The reality of being a forward deployed engineer (FDE)

Manas Verma, an AI forward-deployed engineer, found that an AI assistant invented column names while mapping a legacy database, and a product expert checked the mapping.

Manas Verma is an AI forward-deployed engineer, an engineer placed with a client to build working systems. Writing in LeadDev, he describes migrating data from a legacy system that had no data dictionary listing its tables and columns. His company's approved AI assistant helped map the tables but invented columns and missed required ones.

• The AI assistant invented column names that did not exist while mapping tables without a data dictionary.
• It also missed columns that a table required, which Verma says could have caused failures further along.
• A product subject-matter expert checked the mapping.
• Verma now reviews everything the assistant writes and keeps giving it context about the task.

That a check by someone who knows the system matters most where documentation is missing is an inference and is not the author's claim.

Derived by Working Surface from the article; more in the Playbook. Source line: When the AI assistant helped map tables without a data dictionary, it invented column names that didn’t exist.

17 October 2026: AI output that looks finished at first glance still needs a named person who checks it against something real, and teams now plan their work around that check.