What is a forward-deployed engineer (FDE) and how does it drive AI impact?

By McKinsey & Company · October 22, 2026.

The email presents a McKinsey explainer video titled "What is a forward-deployed engineer?". According to the text, interest in forward-deployed engineers, or FDEs, has grown markedly in recent months as companies try to get real value from artificial intelligence.

The email notes that the term may be a trendy label for a service that consulting firms and technology vendors have offered for years: embedding engineers inside the client company, working on its systems and with its data, to build software alongside the people who will use it.

The video, in "Explainer" format, features Holger Hürtgen, Martin Harrysson and Nick Robson of McKinsey. They explain what an FDE does and how AI has changed the job.

All three agree that FDEs can help companies get value from AI by tailoring it to each company's specific problems. However, their views on what separates an FDE from a traditional consultant suggest, according to the email, that the role is still evolving.

The email is part of the "McKinsey Explainers" series, which offers straightforward answers to complex questions, and invites readers to send their own questions to [email protected].

The body of the email is brief and includes no further details, figures or quotes from the video, so this summary is limited to what the text contains.