UK firms think AI is everywhere. EY’s new hires say otherwise

Most British businesses believe they have cracked AI, but Big Four firm EY is betting £750 million worth of senior engineers that they have not.

The consultancy launched a Forward Deployed Engineer programme across the UK and Ireland this week, recruiting an initial 45 to 50 senior AI engineers who will sit inside client teams and ship AI systems into live operations rather than leave them stuck as pilots.

The roles, based in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast, target sectors including insurance underwriting, claims processing, bank lending and risk mapping.

The launch exposes a gap that EY’s own research has flagged. Some 78% of UK organisations believe AI is fully or mostly implemented across their business, yet 49% admit their approach is insufficient for the challenges posed by autonomous AI. That contradiction sits at the heart of why EY is hiring.

Preetham Peddanagari, EY UK and Ireland Chief Technology Officer, said most enterprises have proven AI works in isolated cases, but far fewer have deployed it consistently across core operations. He argues the limiting factor is no longer ambition or funding, but specialist engineering capability and the ability to execute at scale.

The model EY is importing comes straight from Palantir, the US data firm that built its reputation by embedding engineers inside client organisations to make complex software actually work in production.

Forward Deployed Engineer roles have surged across the AI industry, with monthly job listings up more than 800% between January and September 2025 according to Financial Times reporting.

OpenAI, Anthropic and Cohere have all expanded similar teams. EY’s move brings the pattern into Big Four consulting and signals a pragmatic admission that strategy decks no longer get AI projects across the line.

The hiring drive sits inside a broader EY push. The firm has invested more than $1bn in its EY.ai platform, covering research, talent and firmwide upskilling, and was recently selected for the inaugural Frontier Firm AI Initiative run by Harvard Business School’s Digital Data Design Institute with Microsoft.

Global AI-related revenue at EY grew 30% in FY25, driven by enterprise transformations and AI governance work. The FDE roles are designed to convert that demand into delivery, with governance, regulatory compliance and risk controls baked in from day one rather than bolted on later.

Pressure on the Big Four to prove AI value

The launch lands at an awkward moment for professional services. EY and its rivals have made several rounds of redundancies, including dozens of senior partners last year, as the industry grapples with a slowdown.

Sayeh Ghanbari, Consulting Managing Partner at EY UK and Ireland, framed the new roles as part of a firmwide commitment to lead clients through a rapidly evolving era and transform businesses quickly and responsibly.

The unspoken context is that strategy advisory revenue is harder to grow when CEOs and investors are demanding tangible returns on AI spend rather than another roadmap.

UK and Irish AI engineers with regulated industry experience are now contested across Big Four firms, AI native consultancies and end clients themselves.

Expect upward pressure on senior AI engineer salaries, with US comparators in similar roles starting from roughly $200,000 (£150,000) base.

Whether EY’s bet pays off will depend on whether the firm publishes case-level outcomes such as time to production, defect rates or governance compliance, which would turn the FDE label from marketing into a procurement standard British buyers can actually compare.

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