Tokyo consultancy Xelen teams up with Malaysia's ODIN to pair change consulting with forward deployed engineering for agentic AI
On October 19, Xelen Strategy & Digital announced a strategic partnership with Malaysian agentic AI firm ODINAI Solutions, signed in Kuala Lumpur on October 15. Xelen brings strategy and transformation consulting, and ODIN brings agentic AI, reusable AI process assets and its forward deployed engineering (FDE) delivery approach for building early prototypes inside client businesses.
Xelen Strategy & Digital, a Tokyo consulting firm in the Xelen Group, has signed a strategic partnership with ODINAI Solutions Sdn. Bhd. (ODIN), a Malaysia-based digital transformation company built around agentic AI. The deal was signed in Kuala Lumpur on October 15 and announced on October 19.
The two firms say they will use AI agents for the slow early stages of transformation work: current-state analysis, process mapping, future-state design and requirements. ODIN's part is its reusable AI process assets plus FDE, which the release describes as an implementation approach that connects business and technology on the client's own floor. Together they want to build and validate prototypes early, so less gets lost between strategy, requirements and system build.
Why it matters for FDEs: more consultancies, including in Japan and Southeast Asia, now sell forward deployed engineering as a named delivery method, not just a job title at AI labs. The partners also plan to train client staff through live projects and tie the work to measurable results such as processing time, cost and risk. That is the familiar FDE pattern: embed, prototype fast, then hand over the capability.
Source: prtimes.jp