outcomes.
- By committing capital and headcount, AWS appears to be prioritizing services that help customers embed agentic AI into workflows rather than relying solely on self-service tooling.
- Enterprise and government customers are explicit targets: the announcement was rolled out at a customer event in Washington and initial customers include large organizations from sports and electronics.