Source: The Register: Biting the hand that feeds
As AI vendors embed engineers directly into customer organizations—a common practice in enterprise software sales—procurement teams face a structural problem: these nominally customer-facing roles remain vendor employees with vendor incentives, creating undisclosed loyalties that could bias technical recommendations worth millions in deal value. The $200k+ salaries mask a misalignment where FDEs are incentivized to oversell complexity, lock in proprietary solutions, and suppress cheaper alternatives, yet operate under the appearance of neutrality that customers assume when sitting in their own conference rooms.