Anthropic is launching Claude Frontier Academy to address a major obstacle to enterprise AI adoption: a shortage of skilled talent. With $100 million behind it, Anthropic plans to train 10,000 Frontier Deployed Engineers (FDEs) by the end of 2027. The first cohorts include engineers from Accenture, Bain, Capgemini, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deloitte, McKinsey, Morgan Stanley and Novo Nordisk.
Every enterprise wants to bring AI into its organization, but people who can make it work inside a real business are now the hardest talent to find. At the companies Anthropic works with, a small group of highly skilled people drives a disproportionate share of the value AI delivers. The Academy is the first of its kind from an AI company. It draws on Anthropic's own experience deploying Claude inside the world's largest enterprises and the professional services firms that serve them.
Steve Corfield, Global Head of Business Development and Partnerships at Anthropic, said that a small team of high-agency people with the right skills, access to Claude and a deep understanding of their business can transform an entire company. He said the hard part is building that depth of talent: engineers with top-level AI fluency who can take Claude from an idea to a production system and turn it into faster processes and new products and services. He noted that no AI company has invested in developing this talent inside its customers and partners at this depth. Claude Frontier Academy trains people the way Anthropic's own engineers learn, and Anthropic wants graduates to set the standard for how AI gets built inside a business.
The first program trains 10,000 Frontier Deployed Engineers
The Academy's first program, the Frontier Deployed Engineer Residency, follows the medical model of building expertise. Doctors learn from practicing physicians, train on real cases and are assessed before practicing alone. Similarly, residency engineers learn from practitioners, work on realistic cases and are assessed on their work before earning the credential. The goal is agentic systems that change how a business runs, from redesigned processes to new products and services.
The program is for hands-on software engineers with strong fundamentals, a record of building with LLMs, experience helping others adopt AI, and a habit of tackling their business's most important problems. Organizations nominate their strongest engineers, and each arrives with a named Claude project to lead on return. Prior experience building AI agents isn't required.
Engineers begin with a multi-day in-person program led by Anthropic engineers and licensed instructors. They work through a simulated enterprise deployment, from choosing the right use case through security review to handover, and finish with a graded practical on a new scenario. Those who pass earn the Claude Resident Engineer badge and move into a 12-week residency. There they lead a real Claude use case at their own organization, supported by Anthropic engineers and learning from their cohort. After the 12 weeks, engineers are assessed again, and those who pass earn the Claude Frontier Deployed Engineer badge, with the first expected in early 2027.
The first cohorts are running now
Cohorts are running in San Francisco, New York and London, and the program will grow toward 10,000 engineers by the end of 2027. Participation is by nomination. Organizations can ask their Anthropic account team or Partner Account Manager whether they are eligible.
Leading enterprises and consulting firms are in the first cohorts
- Accenture (Ram Ramalingam, FDE and Software & Platform Engineering lead): Forward deployed engineers turn AI ambition into enterprise-wide impact by working inside client workflows. Anthropic designed the residency to match how Accenture views the role, testing judgment in a simulated enterprise deployment rather than isolated technical skills. Joining will deepen its engineers' Claude expertise and speed up client value.
- Bain (Michael Blake, Partner, Global Head of Engineering): Deep, hands-on AI engineering capability is critical to helping clients move from experimentation to impact at scale. The residency lets its engineers sharpen their skills directly with Anthropic.
- Capgemini (Geoffroy Pajot, Global Head of AI Partnerships Ecosystem): Clients care less about certification counts and more about knowing how to solve real problems that create value. Working alongside Anthropic's engineers builds delivery excellence clients recognize immediately.
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Rodrigo Castillo, Group Chief Technology Officer): Its engineers use AI tools daily and produced up to 3x more code changes in the past year. The residency takes them deeper into building, securing and shipping alongside peers at the frontier.
- Deloitte (Faruk Muratovic, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP): Enterprise-scale AI deployment needs people who can drive a project from requirements through security review to adoption. The residency lets Deloitte scale a discipline it has already tested, and the firm is joining the inaugural cohort to extend its bench of Claude-ready talent.
- McKinsey (Dan Tinkoff, Senior Partner and Global Co-leader of QuantumBlack): The collaboration is about using frontier AI to create better business outcomes for clients. The residency sets the bar for applying Claude and gives its technologists experience learning frontier techniques alongside Anthropic's engineers.
- Novo Nordisk (Loic Giraud, VP Data & AI): AI is already changing how the company discovers and develops medicines, through Claude Science in R&D, Anthropic's models in software development, and Anthropic engineers working with its scientists. The residency gives its engineers the same hands-on training behind Anthropic's most successful deployments, to bring new medicines to patients faster.
The Claude Partner Network
Claude Frontier Academy builds on the Claude Partner Network, where professionals across 46,000 firms have earned more than 175,000 Claude certifications. Nearly 4,000 people have completed Basecamp, an immersive program teaching the same curriculum Anthropic's Applied AI teams receive when they onboard. The Academy is for the people who will lead the work, and training 10,000 Frontier Deployed Engineers is the first of many steps.