Strategic AI Leadership

Fractional AI Officer

Senior AI leadership for mid-market companies — strategic oversight, AI roadmap ownership, and vendor governance. Without the cost of a full-time executive.

$2,500–$3,500 / month

30-minute fitting call. We'll assess whether fractional leadership is the right frame before proposing any engagement.

Engagement Scope

What a Fractional AI Officer Does

Five concrete responsibilities that go beyond maintenance. The Fractional AI Officer owns the AI agenda at the leadership level — direction, vendor governance, and cross-functional alignment.

Strategic AI oversight

Direction at the leadership level

Sets AI direction aligned to business goals. Reports into the C-suite, owns the AI point of view for the organization.

Roadmap ownership

AI roadmap + quarterly re-baselines

Writes and maintains the AI roadmap. Re-baselines priorities quarterly against new opportunities and operational changes.

Vendor governance

Tool-stack procurement

Vets, procures, and manages AI vendors. Stops the team from buying overlapping tools or under-supported platforms.

Integration oversight

Cross-system coordination

Owns how AI systems connect to the rest of the org. Identifies integration gaps before they show up as production issues.

Leadership readout

Monthly strategic review

Runs the monthly AI roadmap review with leadership. Surfaces decision points, escalations, and ROI updates.

Async escalation

Decision-grade response path

Asynchronous Slack/email response SLA for operational escalation. Decision-grade turnaround on hot-path issues.

Who It's For

Built for mid-market companies ready for AI leadership, not another hire

A full-time Chief AI Officer is overkill at this size. A consultant who builds autoworkers is the wrong frame. The Fractional AI Officer fits between the two.

The right client is a mid-market company — typically $5M to $50M in annual revenue — with real AI ambition and an internal team that can execute against direction. You know AI is moving the needle on operations, and you know you need senior AI judgment in the room. You don't yet have the headcount budget for a full-time AI executive, and the C-suite has bandwidth to absorb one more strategic voice at the leadership level.

The wrong client is a 12-person startup looking for AI "advice" in Slack, or an enterprise looking to outsource the Chief AI Officer role entirely. The fractional frame only works when there's an internal team to translate strategy into delivery.

The cost ratio is the point. A full-time Chief AI Officer at $150,000+/year versus $30,000–$42,000/year for a fractional engagement at the $2,500–$3,500/month tier — under one-third the cost, none of the headcount commitment.

Two engagement widths. Same strategic posture.

Choose the cadence that fits how actively your team is shipping AI right now. Either tier includes async Slack/email response, monthly leadership readout, and quarterly roadmap recalibration.

Strategy-Only

4–6 hours / month

Strategic AI oversight for organizations with internal execution teams. We own direction and vendor guidance; your team owns delivery.

$2,500 /month
  • Strategic AI oversight Direction at the leadership level, with structured monthly readout.
  • AI roadmap ownership Written roadmap with quarterly recalibration.
  • Vendor guidance + procurement Vetting, comparison, and procurement decisions.
  • Monthly leadership readout 60-minute readout with decision-grade agenda.
  • Async Slack/email SLA 24-hour response window on operational escalation.
Best for: Mid-market orgs with internal AI execution teams that need leadership framing, not delivery support.
Book a Strategy Call →
Deliverables

What's included every month

Every engagement tier includes these baseline deliverables. The Fractional AI Officer relationship is structured, not reactive.

Engagement Timeline

3 to 12 months is the typical runway

Most engagements run 3–12 months. The shape follows a predictable structure: orientation, roadmap, steady-state oversight with quarterly re-baselines.

Month 1

Orientation + audit

Structured stakeholder interviews, current-state AI investment review, workflow surface mapping, and a written audit with prioritized opportunity map.

Months 2–3

Roadmap + first vendor decisions

Written AI roadmap accepted by leadership. First vendor procurement decisions made against it. Build starts against the strategic sequence.

Months 4+

Steady-state oversight

Monthly readout cadence. Quarterly roadmap re-baselines. Async escalation path active. Handoff readiness built continuously.

FAQ

What clients ask before booking

How is this different from a retainer?
A traditional retainer buys execution — an external operator who maintains or builds AI systems for the client. The Fractional AI Officer buys leadership: a C-suite-level AI resource who owns strategic direction, vendor governance, and AI roadmap ownership — without the headcount commitment of a full-time AI executive. Retainer engagements measure deliverables; the Fractional AI Officer engagement measures the quality of decisions made at the leadership level.
What does the first month look like?
Month 1 is orientation and audit. We run structured stakeholder interviews with the C-suite and the internal team, review current AI investments against actual usage and ROI, map the workflow surface for AI-readiness, and produce a prioritized AI roadmap with vendor recommendations. By the end of month 1, leadership has a written AI direction they can take into the next quarter — and a clear vendor decision framework that stops ad-hoc AI purchasing.
Do you build AI systems, or just oversee them?
Strategy + Execution Oversight includes build-output reviews and delivery vendor management, but we don't replace your implementation partners or internal teams. The Fractional AI Officer sets direction, reviews output, and handles escalation — your delivery partners execute. This separation keeps accountability clear on both sides: we own the strategic posture and decision quality, your team owns the shipped work.
How do you handle handoff when we hire a full-time AI lead?
When you're ready to hire a full-time Chief AI Officer or VP of AI, we support the transition. We provide a written handoff dossier covering roadmap context, vendor relationships, outstanding decisions, and known risks — plus 30 days of paired runway so the new hire has full context before month 2. The engagement typically runs 3–12 months; the goal is for the client to graduate from fractional to full-time leadership when their scale justifies it. That's the success case for the engagement, not the failure case.

Fractional AI Leadership Starts with a 30-Minute Call

Book a strategy call. We'll assess whether fractional leadership is the right frame for your stage, walk through which tier (if any) fits, and tell you honestly whether we're the right fit before any commitment.

Book a Strategy Call →