Amihan Global Strategies has launched the Amihan Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) Academy, a training initiative designed to equip Filipino engineers with the skills needed to transform artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into fully operational enterprise systems, as businesses increasingly seek to move beyond experimentation and deploy AI at scale.
Unveiled on 05 November 2026 alongside the company’s new Agentic Enterprise Center of Excellence in Makati City, the Academy is supported by Anthropic, Amazon Web Services (AWS), SpaceX Super Intelligence (SpaceXSI), and Nous Research’s Hermes Agent.
The initiative seeks to address the growing shortage of engineers capable of integrating advanced AI technologies into existing business operations while positioning the Philippines to capture higher-value opportunities in the rapidly evolving AI industry.
It also aims to support the transformation of the country’s business process outsourcing (BPO) sector by developing the technical capabilities needed to deliver more sophisticated AI-powered services.
“Every enterprise will become an agentic enterprise, and every one of them will need builders. The question for every Philippine CEO is whether those builders sit inside your company or inside your competitor’s,” said Winston Damarillo, Chairman of Amihan Global Strategies.
Bridging the Gap Between AI Investment and Deployment
Despite growing corporate investments in artificial intelligence, many organizations continue to struggle with translating AI initiatives into measurable business results.
According to a study by executive search firm Christian & Timbers cited by Amihan, fewer than one in five companies report meaningful returns on their AI investments, highlighting a shortage of professionals capable of turning experimental AI applications into reliable production systems.
The study also found that the proportion of companies planning to recruit forward deployed engineers increased from between 5% and 10% at the beginning of 2026 to 70% by the end of the second quarter.
Meanwhile, the firm estimates that only approximately 2,000 engineers in the United States possess the combination of industry knowledge and applied AI expertise required to consistently deliver enterprise-level AI solutions.
Forward deployed engineers differ from traditional software developers because they work directly within client organizations, collaborating with business and technical teams to design, integrate, and deploy AI solutions tailored to operational requirements.
With leading AI companies prioritizing their largest global customers for specialized deployment support, Amihan sees an opportunity to help Philippine enterprises develop their own engineering capabilities rather than depend entirely on external technology providers.
Through the Academy, Amihan engineers with experience implementing enterprise systems for major Philippine banks, telecommunications companies, and conglomerates will train participating organizations’ technical personnel using their existing systems and business environments.
Practical Training Across Multiple AI Platforms
The Academy emphasizes hands-on engineering and real-world implementation rather than theoretical instruction alone.
Participants will learn to develop AI agents using Anthropic’s Claude, design secure and scalable AI infrastructure on AWS, and accelerate software development using tools associated with SpaceXSI, including Grok and Cursor.
The curriculum also introduces Nous Research’s Hermes Agent and encourages engineers to evaluate different AI platforms according to their capabilities, limitations, and suitability for specific business requirements.
Security, governance, and responsible AI deployment are incorporated into the training to help organizations establish appropriate safeguards as they introduce increasingly autonomous AI systems into their operations.
“We teach what we’ve actually shipped,” said Jerry Rapes, President of Amihan Global Strategies. “No single platform wins every problem. What lasts is a team that can govern, integrate, and ship across all of them.”
Amihan is a member of the Anthropic Claude Partner Network, an established AWS partner, and a SpaceXSI Transformation Partner in the Philippines.
AWS also highlighted the importance of developing local engineering expertise to support enterprise adoption of agentic AI, which refers to AI systems capable of executing multistep tasks, interacting with software tools, and carrying out workflows with varying degrees of autonomy.
“AWS gives organizations the flexibility to build and run agentic AI solutions in ways that fit their needs: from fully managed agents on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, or open-source agent frameworks on AWS infrastructure, all powered by leading models on Amazon Bedrock,” said Cheryl Abundo, Head of AI Infrastructure Go-to-Market for Asia Pacific, Japan, and China at AWS.
“Together with the Amihan FDE Academy, we’re developing the engineers who will help enterprises scale agentic AI into secure, governed production platforms,” Abundo added.
Expanding AI Capabilities in Government
Beyond private-sector enterprises, Amihan is extending its training initiative to government researchers and engineers through an agreement with the Department of Science and Technology’s Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI).
Under the agreement, Amihan will provide AI literacy and agentic engineering training to ASTI scientists and technical personnel, supporting efforts to strengthen domestic capabilities in developing and implementing advanced AI technologies.
The collaboration reflects the growing importance of equipping government institutions with the expertise needed to develop AI applications that address national priorities and public-sector challenges.
“Developing local AI capabilities demands not only cutting-edge infrastructure and R&D, but also continuous upskilling for our workforce,” said DOST-ASTI Director Dr. Franz A. De Leon.
“DOST-ASTI is committed to empowering Filipino scientists, engineers, and researchers with sustained, lifelong learning, ensuring our homegrown talent can build intelligent and responsible technologies tailored to the nation’s evolving challenges,” he added.
The initiative comes as Philippine businesses and government agencies explore the potential of generative and agentic AI to improve productivity, automate complex processes, and develop new digital services.
For the Philippine BPO industry, the emergence of increasingly capable AI systems presents both opportunities and challenges, particularly as automation changes the nature of traditional outsourced work.
By developing engineers who can design, integrate, manage, and maintain enterprise AI systems, Amihan hopes to help local organizations move toward more specialized, technology-intensive services.
The inaugural FDE Academy cohort will initially be available by invitation to selected Amihan enterprise clients and partners.
Applications for subsequent training batches are now being accepted through amihan.net/academy or by emailing [email protected].
The Academy forms part of Amihan’s broader effort to develop a local talent pipeline capable of supporting the Philippines’ transition from AI experimentation to large-scale enterprise deployment.