Why Is Deloitte Placing Engineers on the Front Line to Push Salesforce Agentforce Into Production?

To make Salesforce Agentforce work, Deloitte is deploying Forward Deployed Engineers (FDE) directly into customers' enterprise environments, the very source where AI is getting deployed.

Deloitte announced that it has become the first global systems integrator (GSI) to do so. As a founding member of Salesforce’s FDE Partner Network, Deloitte is embedding forward-deployed engineers into solution delivery teams working on Agentforce, Salesforce’s platform for building and deploying AI agents.

The model combines Salesforce’s product expertise with Deloitte’s industry knowledge, consulting capabilities and AI engineering resources. Over the years, we have seen enterprises launching a plethora of Proof of Concepts (PoCs) but only a handful of them scaling and delivering measurable results.

Enterprises are finding that turning those experiments into systems that actually deliver measurable business results remains difficult.

"The agentic era is won in business outcomes, not in pilots. Our FDE model is built for exactly that — and Deloitte was among the first to invest resources in our programme and deploy certified FDEs for our shared customers. Their commitment has proven that with the right expertise and an innovative delivery model, customers can achieve unmatched results with Agentforce," said Nick Johnston, Salesforce EVP, Global Partnerships.

Why Salesforce needs Deloitte

For Salesforce, the partnership offers a way to accelerate Agentforce adoption among large enterprises. According to the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) giant, it has over 150,000 customers, and it has closed around 29,000 Agentforce deals so far (A deal isn't necessarily equivalent to one unique customer. One Salesforce customer could potentially have multiple Agentforce deals, products or deployments).

Selling an AI platform is only part of the challenge. Customers still need help identifying viable use cases, integrating agents with existing systems, adapting workflows and managing the organisational changes that come with AI.

Salesforce’s AI push is unfolding against growing Wall Street anxiety that AI could disrupt the traditional software business. Salesforce shares have fallen sharply in 2026 as investors question whether AI agents could erode demand for conventional enterprise software, even as Agentforce becomes a major growth bet.

The company is now trying to convince investors that AI will be a revenue opportunity rather than an existential threat, with Agentforce and Data 360 positioned as key parts of its next growth phase.

As a result, Deloitte effectively becomes an extension of Salesforce’s implementation and engineering capacity, helping customers move from buying Agentforce to actually deploying it.

The FDE model also gives Deloitte closer access to Salesforce’s product teams and roadmap, allowing its engineers to develop deeper expertise around the platform.

Why Deloitte is betting on FDE

For Deloitte, the opportunity is equally significant. With AI changing the consulting market, Deloitte is shifting away from a traditional consulting firm to one that can help clients build, deploy and operate AI systems.

Embedding engineers directly into customer teams allows Deloitte to position itself not simply as an adviser, but as a technology partner responsible for delivering AI-powered business outcomes.

Last year, it announced Deloitte Forward Deployed Engineering. So far, it has already trained more than 300,000 people through its Deloitte AI Academy, while continuing to invest in enterprise-scale agentic AI capabilities.

"We are helping guide Deloitte clients through the next era of AI-powered delivery by deploying  Agentforce to help provide measurable business impact. This forward-deployed engineering model enables teams to collaborate more deeply, helping clients move from pilots to full-scale transformation more seamlessly," said Harry Datwani, Deloitte Global chief commercial officer, Salesforce Alliance.

The bigger prize for both companies is therefore not another AI experiment. Salesforce gets deeper enterprise adoption of Agentforce, while Deloitte gets a larger role in designing and implementing the AI-driven operating models that enterprises will need.