Buy Engineers, Not Software
Forward Deployed Engineering is turning into a procurement category.
On 11 May 2026, OpenAI launched the OpenAI Deployment Company, a joint venture with more than $4 billion of initial investment. Its first move was to acquire Tomoro, a London consultancy whose roughly 150 forward deployed engineers and deployment specialists build AI systems inside enterprises, on the customer's own data.
Our reading: Forward Deployed Engineering is turning into a procurement category of its own in B2B software, and buyers should adjust how they shop.
What an FDE is
Palantir created the role about twenty years ago. A Forward Deployed Engineer is a senior product engineer who works inside the customer's organization, on the customer's problem, with the customer's data. The output is code that runs in production, not a report or a set of recommendations.
The model started in defense and intelligence work. Those agencies were never going to install a dashboard and work out the rest themselves. They needed someone in the room every day who understood both the software and the operations it was meant to take over.
For a long time that was a niche. It no longer is.
Why vendors are hiring them
A typical B2B SaaS sale runs from demo to trial, license, onboarding and customer success check-ins. It assumes the customer has the people to wire the product into its workflows. Three changes have weakened that assumption.
The cost of building software has fallen sharply. With tools like Cursor, Claude Code and Lovable, anyone who can describe a workflow can scaffold an app for it. The codebase is less of a moat than it was.
AI moved the value from the tool to the deployment. The major models are broadly comparable. What differs between two companies is whether someone connected the model properly to invoicing, the CRM and the daily work of the operations team. That connection is engineering work, not a license.
Buyers have also grown tired of software that needs a six-month internal project before it pays off. Paying for someone who makes the tool work is an easier case to make than paying for another tool.
The OpenAI Deployment Company is one result. Its backers include private equity firms and consultancies such as McKinsey, Bain & Company and Capgemini.
What it means for buyers
Compare engineering depth, not only license prices. When a vendor pitches you, ask three questions.
How many of your people will work with us next quarter? A monthly check-in from a customer success manager means you are buying software. Two engineers, several days a week, on-site or on call, means you are buying an outcome.
Who is accountable for the result? Not the integration or the rollout, but the business result you are paying for. A forward deployed team should be able to name that person.
What does the engagement look like at twelve weeks, and at twelve months? Forward deployed work should compound. The engineers learn your domain, the agents take over more of the operations, and the cost per unit of work falls. A vendor who cannot describe month nine is selling a tool with extra steps.
Construisons votre produit
Dites-nous ce que vous construisez. Nous vous dirons comment nous l'aborderions, ce qu'il faut, et à quelle vitesse nous pouvons avancer.
Nous vous dirons honnêtement si nous sommes le bon choix. Et si ce n'est pas le cas, nous vous orienterons vers quelqu'un qui l'est.