Help Wanted: Forward-Deployed Humans for the A.I. Era

The job title “forward-deployed engineer” — someone who works with customers to set up technology, gather feedback and iron out problems — has been around for more than a decade.But lately, as companies need fewer people to write code, and more people to schlep to client offices to help them integrate new artificial intelligence tools, use of the descriptor for tech roles of all kinds is exploding.On LinkedIn, job listings for forward-deployed engineers have increased twelvefold in the past year, a company spokeswoman said.And new job titles like forward-deployed product manager, forward-deployed strategist and forward-deployed architect have appeared on the platform, too.On the job site Indeed, listings seeking forward-deployed engineers jumped 730 percent over the past year.

Such openings are rising at a significantly higher rate than other tech jobs, said Sneha Puri, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab — though the raw numbers for these types of listings are still fairly low, in the thousands.The need for this type of support staff, she said, has risen partly because “enterprises are buying A.I.

systems, but they don’t necessarily know how to set it up in the best way.”In a rapidly shifting job landscape, forward-deployed roles are, at least for now, a relatively safe bet, said Nick Bloom, a Stanford economist.A.I.

is getting good at many day-to-day work tasks.But forward-deployed workers are responsible for a function that A.I.

cannot replace: hands-on client support.The appeal of this job title — first made popular by Palantir — reflects both reality and hype, Mr.Bloom said.

To be sure, someone who can coach a client on integrating a new tool is quite useful right now.But a major factor behind its spread, he noted, is also simply that “it sounds cool.” The title conjures military might — not conference rooms and slide decks.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Th...