Microsoft is spending $2.5bn on deploying AI engineers to its customers

• Microsoft Frontier Company to embed 6,000 engineers and specialists into customer organizations
• Backed by $2.5 billion in Microsoft funding, it will help customers transform with custom AI
• This is the "largest" of its type, 2.5x the value of Amazon's alternative

Microsoft has launched a brand new subdivision to expand its own AI consultants into customers' companies backed by a massive $2.5 billion investment.

The new Microsoft Frontier Company will embed more than 6,000 specialists, AI engineers and technical experts directly inside customer organizations to help build, deploy and optimize their own AI strategies.

Microsoft described it as the "largest, most capable, outcome-driven engineering organization in the industry" – the scheme comes days after Amazon announced a similar scheme backed by $1 billion.

Microsoft launches forward-deployed engineer (FDE) program for AI

Though similar in concept to other FDE programs, Microsoft believes its Frontier Company will be different in that it adds extra layers of industry expertise, change management, continuous improvement and more, rather than just racing to deliver AI ROI.

Microsoft Commercial Business CEO Judson Althoff emphasized the importance of intelligence and trust in tailoring a suitable AI strategy for its customers. Intelligence's role involves understanding broad organizational context, workflows and processes, while trust is all about governance, observability and accountability.

Early Frontier Company customers include LSEG and Unilever, and of course, being an enterprise-focused solution, the company stressed that proprietary data, workflows and more remain private to companies and doesn't get used to train models.

Another major selling point for the "largest" AI FDE scheme in the industry is that customers can pick and choose between models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and other open-source alternatives to provide the best solution for every workload, rather than forcing companies to lock in to one single tool.

Microsoft Frontier Company will be led by former President of Microsoft Asia, Rodrigo Kede Lima. "He has been at the forefront of helping customers and partners translate technology shifts into business outcomes, and understanding how platform innovation, engineering and partner ecosystem collaboration come together to drive growth," Althoff wrote.