在去年一次乘坐马克·贝尼奥夫私人飞机的航程中，Salesforce 首席执行官似乎让公司高管们观看了长达四小时的拼接视频，内容是 Palantir 首席执行官亚历克斯·卡普阐述前置部署工程师（FDE）的价值。这样的经历——本可能让任何人都想寻找紧急出口——却给 Salesforce 财务与战略副总裁迈克尔·斯宾塞上了一课，让他认识到 FDE 在提升 Palantir 销售方面的价值，后者的口号是“先落地后扩张”。他在 8 月的德意志银行 2026 年技术大会上分享了这一轶事，恰逢 FDE 热潮达到高潮。
During a flight on Marc Benioff’s private jet last year, the Salesforce CEO apparently subjected his company’s senior execs to a four-hour montage of Palantir CEO Alex Karp holding forth on the value of forward-deployed engineers (FDEs). The experience — which might have led anyone else to seek the emergency exit — was a lesson for Michael Spencer, Salesforce veep for finance and strategy, about the value of FDEs in boosting sales at Palantir, whose mantra is "land and expand." He shared the anecdote with the Deutsche Bank 2026 Technology Conference in August, just as the FDE boom was reaching fever pitch.
对于不熟悉的人来说，供应商会向客户派遣 FDE，而不将其绑定到具体项目上。实际上，这些人相当于没有项目组合的顾问，需利用其技术快速构建有价值的成果。该术语并非新创——Palantir 声称于 2007 年提出——但对 FDE 的投资爆炸式增长，以及它们与 AI 实施的关联，引发了技术采购方对其收益与风险的疑问。
For the uninitiated, vendors send FDEs to clients without tying them to a project. Effectively consultants-without-portfolio, they are expected to build something valuable, at speed, using their technology. The term is not new — Palantir claimed to have come up with it in 2007 — but the explosive growth of investment in FDEs, and their attachment to AI implementation, provokes questions about the benefits and risks involved for tech buyers.
本月早些时候，AWS 宣布在新设立的前置部署工程部门投入 10 亿美元，旨在帮助客户构建和部署 AI 系统。AI 代表企业 Anthropic 也宣布投入 1 亿美元用于培训 FDE。SAP、Salesforce 与 Workday——与埃森哲合作——也在该理念上投入巨大。薪酬随之呈上升趋势。根据 Levels.fyi 的前置部署工程师薪酬数据，美国的年中位总薪酬为 216,250 美元，25 百分位为 180,000 美元，75 百分位为 290,000 美元。
Earlier this month, AWS announced a $1 billion investment in a new Forward Deployed Engineering unit which aims to help customers build and deploy AI systems. AI poster-child Anthropic has also announced a $100 million investment in training FDEs. SAP, Salesforce and Workday — in partnership with Accenture — are heavily invested in the idea too. Salaries are on a commensurate upward trajectory. According to Levels.fyi’s Forward Deployed Engineer salary data, the US median annual total compensation was $216,250, with the 25th percentile at $180,000 and the 75th percentile at $290,000.
技术行业面临一个显而易见的问题需要通过 FDE 来解决。根据 Gartner 的数据，去年该行业在 AI 上的支出约为 1 万亿美元，预计到 2026 年将增长 34.7%。总体而言，行业预计至少要从客户那里收回部分这笔费用。
The tech industry has an obvious problem to solve with FDEs. It spent around $1 trillion on AI last year, according to Gartner, and is set to see that figure grow by 34.7 percent in 2026. Broadly speaking, it expects to claw at least some of that money back from customers.
科技行业声称，全栈部署工程师（FDE）的出现也通过帮助客户获取稀缺的人工智能工程技能，让客户受益。贝尼奥夫在去年12月的财报电话会议上表示，与该公司全栈部署工程师合作的客户部署Salesforce人工智能技术的速度比没有合作的客户快百分之三十三。尽管如此，高德纳咨询公司警告称，如果处理不当，在每一次变更和迭代中都依赖厂商的全栈部署工程师会造成巨大的绑定。
The tech industry claims the advent of FDEs also benefits customers by helping them to access AI engineering skills, which are in short supply. Benioff told an earnings call in December last year that customers working with its FDEs were deploying Salesforce's AI technology 33 percent faster than those who were not. Nonetheless, Gartner has warned that, done badly, reliance on vendor FDEs for every change and iteration creates enormous lock-in.
此外，这一过程还存在泄露客户知识产权及其竞争优势的风险。高德纳咨询公司软件工程高级总监穆库尔·萨哈对《》表示：“全栈部署工程师的合作通常是这样的：一家公司拥有一个人工智能产品并前往最终用户现场，交易的一部分是他们将在实施过程中学习各种东西。他们将带回某些让产品变得更好的知识。但这里有一条微妙的界限。”
There is also a risk the process can leak customer intellectual property, and with it, competitive advantage. Mukul Saha, software engineering senior director at Gartner, told The: "The FDE engagement, generally, is that a company has an AI product and goes to the end user site, and part of the deal is they’re going to be learning things as they implement. They’re going to take back certain knowledge that makes the product better.
由于全栈部署工程师会分享信息，因此存在受益者是用户的密切竞争对手的风险。全栈部署工程师会不会拿走用户的竞争优势并将其传递给其他人？萨哈说：“那将是对知识产权的彻底侵犯，对吧？事情就是这样发展迅速的。这是我在与最终用户客户互动时听到的一种担忧。”
But there's a fine line." There is a risk that those benefiting are the users' close competitors, as FDEs share information. Could an FDE be taking the user’s competitive advantage and passing it on to others? Saha said: "That would be a complete violation of the IP, right? That's how fast things are moving. This is a concern I hear as I interact with end user clients."
然后是厂商绑定的风险。高德纳咨询公司警告称，如果全栈部署工程师变得不可或缺——因为只有他们理解自己构建的工作流程——那么聘请他们担任全职顾问既不经济，也不具战略意义。萨哈说：“我们实际上在建议客户，在全栈部署工程师进驻现场之前很久，就要弄清楚他们将要实施的使用场景。如果你正在进行全栈部署工程师合作，就要想好退出策略。客户应该弄清楚，一旦全栈部署工程师资源撤离，他们将如何接管。”
Then there is the risk of vendor lock-in. Gartner has warned that if FDEs become indispensable — because only they understand the workflows they built — keeping them full-time as consultants is neither economical nor strategic. "We're actually advising clients to understand the use cases they are going to be implementing well before FDEs come on site. If you’re doing an FDE engagement, figure out the exit strategy. Customers should figure out how they’re going to be taking over once the FDE resources go," Saha said. However, in its advisory research, Gartner said that if FDE engagements have clear guidelines on governance, business value delivery, IP ownership, project co-ownership, knowledge transfer, and an exit strategy, they can be valuable.
不过，加特纳在咨询研究中表示，如果前置部署工程师（FDE）合作项目在治理、业务价值交付、知识产权所有权、项目共同所有权、知识转移和退出策略方面拥有明确的准则，它们就能发挥重要价值。它们可以使项目更快投入生产，并增加投资回报的机会。当前置部署工程师依附于大型企业软件供应商已经向客户售出的一套产品时，还存在一个关于许可和商业安排的棘手问题。
They can get projects to production faster and increase the chances of return on investment. Where the FDE is attached to a set of products already sold to the customer by a major enterprise software vendor, there is also the difficult question of licensing and commercial arrangements. Here, users need to be careful, because these issues may not be on the FDE's radar during projects, said Craig Guarente, founder and CEO of Palisade Compliance, a software licensing advisory company. "They don't care about it. They're not even checking licensing. They're not checking tokenization. They're not checking what the customer is paying for or what the commercials are. Again, it is up to the user.
软件许可咨询公司Palisade Compliance的创始人兼首席执行官克雷格·格兰特（Craig Guarente）表示，用户在这里需要小心，因为这些问题在项目期间可能不在前置部署工程师的关注范围内。他表示：“他们不在乎。他们甚至不检查许可。他们不检查代币化。他们不检查客户支付了什么费用，也不检查商务条款。同样，这取决于用户。这取决于软件、人工智能工具的买家，以确保他们所做的事情是一致的并符合他们的预期。”
It's up to the buyer of the software, of the AI tool, to make sure that what they’re doing is in line and meets their expectations," he said. Customers with open-ended contracts with the supplier could be "really exposed" if they don’t understand what FDEs are doing. Similarly, those with capped usage could find they reach their limits and have to pay for more usage, he said. Users should also be aware that it is possible FDEs could share their software usage and IT strategy with their home vendor, Guarente said, adding that he had seen no direct evidence of this practice.
他说，如果对供应商的开放式合同不了解前置部署工程师在做什么，拥有这种合同的客户可能会“面临真正暴露的风险”。他说，同样，使用量受限制的客户可能会发现他们达到了使用上限，不得不支付更多使用费。格兰特还表示，用户应该意识到，前置部署工程师有可能与他们所在的供应商分享其软件使用情况和IT战略，但他补充说，他没有看到这种做法的直接证据。
"Companies have a huge incentive to make sure customers turn [features] on, because if they don't, vendors can't recognize the revenue. Then, if there is a variable commercial contract, from a corporate level there are huge incentives [to get customers to use more]," he said. Similarly, there is a risk of sharing customer information within the vendor’s sales and audit departments. Guarente told us: "If you were a company and you make money from licensing your IP, why wouldn't you do that?
他表示：“公司有巨大的动力来确保客户开启[功能]，因为如果不这样，供应商就无法确认收入。然后，如果是可变商业合同，从企业层面来看，[促使客户使用更多]有着巨大的动力。”同样，客户信息存在被分享到供应商销售和审计部门的风险。
It just makes sense. It is not just the audit department, but the sales team, customer success team and support organizations. The FDE is, like, ‘I did this for this company.’Now they set up the next step, which could be a sales conversation or just more education. Who knows?
瓜伦特告诉我们：“如果你是一家公司，靠授权自己的知识产权赚钱，为什么不做呢？这完全说得通。这不只是审计部门的事，还涉及销售团队、客户成功团队和支持部门。FDE 大概会说：‘我为这家公司做了这件事。’现在他们着手下一步，可能是销售洽谈，也可能只是进一步的教育。谁知道呢？但如果我经营一家 AI 公司，并且派这些工程师去让客户启用并使用我的产品，那会是我的第一步。先让他们上瘾，然后再问如何创造更多收入。显然，办法之一就是把产品做得更好。”
But if I was running an AI company and I had these engineers deployed to get customers to turn on and use my stuff, that would be my first step. Let's get them hooked on it, and then ask how to generate more revenue. Obviously, one of the ways is to make the stuff better."
随着科技行业努力收回其庞大的 AI 投资，它正效仿 Palantir 的做法，采用 FDE 策略。客户需要了解它的运作方式，并确保自己始终掌控自己的 AI 计划。®
As the tech industry strives to claw back its gargantuan AI investments, it is following Palantir’s lead and adopting the FDE strategy. Customers need to be aware of how it works and ensure they maintain control of their own AI plans. ®