AGMM AI consultancy / How the founders work
What is a forward deployed AI engineer?
A forward deployed AI engineer works directly inside a business, in its real systems and workflows, and carries one problem from diagnosis through to a production system. Sam Wall and Adam Gillett are forward deployed AI engineers. They work inside the real workflow, alongside the people closest to it, find the constraint and stay with the work through deployment. AGMM's dev team builds alongside them.
Greater Manchester / UK and international delivery
- 01 Diagnose
- 02 Design
- 03 Build
- 04 Deploy
The operating model
What does forward deployed actually mean? The engineering happens where the problem lives.
A recommendation on its own is not the job. We work with the business leaders, operators and frontline people who understand the process, then take responsibility for the technical route from first diagnosis to a production system.
AI is an enabling layer, not the starting assumption. If the right answer is conventional software, an integration or a simpler process change, that is what we recommend and build.
One route through the work
How does the work run? Discovery, engineering and deployment stay connected.
- 01
Work inside the real problem
We speak to the people doing the work, inspect the tools and trace the hand-offs. The operating reality is the brief.
- 02
Find the constraint
We identify the step where time, margin or momentum is being lost and agree what a useful result must change.
- 03
Build where it has to run
We design, write, integrate and test the system against your actual data, rules, exceptions and existing software.
- 04
Deploy it into ordinary work
We put the system into use, improve it with the people relying on it and leave your business able to operate it.
The people in the room
Who will you speak to? The people doing the work.
Sam and Adam are with you from the first conversation through implementation, and they build. AGMM's dev team works to their design, not as a separate bench you are handed to. There is no sales layer and no account manager.
01
Sam Wall
Architecture, engineering and deploymentSam works across the technical system: architecture, software engineering, integrations, AI behaviour, testing, deployment and the decisions that keep the build reliable.
More about Sam Wall02
Adam Gillett
Process, implementation and adoptionAdam stays close to the people and process around the build, keeping requirements grounded in daily operations and helping the new way of working land clearly inside the business.
More about Adam GillettWhen to bring us in
When should you bring us in? When the problem is important and the route through it is still unclear.
- An AI pilot works in a demonstration but has not reached production.
- A critical process crosses inboxes, spreadsheets and software that never agree.
- The business problem is clear, but the technical route is not.
- A system has to fit the way your people actually work, including exceptions.
- You need somebody to own discovery, engineering and deployment together.
Acquisitions create this problem quickly: two businesses close, but their reporting, systems and hand-offs still operate separately.See the M&A operating-systems use case.
What we deploy
The category changes. The practical work stays the same.
Forward deployed engineering is how the founders work. These are the systems AGMM builds around the operational need.
- 01business process automation
Work that should happen once happens three times, in three places, and nobody owns the gap between them.
↗ - 02custom CRM development
The CRM describes a business you do not run, so nobody keeps it up to date, and the numbers in it cannot be relied on.
↗ - 03quoting and estimating software
Revenue waits on a quote, and the quote waits on the one person who knows how to price it.
↗ - 04scheduling and booking software
Scheduling depends on somebody remembering, so the busier you get the more it costs you.
↗ - 05custom process systems
A commercially important process is spread across inboxes, spreadsheets and memory because no off-the-shelf product matches how the work actually moves.
↗
Ways to work together
How can you work with us? A defined deployment, an embedded contract or continuing improvement.
Project deployment
One operational constraint, owned from discovery through a working production system.
Embedded contract
Forward deployed engineering capacity inside your team for an agreed period and outcome.
Continuing improvement
An ongoing route for operating, measuring and improving systems already in use.
Whichever shape fits, the route in is the same: a free 30-minute fit call, then a fixed £2,000 business-wide AI Constraint Audit. It maps constraints, tests viable opportunities and ranks the investment before anyone writes code.See what it costs.
Clear answers
Forward deployed AI engineering, without the jargon.
What is a forward deployed AI engineer?
A forward deployed AI engineer works directly with a business inside its real systems and workflows. They move from discovery and technical scoping through design, engineering, integration and production deployment, rather than handing over a recommendation for somebody else to build.
Is AGMM an AI consultancy?
Yes. AI consultancy is the category, and it is what we are hired to do: work out what a business should actually do with AI. The difference is what happens next. A consultancy can stop at analysis, a recommendation or a roadmap and leave someone else to build it. Our founders are forward deployed AI engineers, so the people who diagnose the problem also write the code, connect the systems, test the edge cases and deploy the result, with our dev team building alongside them.
Can we hire AGMM as contract forward deployed AI engineers?
Yes. AGMM can work on a defined deployment, as an embedded contract team for a fixed period, or through a continuing programme of improvements. The free 30-minute fit call is used to understand the problem and decide whether the business-wide audit is a sensible next step.
Do we need an internal technical team?
No. We can work directly with business owners, operators and frontline teams, or alongside an existing technical team. What matters is access to the people, systems and decisions around the workflow being changed.
Is a forward deployed AI engineer the same as an AI deployment engineer?
The terms overlap. Forward deployed AI engineer, AI deployment engineer, embedded AI engineer and applied AI engineer can all describe customer-facing engineers who turn an operational problem into a working production system. Forward deployed puts particular emphasis on working inside the customer environment from discovery through deployment.
Sources for the term. Forward deployed engineer, Wikipedia · What are Forward Deployed Engineers, and why are they so in demand?, The Pragmatic Engineer. Read 16 September 2026.
Start with the constraint