Microsoft is investing $2.5 billion to create a new artificial intelligence implementation unit that will embed 6,000 engineers, consultants and sales professionals inside customer organizations, underscoring the intensifying race among Big Tech companies to help businesses adopt AI.

The new subsidiary, Microsoft Frontier Co., will provide what the industry calls "forward-deployed engineering" (FDE) — placing technical teams directly alongside clients to design, deploy and manage AI systems tailored to their operations.

Microsoft said the division will combine existing forward-deployed engineers, technical consultants, customer support specialists and industry-focused sales teams.

Rodrigo Kede Lima, who currently oversees Microsoft's Asia business, will lead the new unit as president.

The announcement follows similar moves by Microsoft's rivals.

Amazon this week committed $1 billion to its own AI implementation initiative, while OpenAI and Anthropic launched comparable customer deployment groups earlier this year.

The investment comes as corporations move beyond experimenting with generative AI and begin integrating the technology into day-to-day business operations, CNBC reports.

Microsoft executives say customers increasingly need guidance on selecting AI models, protecting proprietary data and connecting AI tools to existing software systems.

"Our customers are in very different places right now and are trying to figure out AI," Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft's commercial business, said in announcing the initiative.

Microsoft has spent tens of billions of dollars expanding the data centers that power generative AI services.

But while products such as Microsoft 365 Copilot have attracted corporate interest, enterprise adoption has been slower than many investors initially expected.

Shares of Microsoft have fallen 21% this year, making it the weakest-performing member of the mega-cap technology group, as Wall Street weighs whether soaring AI infrastructure spending will translate into sustained revenue growth.

The company already generates billions of dollars annually from enterprise support and implementation services.

Microsoft said those operations produced about $2.1 billion in revenue during the March quarter, suggesting the new AI-focused unit builds on an established business rather than creating one from scratch.