Anthropic on October 2, 2026 launched Claude Frontier Academy, a training initiative backed by a $100 million commitment that aims to train 10,000 Frontier Deployed Engineers by the end of 2027. Engineers from Accenture, Bain, Capgemini, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deloitte, McKinsey, Morgan Stanley, Novo Nordisk and other organizations make up the first cohorts.
Anthropic described the Academy as the first of its kind from an AI company, built from its own work deploying Claude inside large enterprises and the professional services organizations that serve them. The company framed the program around what it called a shortage of enterprise AI talent, saying that inside the companies it works with, a small group of deeply skilled people drives an outsized share of what AI delivers.
Steve Corfield, Anthropic’s global head of business development and partnerships, said no AI company has invested at this depth in building that talent inside its customers and partners. “Claude Frontier Academy trains people the way our own engineers learn, and we want those who graduate to set the standard for how AI gets built inside a business,” he said in the announcement.
The Frontier Deployed Engineer Residency
The Academy’s first program, the Frontier Deployed Engineer Residency, follows a medical-training model: just as doctors train under practicing physicians and are assessed before practicing on their own, participating engineers are taught by practitioners, rehearse on realistic cases, and sit an assessment before the credential is granted. Anthropic said the goal is agentic systems that change how a business runs, from faster, redesigned processes to new products and services.
The program is aimed at hands-on software engineers with strong fundamentals, a record of building with large language models, and experience helping others adopt AI. Prior experience building AI agents is not required. Organizations nominate their strongest engineers, and each participant is nominated with a specific Claude project to lead once back at their organization.
Engineers begin with a multi-day, in-person program led by Anthropic engineers and licensed instructors. They work through a simulated enterprise deployment that runs from use-case selection through a security review to final handover, and finish with a graded practical on a new scenario. Those who pass earn the Claude Resident Engineer badge and move into a 12-week residency, where they lead a real Claude use case at their own organization with support from Anthropic engineers while learning from their cohort. Engineers are assessed again at the end of the 12 weeks, and those who pass earn the Claude Frontier Deployed Engineer badge. Anthropic expects the first of those credentials in early 2027.
First Cohorts Running in Three Cities
Cohorts are running in San Francisco, New York and London, and Anthropic said the program will grow toward 10,000 engineers by the end of 2027. Participation is by nomination, and organizations can ask their Anthropic account team or Partner Account Manager whether they are eligible.
Statements From First-Cohort Organizations
Accenture said the residency matches its own view of the forward deployed engineer role because it tests judgment through a simulated enterprise deployment, and said participation will deepen its engineers’ Claude expertise. Capgemini said that by working side by side with Anthropic’s own engineers, it is investing in and building the delivery excellence that clients recognize immediately. McKinsey said the residency sets the bar for how its technologists apply Claude to client business goals.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia said its engineers use AI tools every day and that its teams produced up to 3x more code changes over the past year, describing the residency as taking them deeper. “We are building tomorrow’s bank today, and this program gives our teams the tools and expertise to engineer the best possible products for our customers,” the bank said.
Novo Nordisk said it already runs Claude Science in its R&D workflows and Anthropic’s frontier models in its software development, with Anthropic engineers working alongside its scientists, and that it joined the Academy to give its engineers the same hands-on training behind Anthropic’s deployments.
Built on the Claude Partner Network
Anthropic said the Academy builds on the Claude Partner Network, where professionals across 46,000 firms have earned more than 175,000 Claude certifications and nearly 4,000 people have completed Basecamp, an immersive program that teaches the onboarding curriculum used by Anthropic’s own Applied AI teams.
Anthropic launched the Claude Partner Network in March 2026 alongside a separate $100 million investment, and added a Services Track in June 2026 to help enterprise buyers find firms. On July 23, 2026, the company expanded its certification program to four role-based credentials, granted through proctored, identity-verified exams delivered with Pearson. At that point, Anthropic reported more than 36,000 certified consultants across more than 1,300 organizations, and said more than 400,000 people had completed Claude training in 2026 through Anthropic Partner Academy, its free training platform for partners.
Firms in the network have committed to certify set numbers of professionals, including Accenture at 50,000, PwC at 30,000, Capgemini at 20,000 and Deloitte at 15,000, according to the July announcement. The network’s top tier, Global Premier, requires 1,000 certified practitioners, 100 customers across three regions and 15 public customer endorsements, and the July post said the next network-wide tier review was scheduled for October 1, 2026.
Anthropic described the Academy as a program for the people who will lead the work, and said training 10,000 Frontier Deployed Engineers is the first step of many.
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