u/4kyl_biz

I keep seeing the title Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) more often, especially in AI companies.

What does this role actually look like day to day?

Is it more like software engineering, solution engineering, consulting, or a mix of all of them?

Also curious about:

• How much coding do FDEs usually do?
• How much time is spent working directly with customers?
• What skills make someone good at this role?
• How is it different from a solutions architect or sales engineer?

Would love to hear from people who are FDEs or have worked closely with them.

I feel like AI is really useful because it helps me think deeper, find more ideas, and see things from different angles.

But recently I also feel like there is just too much information.

I can keep asking AI more questions, reading more, saving more notes, and exploring more ideas. It feels productive, but sometimes at the end of the day I’m not sure I actually got much done.

I’m starting to think the hard part now is not finding information, but knowing what to ignore and when to stop thinking and start doing.

Protecting focus time and doing one thing at a time feels more important than ever.

Anyone else feeling the same?

How do you decide when you have enough information and it’s time to just do the work?

Anyone else feel like mid-level devs are getting hit pretty hard by AI?

Juniors are cheaper, seniors still have a lot of experience and bigger-picture skills, but mid-level devs used to be the people who could just pick up tickets and get stuff done.

Now AI can help a lot with that kind of work.

I’m not saying AI will replace developers, but it feels like companies might need fewer mid-level people than before.

For people with around 3–7 years experience, are you feeling this too? Is hiring getting worse, or am I just overthinking it?

Curious how much AI has genuinely impacted everyone’s day-to-day work.

For me, it feels like coding assistants are getting good enough that they can handle a decent amount of boilerplate, debugging, refactoring, tests, and sometimes even larger chunks of implementation.

But I’m not sure how much this has actually changed jobs in practice.

For those working as software engineers:

• Are you noticeably more productive because of AI?
• Has your team reduced hiring because existing engineers can do more?
• Are junior roles becoming harder to justify?
• Has the type of work you do changed?
• Do you feel more or less secure about your job than 1–2 years ago?
• Are companies actually expecting engineers to use AI now?
• Do you think AI will reduce SWE headcount, or mostly just raise expectations?

I’m especially interested in real experiences rather than predictions about AGI.

AI has improved a lot, but there are still some things it’s surprisingly bad at.

For me, one of the biggest issues is that AI can give a completely wrong answer while sounding very confident.

What’s one thing you think AI still does badly?

Is it reasoning, coding, creativity, understanding context, giving accurate information, or something else?

And do you think this is something AI will eventually solve, or is it a fundamental limitation?

Lately I’ve been trying to use AI less to just dump more information into my brain, and more to actually help me think.

I’ll ask it to challenge my assumptions, poke holes in my reasoning, or make me explain something back in my own words.

Feels way more useful than just endlessly consuming answers. I’m trying to use AI to learn how to think better, not just know more stuff.

Anyone else using it like this?

Hi everyone! I’m pretty new to Reddit and still figuring out how everything works 😅

Any tips on Reddit etiquette, finding good communities, or things I should avoid doing as a new user would be really appreciated. Thanks!