Sunny Rekhi, CTO of Forward Deployed Engineering at Decagon, presents an insightful overview of how forward deployed engineering operates within the company. Decagon specializes in AI-driven customer service agents that provide human-like support across multiple channels, replacing traditional, often slow, customer service interactions. The forward deployed engineering team works closely with clients to configure these AI agents to handle complex support workflows and then expands their role to help clients increase revenue through proactive customer engagement, such as lease renewals for Hertz.
Decagon’s forward deployed engineering is divided into two main functions: configuring the AI agent to meet specific enterprise needs and acting as the frontline for customer product requests. The team ensures that solutions developed for one client are scalable and beneficial for others, avoiding one-off fixes. Importantly, forward deployed engineering at Decagon is integrated with product engineering, blurring traditional boundaries so that customer feedback directly informs product development, especially when working with large enterprises like Fortune 20 companies.
As Decagon has grown rapidly from 50 to 500 employees within a year, the company has evolved its engineering roles. Initially, agent software engineers handled all aspects of deployment, but now the roles are specialized into agent builders, who focus on configuring the AI agent within the UI, and agent software engineers, who handle product requests and integration. This specialization helps maintain high standards and scalability, emphasizing the importance of building solutions that serve multiple customers rather than quick, isolated fixes.
A key part of Decagon’s forward deployed engineering philosophy is rigorous upfront requirements gathering and aligning closely with customers on what success looks like. The team also leverages industry experts to accelerate onboarding new clients within specific verticals, ensuring faster deployment and better outcomes. They prioritize proving value quickly to clients, enabling multi-year partnerships by demonstrating early wins before expanding the AI agent’s capabilities across broader support and revenue workflows.
Sunny emphasizes the dual role of forward deployed engineers as both executors and advisers. By analyzing historical support data and cross-customer insights, they guide clients on the highest ROI automation opportunities, often steering them away from initial requests toward more impactful solutions. Decagon’s ethos centers on transforming custom work into self-serve, scalable product features, ensuring continuous improvement and knowledge sharing across deployments. This approach, combined with a fast-moving, trusted team, has been critical to Decagon’s success and rapid growth in the AI customer service space.
