Operate
Fractional Chief AI Officer
Senior AI leadership on a retainer: someone accountable for the portfolio, the governance and the vendor conversations, two to four days a month — for organisations that need the judgment before they need the headcount.
Duration
Monthly retainer, minimum six months
Built on
ISO/IEC 42001 · ISO/IEC 38500 · EU AI Act
Indicative price
from €2,500 per month
Who this is for
CEO of a mid-sized company
Needs an adult in the room on AI and cannot justify a full-time executive.
CIO
Has the technology covered and needs the portfolio and governance owned by someone else.
Board or investor
Wants AI ownership visible and named in a portfolio company.
Scale-up CTO
Is shipping AI and needs governance to catch up before a client audit does.
The job is decisions, not slides
Most organisations that need AI leadership do not need it five days a week, and hiring for it is genuinely hard: the title is new, the salaries are high, and telling a practitioner from an enthusiast takes judgment the hiring panel usually does not have yet. The result is either no owner at all, or the role landing on a CIO whose week was already full.
What the role actually consists of is unglamorous. Deciding which use cases proceed and which are killed. Chairing the forum where that happens. Owning the governance position so it can be shown to a client without a fortnight's preparation. Holding vendor conversations with somebody who knows what the contract should say. And being accountable when a system misbehaves.
Two to four days a month covers that for most mid-sized organisations — provided the days are spent on decisions rather than on producing material. We chair, decide and escalate, and write only what has to exist.
The engagement is designed to end. Where you intend to hire, we write the specification, sit on the panel and hand over. Where you do not, it continues — but an advisor who has made themselves structurally necessary has failed at part of the job.
This is not a strategy retainer and it is not a block of advisory hours. There is a named individual, accountability in writing, and a defined escalation route — including for the moment when the right answer is stop.
How we do it
- 01
Onboarding
2–3 weeks
The portfolio, the people, the vendors, the commitments and whatever governance exists. Ends with a written position on where you actually are.
- 02
Baseline and first decisions
first month
The open questions that have been waiting for an owner, decided. This is usually where the retainer pays for itself, because backlogs of undecided AI questions are expensive in ways nobody has costed.
- 03
Monthly cadence
ongoing
A decision forum chaired, the portfolio reviewed, the production systems checked, and a written record of what was decided and why.
- 04
Governance ownership
ongoing
The governance position kept current — inventory, risk position, policy, literacy evidence — so that a client question or an audit is answered from something that already exists.
- 05
Vendor and contract
as required
Review of AI terms before signature: data use, model changes, exit, liability. The clauses that matter are rarely the ones highlighted in the sales deck.
- 06
Succession
from month four
The hiring specification, interview support, and a handover pack — so that when you are ready to hire, the role is defined by what it has actually been doing.
Named artefacts
What you receive
- Monthly decision record — what was decided, by whom, and why
- Maintained use-case portfolio with status and owner
- Governance position kept current for client, tender and audit questions
- Risk position per production system
- Vendor and contract reviews before signature
- Quarterly board or executive update pack
- Named escalation route, including out-of-cycle decisions
- Hiring specification and handover pack when you move to a permanent appointment
What we need from you
- A seat at the table where decisions are actually made. An advisor outside the room cannot be accountable inside it.
- Access to the delivery teams and the vendor relationships, not only to the executive summary.
- Willingness to be told to stop something. If that answer is unavailable, the role is decorative.
- An executive sponsor, and a standing slot in the calendar.
What changes
- 01AI decisions are made on a cadence by a named, accountable person.
- 02Client, tender and audit questions are answered from a current document rather than a scramble.
- 03Vendor terms are reviewed by somebody who knows which clauses matter.
- 04Every production system has a documented risk position and an owner.
- 05When you hire, the specification describes a role that has been proven rather than imagined.
What it costs
from €2,500 per month
All prices exclude VAT.
Questions
Who actually does the work?
A named senior individual, agreed with you before we start, with the firm behind them for specialist input. You are not buying a rota, and you should ask to meet the person before signing.
Is this advisory or accountable?
Accountable, in writing, within a defined scope. Advisory work produces recommendations; this produces decisions and carries the consequence of them. That distinction is the reason the minimum term exists.
What happens when we want to hire permanently?
We write the specification, help you interview, and hand over. That is the intended ending. An arrangement that quietly becomes permanent because nobody planned the exit is not a success.
Why a six-month minimum?
Less is not long enough to own anything. An owner who leaves after a quarter is worse than no owner, because decisions taken in their name get reopened.
What does it cost?
from €2,500 per month. The retainer reflects the days a month and the scope of accountability, and it is quoted with the days named. Additional project work is quoted separately rather than absorbed into the retainer.
Leave with your top three risks documented
Thirty minutes with a senior practitioner. No slideware, no sales engineer.