FDEs Have a Very Particular Set of Skills To Help With Your AI Project

The most important challenge in the AI era isn't building the model; it's getting humans to adopt and trust it. Call it the implementation gap. 

This newsletter tackles that gap, showing what it takes to get AI from the lab to the line of business. We look at how businesses are eager to use AI, but quickly realize they need expert help navigating all the implementation, integration, and scaling steps. That’s where a forward deployed engineer (FDE) comes in, acting as the crucial bridge between the technology and your business goals.

We also dive into vibe marketing, exploring why and how brands drop feature lists, focusing instead on emotional resonance to create genuine customer connections. And we share why Salesforce drank its own champagne, stress-testing AI agents on millions of internal requests to identify shortcomings and make sure your deployment goes smoothly. 

Stuck in AI pilot purgatory? A forward deployed engineer can help 

Most businesses deploying AI are a bit like your grandma getting her first iPhone: They’re excited to use it, but need help with the setup. That’s where a forward deployed engineer comes in. Never heard of one? FDEs are a natural response to the moment we’re in, where AI is evolving faster than most companies can keep up. They’re somewhat of a unicorn: tech expert, business strategist, great communicator, and steady hand. They work with customers to remove roadblocks, guide AI adoption, and make sure the tools you implement solve real problems. They’re also the crucial link between customers and product teams, feeding back what’s working — or not — so AI agents can improve. Here’s everything you need to know about one of the hottest roles in tech.

It’s just a vibe, man 

Why do some brands bombard you with specs while others just seem to get you? That's vibe marketing, a strategy that eschews feature lists to create a specific mood around your brand, like joy, rebellion, or belonging. It's not what your product does. It's how it makes people feel. This requires authentic storytelling, consistent tone across every interaction, and alignment with your customers' actual values, not the ones you wish they had. The payoff? Deep connections that make your brand memorable and resilient. 

We drank our own champagne so you can avoid a hangover

In 2025, Salesforce became customer zero for AI agents, deploying Agentforce across the company. Our service agent handled 1.5 million support requests, our sales development rep agent worked 43,000 cold leads, and Agentforce in Slack gave our teams back half a million hours. We built and stress-tested Agentforce at scale, finding edge cases, making mistakes, and discovering what worked before bringing it to you. We learned a ton, which will help make your AI deployment smoother, faster, and more reliable. Cheers! 

While you were prompting … stories you may have missed from the world of AI 

New Zealand’s 2026 Ockham Book Awards just delivered a masterclass in bureaucratic nonsense. Two authors who didn’t use AI in their writing were disqualified for the prestigious prize because their book covers were designed with it, without their knowledge. The publishing house that submitted the books claimed the rules around AI came out far too late (August) for them to make changes before the October deadline. Meanwhile, the awards committee dug their heels into their “zero tolerance” stance. In the end, two promising books were literally judged by their covers, not the quality of their content. In a slapdash race to establish boundaries, human creativity became collateral damage. 

This newsletter was curated by Lisa DiCarlo Lee, Contributing Editor, Salesforce.