The report highlights the growing demand, skills gap and salary potential of this emerging AI career. (Image for representation/Magnific)

Artificial intelligence (AI) appears to be creating more job roles. About nine in 10 Indian enterprises foresee a demand for Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) increasing by 2030. At present, only one per cent of engineers work in such roles. The finding is part of a new report by AI-native technology education company Scaler and research firm CyberMedia Research (CMR).

The report is essentially a survey of about 1,000 software engineers and 200 enterprise technology decision-makers from eight metro cities and select Tier II cities. It underscores the widening gap between demand and the availability of skilled professionals.

What do FDEs do?

An FDE is a tech expert who works directly with clients to customise and install software so that it aligns with their business. In essence, FDEs work at the intersection of software engineering, AI, and customer engagement.…