Anthropic launches AI academy for enterprise engineers

Anthropic has launched Claude Frontier Academy to train Frontier Deployed Engineers, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia among the first cohort.

The artificial intelligence company will commit USD $100 million to the programme and aims to train 10,000 engineers by the end of 2027.

The academy is intended to address a shortage of people who can implement AI systems inside large organisations. It will train engineers to the same standard as Anthropic's own teams, drawing on its work with large corporate customers and professional services firms.

Its first programme, the Frontier Deployed Engineer Residency, is a selective course for software engineers with experience building with large language models and helping others adopt AI tools. Participants will be nominated by their organisations and will return with a named Claude project to lead internally.

Engineers begin with a multi-day, in-person programme led by Anthropic engineers and licensed instructors. They then work through a simulated enterprise deployment, including use-case selection, security review, and handover, before taking a graded practical assessment based on a new scenario.

Those who pass move into a 12-week residency, during which they lead a real Claude use case at their organisation while receiving support from Anthropic engineers and others in their cohort. At the end of the residency, they are assessed again before receiving a Frontier Deployed Engineer badge.

Initial cohorts are running in San Francisco, New York, and London. The first organisations represented include Accenture, Bain, Capgemini, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deloitte, McKinsey, Morgan Stanley, and Novo Nordisk.

Enterprise skills

Anthropic positioned the academy as a response to a widening gap between corporate interest in AI and the supply of engineers who can move systems from experimentation into day-to-day business use. It said a relatively small group of skilled people often accounts for a disproportionate share of the results companies get from AI projects.

The academy also builds on Anthropic's broader training efforts through the Claude Partner Network. According to the company, professionals across 46,000 firms have earned more than 175,000 Claude certifications, while nearly 4,000 people have completed Basecamp, an immersive training course based on the curriculum used for Anthropic's Applied AI teams.

Steve Corfield, Global Head of Business Development and Partnerships at Anthropic, said the shortage of specialist talent was one of the main barriers to AI adoption inside large businesses.

"A small team of high-agency people with the right skills, access to Claude, and a deep understanding of how their business runs can transform an entire company. The hard part is building that depth of talent: engineers with the highest level of AI fluency who can take Claude from an idea to a system in production and turn it into faster processes and new products and services. No AI company has invested in developing that talent inside its customers and partners at this depth. 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," said Steve Corfield, Global Head of Business Development and Partnerships, Anthropic.

Bank deployment

For Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the programme adds to the bank's existing use of AI tools in software development. The lender said its engineers already use AI tools every day and that internal teams have produced up to three times more code changes over the past year.

Rodrigo Castillo, Group Chief Technology Officer at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, described the residency as a way to deepen those skills through direct practical work.

"AI is transforming the way we build, deliver, and innovate for customers. Our engineers use AI tools every day, and our teams have produced up to three times more code changes in the past year. The Frontier Deployed Engineer Residency takes them deeper, with hands-on experience building, securing, and shipping alongside peers at the frontier. We are building tomorrow's bank today, and this programme gives our teams the tools and expertise to engineer the best possible products for our customers," said Castillo.

First cohorts

Other participants in the first cohorts also linked the training to client demand for practical AI implementation skills rather than broad certification counts. Several consulting firms said the programme would help their engineers work through deployment, governance, and adoption issues in live business settings.

Participation in the academy is by nomination, with organisations putting forward their strongest engineers for places in the residency.