Microsoft Frontier Company is the latest example of how experts are necessary to achieving returns on AI investments.
July 2, 2026
Microsoft introduced a new operating business on Thursday as it seeks to provide enterprises with the expertise needed to deploy and integrate AI.
The company is investing $2.5 billion into Microsoft Frontier Company, an effort that will embed 6,000 industry and engineering experts to codesign, co-innovate, deploy and improve AI systems with customers. While the program is meant to accelerate AI initiatives, it’s also recognition that AI integration cannot succeed without humans in the enterprise.
While Microsoft said its more than an investment in forward deployed engineering, the new initiative closely follows in the footsteps of organizations such as Palantir, which has championed embedding software engineers into enterprises, as well as AWS’s $1 billion FDE investment earlier this week. OpenAI also introduced a similar program in February.
