The Demo Dazzled the Board. The P&L Never Noticed.
We’ve gotten very good at getting AI into production. So, what happens after?
A model can be accurate.
An agent can be reliable.
The technology can be live.
And yet the business continues operating exactly as it did before.
Old workflows remain.
People keep their old decision rights.
Incentives reward the old behavior.
And the P&L barely notices.
I call this the second last mile: the distance between “the AI is in production” and “the business now runs differently.”
That’s where the Forward Deployed Consultant (FDC) enters the frame—working hand-in-hand with the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE).
Drawing on real-world patterns across telecom and retail, my latest piece breaks down why these two roles must be deployed as a unified pair (not a sequential handoff) to bridge the gap between technical capability and real P&L impact.
If you’re ready to stop asking, “Did we deploy the AI?” and start asking, “What is now measurably different because we did?”, read the full article below.