- Microsoft’s plan to add 6,000 AI engineers is seen as an opportunity by LTM CEO Venu Lambu
- The global supply of forward-deployed AI engineers is only in the few thousands worldwide
- LTM launched AI1000 to build 1,000 forward-deployed AI engineers amid high market demand
When Microsoft announced it was investing $2-3 billion to build a fleet of 6,000 forward-deployed AI engineers, the immediate read across Wall Street was competitive threat to IT services firms. LTM CEO Venu Lambu does not see it that way.
"I see this more as an opportunity for us than as a threat," Lambu said on the company's Q1FY27 earnings call on Saturday, addressing an analyst question about Microsoft's move directly. His reasoning comes down to one number: the global supply of forward-deployed engineers, the specialists who sit inside client organisations and actually get AI working, currently stands at "few thousands" worldwide.
"Trust me, they are like in few thousands. So they're not like in hundreds of thousands or 200 thousands of like software engineers. They're a very, very small number at the moment in the market," Lambu said. "The market needs a large population of FD engineers to accelerate their adoption."
In other words, Microsoft adding 6,000 does not crowd the market.
ALSO READ: LTM Q1 Results: Net Profit Grows 5.3%, Meets D-Street Expectations
From Models To Deployment
Lambu framed the moment as a broader inflection in how enterprises are engaging with AI. The industry, he said, has moved past what he called the "AI creation phase" — the period of model launches, benchmark comparisons, and feature announcements — into what he described as the deployment phase.
"When the rubber hits the road is the AI deployment conversation," he said. That shift is where IT services firms believe the real commercial opportunity sits, and it is why the demand for engineers who can translate AI capability into actual business outcomes is outpacing supply so sharply.
LTM launched AI1000 this quarter, a programme to build a pool of 1,000 forward-deployed engineers of its own. Against a global supply of "few thousands," 1,000 is a meaningful position to hold.
The Cloud Parallel
The comparison Lambu kept returning to was cloud. A decade ago, hyperscalers built their own professional services arms to help clients migrate. IT firms braced for competition. What happened instead was that the hyperscalers became customers and co-delivery partners. "We ended up working with them on two fronts. Either they became our customer, we delivered services through them to their customers, or we actually partnered with them in some of the last deals," Lambu said.
LTM is already on that path with at least one hyperscaler on new AI workloads, though Lambu did not name the company. He also disclosed that LTM is "in the final stages of announcing a strategic partnership with one of the AI labs," with an update expected within days.
The five-year target LTM set at its Investor Day is to double revenues. At 6% growth in FY26 and 0.3% sequential dollar growth in Q1FY27, the deployment era cannot come fast enough.
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