I was actually deep in the weeds working on an Apple piece. The idea was to figure out where the tech giant goes from here and whether they can bounce back from the recent AI missteps and that whole Vision Pro mess. It’s still a fascinating story. But then, on Good Friday, something massive dropped—news from Palantir that I just couldn’t ignore.
So I shelved the Apple deep dive for now, because what Palantir is doing might be one of the most important shifts in enterprise software we’ve seen in years. And I personally am ecstatic.
It’s easy to underestimate a company like Palantir. For years, people called it a consulting firm in disguise. A black box. Too complex to scale. But now we’re entering a new chapter.. and it’s not just hype. It’s product evolution. It’s deployment acceleration. And it’s about to get wildly profitable.
At the center of it all? AI Forward Deployed Engineers, or FDEs.
Palantir’s traditional approach involved sending brilliant engineers (FDEs) to the client’s site to customize and implement its software. These weren’t just tech folks, they were the ones who made Palantir work in the real world. They took the raw software and shaped it into something meaningful for each business or government agency.
Now imagine if those engineers never had to sleep. Never took a break. Never hit capacity. That’s what AI FDEs are. And that is what Palantir CTO just confirmed on a call, that the company has built AI FDE's which are ready to be deployed. Check out the short clip below.
These AI agents are trained to replicate what human FDEs do: understand client systems, tailor solutions, and bring Palantir’s platform to life. But they can do it at scale. On demand. With zero marginal cost.
Let’s break this down.
1. Scaling Without Hiring
Palantir used to grow in a linear fashion. More clients meant more engineers. More projects. More effort. AI FDEs flip that equation. Now, one AI model can serve countless clients at once. That means Palantir can grow without bloating headcount. The same team can serve 10 clients, then 100, then 1,000.
2. Margins Go Vertical
Deploying software used to be slow and expensive. Each client was a new lift. With AI FDEs, implementation becomes faster and cheaper. Less manual work. More automation. That feeds directly into gross margins. It’s like software-as-a-service on steroids.
3. More Value for Customers
Here’s the best part. AI FDEs don’t just benefit Palantir, they make the product more powerful for customers too. You can now customize Palantir’s digital twins however you want. In hours, not months. That unlocks insane levels of operational efficiency for any business using the platform.
You want to automate your factory floor? Your logistics chain? Your compliance workflow? Done. AI FDEs help make it real without waiting for a consultant to fly in and code for weeks.
4. Accelerating the Flywheel
The more Palantir productizes its software, the easier it is to sell, deploy, and scale. The easier it is to deploy, the more clients it attracts. And the more clients, the more data Palantir captures and learns from. This creates a flywheel effect and AI FDEs just made that wheel spin faster.
5. The Road to Autonomous Enterprises
All of this is driving toward a bigger picture. Fully autonomous organizations. Companies that use digital twins and AI to run operations with minimal human involvement. We’re not talking about replacing everyone overnight, but it’s easy to see where this is going. AI handles support. AI handles logistics. AI handles decisions. And Palantir is the backbone.
AI FDEs are step two in that evolution. AIP was step one.
That’s why I believe this changes everything. Not just for Palantir’s customers. For Palantir itself. Higher margins. Greater reach. More predictable revenue. And a massive moat that gets harder to cross with every deployment.
If you’re a long-term investor, this is exactly the kind of inflection point you wait for. Quiet. Underappreciated. But deeply transformational.
And if you’re already holding the stock at lower levels, congratulations. The future looks pretty damn good from here. I keep saying that Palantir is the next Microsoft, and I am bullish as ever on their stock.
Buy PLTR stock, your future self will thank you.
