Anthropic has announced the launch of Claude Frontier Academy, a training initiative backed by a $100 million commitment aimed at addressing what the company calls one of the most pressing issues in AI implementation: talent. The goal is to train 10,000 Frontier Deployed Engineers (FDEs) by the end of 2027.
According to Anthropic, enterprises are racing to bring AI into their organizations, but the people with the skills to make it work inside a real business have become the hardest talent to find. The Academy is described as the first of its kind from an AI company, built from Anthropic's own work deploying Claude inside large enterprises and the professional services organizations that serve them.
The first program, the Frontier Deployed Engineer Residency, follows a medical training model: engineers learn from practitioners, practice on realistic cases, and are assessed before earning a credential. Participants begin with a multi-day in-person program alongside Anthropic engineers and licensed instructors, work through a simulated enterprise deployment, and complete a graded practical. Those who pass earn the Claude Resident Engineer badge and enter a 12-week residency leading a real Claude use case at their own organization. A final assessment leads to the Claude Frontier Deployed Engineer badge, with the first expected in early 2027.
The program is designed for hands-on software engineers with strong fundamentals, a record of building with LLMs, and experience helping others adopt AI. Organizations nominate their strongest engineers, each arriving with a named Claude project to lead upon return. Prior experience building AI agents is not required.
Cohorts are currently running in San Francisco, New York and London. Engineers from Accenture, Bain, Capgemini, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deloitte, McKinsey, Morgan Stanley and Novo Nordisk are in the first cohorts. Participation is by nomination, and organizations can ask their Anthropic account team or Partner Account Manager about eligibility.
The Academy builds on the Claude Partner Network, where professionals across 46,000 firms have earned more than 175,000 Claude certifications and nearly 4,000 people have completed Basecamp, an immersive program teaching the same curriculum Anthropic's Applied AI teams receive. Anthropic says training 10,000 Frontier Deployed Engineers is the first step of many.