Unlocking AI: Deloitte’s Palantir upskilling blueprint
In today’s data-driven world, organizations face a critical challenge: harnessing the full potential of AI platforms to deliver real business outcomes at speed and scale. As AI tools and solutions flood the market, maximizing their potential can be complicated as specialized skillsets are harder to find and hone.
At Deloitte, we met this challenge head-on and continue to evolve ahead of the curve. Deloitte is committed to empowering its workforce through comprehensive training and upskilling initiatives. We are working with Ontologize and Palantir to train and equip our professionals with the skills necessary to leverage Palantir Foundry (Foundry) effectively, helping them prepare to drive impactful outcomes for our clients. Foundry is an industry-leading platform that aims to unlock the power of enterprise-wide data and delivers transformative outcomes for organizations using it. In less than six months, we have upskilled employees to build the largest cohort of Foundry-trained professionals in the industry. Our journey is more than a story of scale; it’s a blueprint for how to democratize access to AI and deliver data-driven mission impact rapidly.
Palantir Foundry and Ontologize
Foundry’s use of Generative AI (GenAI) and agentic workflows are designed to empower organizations at every level of the workforce. Its cutting-edge low/no-code tools, alongside Artificial Intelligence Platform’s (AIP) seamless integration of GenAI, accelerate everything from data integration to visualization, application development, and AI modeling. But technology alone isn’t enough. This is where Ontologize comes in, offering a comprehensive training program that is complemented by Deloitte’s structured pre-work curriculum through our AI Academy.
Ontologize is a team of ex-Palantirians who offer a clear and effective service for teams to understand Palantir’s platforms and put them to work. Ontologize’s training programs are designed to make navigating Foundry digestible, even for non-experts. As Taylor Gregoire-Wright, CEO and founder of Ontologize, explains, “Our role is to accelerate the number of Deloitte engineers who are self-sufficient on Foundry. The faster they can navigate Palantir with confidence, the quicker they can turn data into outcomes for clients. That’s why our training focuses on getting teams hands-on with real scenarios they’ll face in their work. It isn’t about presentations—it’s about equipping practitioners with the patterns and tools they need so Foundry and AIP become second nature, enabling them to apply what they’ve learned immediately and continue building on it over time.” This hands-on, scenario-driven approach—combined with Foundry’s intuitive interface—enables practitioners to unlock value from data faster and more effectively. Ontologize’s training programs provide Deloitte practitioners with a deep understanding of Foundry, particularly on the engineering front.
This hands-on, scenario-driven approach—combined with Foundry’s intuitive interface—enables practitioners to unlock value from data faster and more effectively. Ontologize’s training programs provide Deloitte practitioners with a deep understanding of Foundry, particularly on the engineering front.
A scalable, impact-driven training model
Our upskilling journey begins with a Deloitte-developed, modular pre-work curriculum based on real-world examples curated from our cross-industry experience, allowing practitioners to build foundational knowledge at their own pace. This is followed by an intensive, in-person training led by Ontologize that is tailored to specific user groups including data engineers or application developers.
But our training approach doesn’t stop in the classroom. We round out the experience with opportunities for practitioners to develop engineering demos (many supporting real business cases), experiment in an internal Foundry environment, and participate in various data engineering challenges. Teams have developed solutions focused on flight awareness, AI rerouting suggestions for firefighting, and mapping out enterprise risk along with AI-driven response options. Additionally, our Palantir-dedicated Center of Excellence (CoE) has a thriving community of practice, which helps reinforce and continuously develop new skills.
“Deloitte combines hands-on engineering experience with real industry domain experience. With Ontologize’s training, we give both our engineers and domain specialists the tools they need to maximize mission impact for our clients with Palantir,” says Mark Urbanczyk, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and leader of Deloitte’s Palantir Alliance.
Palantir has recognized this collaborative approach. Tim O’Brien, vice president of Integrated Systems at Palantir, highlights, “As we continue to collaborate with Deloitte, we’re consistently impressed by the depth of their engineering expertise and the agility with which their teams tackle complex challenges using Foundry. With their commitment to co-delivering innovative, scalable solutions aligns with Palantir’s mission focus, together we’re unlocking transformative value for our clients.”
O’Brien’s perspective underscores the distinct synergy between the organizations, where technical excellence and mission-driven delivery are tightly interwoven.
Following Palantir’s success in delivering speed-to-value in its client delivery through its Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs), Deloitte has launched our own deployment model for these trained resources known as our FDE Delivery Pool. This approach allows us to rapidly deploy resources to client engagements, tailored to fit the need through a combination of skill profiles including data engineers, application developers, and AI specialists to help our clients achieve maximum value.
From insight to impact: Deloitte’s differentiator
While large-scale training of practitioners is an achievement, it’s only the beginning. The true differentiator lies in how Deloitte’s FDE resources approach client challenges. Unlike traditional models that focus on targeting isolated use cases, our FDEs are deeply embedded in our clients’ missions. They don’t just respond to immediate needs, they help clients anticipate the next challenge, architecting solutions that make previously unreachable outcomes possible.
Our teams are impact and outcome-driven, evaluated not just on what they build on a to-do checklist, but on the measurable ROI they deliver. This mindset mirrors the most effective delivery successes of Foundry-backed solutions to date, but with some crucial differences. Deloitte not only brings top-notch engineers with business domain knowledge, but a suite of deployable proprietary solutions (e.g. Zora AITM agents) and experience deploying AI across the enterprise. Our practitioners don’t just use Foundry, they choose it as the backbone of their solutions, because they understand how to leverage its full capabilities to help agencies address their toughest mission blockers and drive sustained value—not just for today but for tomorrow, too. As an example, Deloitte is currently leveraging its Palantir AIP-based Enterprise Operating System (EOS) to help a government agency unlock greater insight and efficiency as it embarks on a multi-year initiative to re-engineer its business processes to transform financial management, logistics, supply chain, and other core business functions.
“We achieve breakthrough results for our clients by delivering engagements side-by-side with Palantir, combining our collective engineering skills and domain knowledge to deliver solutions,” says Monica McEwen, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and Deloitte’s Government & Public Services (GPS) AI & Data leader.
A broader commitment to upskilling
Deloitte’s comprehensive training program, in tandem with Ontologize’s curriculum, extends the power of AI beyond technical teams. By leveraging Foundry’s ontology layer, low/no-code interface, and advanced GenAI features, even nontechnical staff can conduct sophisticated analyses and contribute to data-driven decision-making. This democratization of data science is central to our vision of empowering every practitioner to “punch above their weight class” and stay at the forefront of the industry.
Our Palantir upskilling initiative is part of a broader commitment to workforce development and social impact. Inspired by Palantir’s American Tech Fellowship, Deloitte is investing in the next generation of tech talent through various upskilling programs, including at our Smart Factory, and training veterans and others.
The path forward
Deloitte’s training effort with Ontologize and Palantir is more than a success story. It is a model for how organizations can scale analytics capabilities, empower their workforce, and deliver real-world impact. By combining leading-class technology, mission-driven experience, and a relentless focus on outcomes; we’re not just preparing for the future, we’re building it.
Mark Urbanczyk
