NEW YORK — Google Cloud and Accenture are expanding their use of engineers embedded directly with corporate customers as companies struggle to translate investments in generative artificial intelligence into measurable financial returns.
The companies have formed the Accenture Gemini Enterprise Business Group, a new unit within Accenture focused on helping businesses deploy Google Cloud’s agentic AI technology, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Under the arrangement, Google Cloud will help train as many as 1,000 Accenture forward-deployed engineers, or FDEs, who will work on-site with customers to plan and build AI applications using the Gemini Enterprise platform.
The group also will include other Accenture specialists who can help companies expand the solutions developed by the engineers, along with a smaller number of Google Cloud FDEs who will work on limited engagements with major customers.
“There’s a need for experts who can go and do these [things] for customers,” Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian told the Journal.
Companies Struggling to Turn AI Into Returns
The initiative comes as businesses continue to report mixed results from their investments in generative AI nearly four years after the introduction of ChatGPT.
Companies have struggled in particular to integrate AI into existing corporate systems and tailor the technology to specific business needs, according to the Journal.
Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said many companies understand AI’s potential but have yet to achieve the financial results they expected.
“Clients want clear value and they’re stuck,” Sweet told the Journal.
Companies are seeking growth, greater investment capacity and measurable improvements to their bottom lines, she said.
“We promised AI can do that,” Sweet said. “And they’re like, ‘We get it, except it’s not happening, help us make it happen.’”
Kurian said the challenge goes beyond installing new technology. Companies also must determine how AI can redesign existing business processes and what organizational and workforce changes are necessary as a result.
The new Accenture-Google Cloud group is intended to address those issues.
Engineers Embedded With Customers
The forward-deployed engineer model places highly skilled technical employees inside customer organizations to develop technology around specific business problems. The approach was initially popularized by Palantir and is increasingly being adopted across the AI industry, the Journal reported.
Sweet said Accenture already has been deploying FDEs as part of teams, or “pods,” that also include industry, process and data specialists.
Those teams work with customers’ information technology departments as well as business leaders, including chief financial officers.
For a company seeking a broad AI transformation, such as redesigning its finance operation, an Accenture team may first identify which processes can be changed using AI and determine the order in which those projects should be undertaken.
In one example cited by Sweet, a team began by automating invoice processing. Over eight to 12 weeks, the group mapped the business process, integrated company data and developed an agentic AI application ready to be deployed more broadly.
The team also created a road map for expanding the technology across the organization. Once the initial solution is developed, other Accenture employees typically take responsibility for scaling it.
Google Cloud and Accenture described the new business group as a significant investment but declined to disclose financial terms, according to the Journal.
AI Companies Embrace High-Touch Approach
The initiative puts Google Cloud and Accenture into an increasingly crowded market as AI companies seek to accelerate corporate adoption and demonstrate returns on massive investments in computing infrastructure.
OpenAI earlier this year launched OpenAI Deployment Co., a stand-alone services business, while Anthropic operates a similar forward-deployed engineering initiative through its Applied AI team, the Journal reported. Microsoft and Amazon Web Services also have announced FDE programs in recent months.
The trend reflects a growing belief among AI providers that simply giving companies access to sophisticated models and software may not be enough. Engineers and business specialists increasingly are being sent directly into companies to determine how the technology can be integrated into day-to-day operations and produce financial results.
Facing Questions
The expansion also comes as traditional consulting and professional-services companies face questions about whether they have sufficient technical expertise to lead complex AI deployments.
Sweet told the Journal that Accenture’s experience implementing large-scale technology systems at major companies gives it an advantage.
“You have to know: How do you actually deploy a system in a big company?” she said.
