Forward Deployed Engineer trend in presales

In this episode, Jack Cochran welcomes back Manisha Raisinghani, Founder and CEO of SiftHub, exactly one year after her first appearance on the show. Together they explore the dramatic shift in how AI is being used by solutions engineers. Manisha shares what it means for SEs to become Forward Deployed Engineers, how vibe coding is changing live customer interactions, and what enterprise leaders are getting wrong about AI adoption. She also offers concrete first steps for SEs and SE leaders who feel like they're behind.

Thank you to SiftHub for sponsoring this episode! Visit sifthub.io to learn more.

• Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/

• Connect with Manisha Raisinghani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manisha-raisinghani/

• Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack

• SiftHub: https://sifthub.io/

• Sol/Con (PSC Annual Conference, Chicago): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026

• Paytm (referenced in board discussion): https://paytm.com

1. How AI Shifted from Co-Pilot to Workflow Orchestrator

2. Vibe Coding and the Forward Deployed Engineer

3. Democratizing Institutional Knowledge

4. AI Transformation at Enterprise Scale

5. Making SE Value Visible with Data

6. Where to Start if You Feel Behind

00:00 Welcome & Intro 03:58 One year later: the headline shift in AI and SE workflows 07:20 Vibe coding — what it is and why SEs should care 10:23 The rise of the Forward Deployed Engineer 14:01 How SiftHub has evolved: from retrieval to reasoning 20:23 Lessons from the Paytm board on enterprise AI adoption 24:43 Sales: the most blamed, least understood function 28:40 First steps for SEs and SE leaders who feel behind