We’re pleased to announce that Alscient has joined the Salesforce Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) Partner Network. The invite-only programme recognises our proven track record of delivering Agentforce and our commitment to Salesforce’s internal engineering standards, enabling us to help customers to take AI from pilot to production.

Salesforce selects partners based on technical rigour and production outcomes. For us, that makes the achievement particularly significant. During the past couple of years, our team has invested heavily in Agentforce and Data 360. We’ve developed deep technical expertise through hands-on implementations and continued training, helping ensure AI doesn’t just work in a demo, but delivers in a live business environment.

What is the FDE Partner Network?

Salesforce launched the FDE Partner Network in 2026 to bridge the gap between AI ambition and the engineering capacity needed to put it into practice. While plenty of partners can build a proof of concept, the harder challenge is integrating agents into live business processes with real data and systems. The network sets and elite engineering standard built specifically to move customers from AI experimentation to production reality.

The Salesforce FDE Partner Network is an exclusive, invitation-only ecosystem of elite implementation partners trained by Salesforce to drive Agentforce implementation and adoption. Each partner must also have a minimum number of practitioners who hold both the Agentforce Specialist and Data 360 Consultant certifications.

Once selected, partners gain direct access to Salesforce’s forward deployed engineering expertise, tooling, and roadmap insight, helping them take customers from proof of concept to agents running reliably in live business processes.

What is a Forward Deployed Engineer?

An FDE is a hybrid by design. They’re deeply technical and hands-on in the build, but equally comfortable sitting with an executive, understanding the business problem, and taking responsibility for the outcome.

To become a Salesforce-ready FDE, practitioners complete around 80 hours of prerequisites, including the Salesforce Agentforce Specialist and Data 360 Consultant certifications. This is followed by a two-day workshop focused on use case qualification, agentic design, unstructured data, and adoption.

Forward deployed engineers are skilled at:

• Translating complex requirements into scalable solutions that accelerate Salesforce adoption, rather than one-off builds.
• Working with a Product Owner mindset rather than a traditional software engineering one; the question is what outcome the business needs, not what sits on the ticket.
• Using integrated tooling and Salesforce support to cut initial implementations from several weeks to hours, while maintaining quality and scalability.
• Carrying accountability beyond technical delivery to measurable impact, consumption, and sustained adoption.

What does this mean for our customers?

For our customers, being part of the network strengthens the support we can provide in three important ways:

• Engineering support straight from the source: We have a direct link to the Salesforce product and technical experts behind Agentforce, giving us additional support when tackling complex data, integration, and compliance challenges. That means fewer workarounds, less risk, and a clearer route through difficult engineering decisions.
• Built for production, not for the demo: FDE engagements are designed around getting agents live, compliant and adopted – not simply proving that an idea can work. We stay involved through go-live, hypercare and adoption rather than stopping at handover.
• Earlier insight into the roadmap: Greater visibility of where Agentforce and Data 360 are heading helps us make better-informed architecture decisions today. That reduces the risk of unnecessary rework as the platform evolves.

Thinking about Agentforce?

Trying to work out where agents could genuinely make a difference? Already started, but struggling to get from pilot to production? We’d be glad to talk it through. Get in touch here.