AI tools for Forward Deployed Engineering — Vasuman Moza, Varick Agents
Jul 28, 2026 · 20:23
Varick Agents CEO Vasuman Moza and head of engineering JD Pruitt explain how forward deployed engineers (FDEs) design AI agents that sit on top of existing enterprise systems like SAP or NetSuite rather than requiring migrations—one customer spent $5M and five years on NetSuite, so Varick drops agents onto those systems. The bottleneck is understanding each business’s unique, undocumented workflows (e.g., when AP fails, Sarah sends to Chris, adding four days of cycle time). FDEs map these processes, re-engineer them around AI (automating four of eight steps, keeping human-in-the-loop for three, fully human for one), then deploy using Varick OS. To scale FDEs without hiring exponentially, Varick built an AI FDE agent that ingests granola notes and Slack threads, uses a Postgres-based dependency graph as a single source of truth, and post-trains open-source models (Kimi K26) to extract the right context and strip redundancy. JD outlines three stages: an engagement agent for querying documentation, a workflow agent that shadows FDEs inside the platform, and a future autonomous agent that handles client change requests (e.g., rerouting a QC report) without FDE involvement.
