Secure AI needs forward deployed engineers

A vendor's security guidance assumes a reference architecture nobody actually runs. A compliance framework assumes clean data ownership and a documented approval chain. The distance between the guidance and the deployment is where AI programs stall. Forward deployed engineers close that distance — embedding with a customer to turn guardrails, threat models, and control requirements into integrations that fit how that specific enterprise actually runs. The panel asks whether the FDE is a permanent fixture of enterprise AI or a sign the tooling isn't finished, and what it genuinely takes to translate security and compliance guidance into a specific environment.