A bank launches an AI chatbot that can answer hundreds of customer questions in seconds. The demonstration is impressive. Then a customer asks why money has disappeared from her account. The chatbot gives her a generic response, fails to retrieve her transaction history and cannot connect her to someone who can help.
Building the chatbot was easy. Making it useful was the real challenge.
For the past two years, we have been told that learning to write the right prompts is the key to succeeding in the age of artificial intelligence. Employees have attended workshops, collected prompt libraries and experimented with tools such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.
But as AI becomes increasingly capable of writing code, analysing information and creating applications, the ability to use AI is becoming less of a differentiator. The real advantage will belong to those who can turn its capabilities into solutions that work in the real world. And that could create an important opportunity for India's technology industry.
From Prompts to Problem-Solving
Consider a simple example. Ask an AI tool to build an app for booking doctor's appointments, and it may produce a working prototype in minutes. But what happens when two patients book the same slot? Or when a doctor cancels an appointment? Can the app protect medical records, process payments and work with the hospital's existing systems?
Suddenly, building the app looks like the easy part. Making it reliable, secure and useful enough for thousands of customers is where the real work begins.
This distinction is beginning to reshape the skills that companies value.
The New Engineers on the Block
A recent report by Scaler and CyberMedia Research, based on a survey of approximately 1,000 software engineers and 200 enterprise technology decision-makers in India, offers an interesting signal. As high as 88% of surveyed enterprises expect demand for Forward Deployed Engineers to increase by 2030, even though only 1% of the engineers surveyed currently work in explicitly designated roles of this kind.
What exactly is a Forward Deployed Engineer?
The term may sound technical, but the underlying idea is straightforward. These professionals work closely with customers to understand their problems, build or adapt technology to address them, integrate it into existing operations and ensure that it works reliably in production.
They need to understand technology, but coding alone is not enough. They must also understand business processes, communicate with customers, solve problems under real-world constraints and take responsibility for the outcome.
Bridging the Bot-to-Business Gap
In other words, they bridge the gap between what AI can do and what a business actually needs.
The research highlights precisely this gap. While 77% of surveyed enterprises consider production deployment an important skill, only 19% say candidates with that capability are readily available. When evaluating candidates for these roles, 51% of enterprises prioritise practical deployment and troubleshooting assessments, compared with 24% that prioritise coding tests.
This does not mean coding is becoming irrelevant. Good engineering remains essential. But writing code is increasingly one part of a much larger responsibility: delivering a working solution.
The implications extend well beyond a new job title.
Less Hype, More Hands-On
A marketing professional who understands customer behaviour and knows how to build an AI-powered marketing workflow may be more valuable than someone who simply knows how to generate content. A finance professional who can redesign an invoice-processing operation using AI may deliver more value than someone who uses AI only to summarise spreadsheets.
Similarly, a software engineer who can connect an AI model to an enterprise's existing systems, manage exceptions and demonstrate measurable business benefits brings something that a demonstration alone cannot provide.
The emerging premium is on combining domain knowledge, technical ability and practical execution.
For India, this presents a particularly interesting opportunity.
From Code Factories to Solution Powerhouses
Our technology industry has built its global position through engineering talent, large delivery teams and the ability to execute complex technology programmes. AI will challenge parts of this model by allowing smaller teams to accomplish more.
But it also creates an opportunity to move up the value chain. Instead of competing primarily on the cost of developing software, Indian companies can compete on their ability to understand business problems and deliver AI solutions that improve revenue, customer experience, operational efficiency or decision-making.
That transition will not happen automatically. Engineers will need opportunities to work with customers, understand industry-specific problems and deploy systems beyond controlled demonstrations. Companies will need to reward problem-solving and business outcomes alongside technical proficiency. Educational institutions will need to complement programming skills with practical projects, systems integration and communication.
Not every professional needs to become a Forward Deployed Engineer. Nor will every AI project require one. But the combination of technical expertise, business understanding and the ability to deliver results is likely to become increasingly valuable across occupations.
The Proof Is in the Problem-Solving
The larger lesson is that AI is changing what it means to be good at a job. Knowing how to operate a tool is useful. Knowing where to apply it, how to make it work and how to measure the value it creates is far more powerful.
The next big AI skill may not be learning to talk to machines. It may be learning how to turn their capabilities into solutions that matter.
For India, that could be an opportunity not merely to participate in the AI revolution, but to help deliver it.
