Forward deployed engineers bridge the gap between software platforms and customer reality. The role fails catastrophically when filled by people without genuine coding skills.
Professional services firms are using AI to scale expertise rather than cut headcount. Junior consultants perform at senior levels while experienced partners multiply their impact across more clients.
The AI consulting market is growing fast, but most new practices fail within a year. The winners are not the ones with the deepest technical expertise. They are the firms that position themselves as business problem solvers who happen to use AI, focusing on outcomes executives actually care about rather than showcasing capabilities.
Most AI consultants fail at Claude Code because they treat it like ChatGPT with a different logo. Specialists understand MCP, context windows, and why tens of thousands of tokens disappear before you even start. Here is how to spot the difference between someone who read the docs yesterday and someone who can implement.