You can build AI. Now deploy it with customers.
AI for Forward Deployed Engineers, GuildTrek’s program for engineers who want to ship AI with customers. An 8-week accelerator: discover, design, build, integrate, deploy, and hand over real AI solutions. Starts 17 August 2026.
Starts 17 Aug 2026
Fees shared on enquiry · nothing due to apply
Instructor-led by Sankar Vema. Know your trainer Not sure? Compare with Applied AI Engineering See the full curriculum, topic by topic What you walk away with
8
Weeks
80
Live hours
112
Total hours
24
Topics
5
Projects
1
Customer-panel capstone
Not sure it's for you? Don't take our word for it.
Is the Forward Deployed Engineer really the hottest job in AI, or just hype?
Sound familiar?
If any of these is you, keep reading.
If any of these sound like you, FDE AI was built for exactly your path.
“You can build AI, but landing it in a real customer is a different game.”
You own the full delivery lifecycle, from discovery to handover.
“Your prototype works, until it meets the customer’s systems and data.”
You learn integrations, data plumbing, and deployment in real environments.
“You jump to building before you understand the problem.”
Design thinking first: frame, qualify, and design before a line of code.
“Enterprise security and compliance stall your solution.”
You deploy safely: VPC, on-prem, privacy, and data residency.
“You can build it but struggle to demo and hand it over.”
You learn to demo, scope, and enable the customer’s team.
“You want the hottest AI role but do not know the path.”
One delivery-focused track: discover to deploy to defend.
Why this is different
Not another course. Here is the difference.
The difference is delivery: you do not stop at a demo, you deploy, prove, and hand over a real solution.
Another course
GuildTrek
A course that stops at a demo
A solution deployed in a real environment
Build-only, no customer in sight
Discovery, delivery, and a customer-panel defense
Toy data that always behaves
A messy-enterprise sandbox you integrate against
A PDF certificate
A portfolio of deployed solutions + the FDE Playbook
“You figure out the interview”
AI mock solutioning interviews and expert reviews
In 8 weeks, you go from
- “I can build an AI demo”
- “I have done a few AI projects”
- “I can prompt an LLM”
“I discovered, designed, built, integrated, deployed, and handed over a bespoke AI solution for a customer, and defended it.”
Proof, not a PDF
What you will build
Across the program you discover, build, integrate, deploy, and defend real solutions, ending in a bespoke customer solution defended to a panel.
The commitment
8 weeks. Live with a trainer, every day.
Live online every weekday plus a hands-on weekend block. 90-min teach + 30-min clinic each weekday; 2 hours of guided hands-on on Saturday and Sunday.
Mon – Fri
2 hrs / day
Live session, one topic a day (90-min teach + 30-min clinic)
Sat / Sun
2 hrs / day
Guided hands-on: pod work, solution reviews, ship-in-a-day sprints
Weekends
4 sessions
Industry-specialist masterclasses (weeks 2, 4, 6, 8)
112 total hours over the 8-week accelerator: 80 live weekday hours (2 hrs a day, Mon to Fri) plus 32 hours of guided weekend hands-on, with 4 industry-specialist masterclasses and a customer-panel capstone defense.
The path
The path, level by level.
Each level ends in a defended capstone. The full topic-by-topic detail is below.
Frame & Prototype
Build & Integrate
Deploy, Operate & Hand Over
Total
8 weeks · 112 hours
The curriculum
What you'll cover.
A structured, level-by-level path. The full topic-by-topic detail comes on enrolment.
1Level 1 · Frame & Prototype
Weeks 1–3- The FDE mindset, design thinking for AI, and customer discovery
- Qualifying AI use-cases: feasibility, value, and risk
- LLM, prompt, and RAG foundations for solution builders
- Rapid PoC (zero to demo) and solution storyboarding
2Level 2 · Build & Integrate
Weeks 4–6- Agents, tool-use, and agentic workflow automation
- Integrations, data plumbing, and vector stores
- Solution architecture & trade-offs; the delivery surface
- Evaluation & acceptance, human-in-the-loop, hardening
3Level 3 · Deploy, Operate & Hand Over
Weeks 7–8- Deployment in customer environments (cloud, VPC, on-prem)
- Security, compliance, privacy, and data residency
- LLMOps in the field; handover and enablement
- Consulting, communication, and the value case
4Every weekend
- 4 industry-specialist masterclasses across the 8 weeks, plus about 4 hours of guided hands-on each weekend (2 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday)
Where it leads
What you'll be ready for.
Starts 17 Aug 2026
Your next chapter starts here. Join the early-access list.
The first cohort is forming. Join the early-access list and get first pick of a seat before we open to everyone.