Fractional AI Officer · Method step 04
You don't need a Chief AI Officer. You need one a few hours a month.
Senior AI leadership on retainer: the roadmap owned, the governance kept current, every vendor pitch vetted, and a build bench on call — for less than two percent of what the full-time hire costs.
From $5,000/monthMonth to monthCancel anytime
The math
Four ways to own AI leadership.
The honest version of this table includes the option where you hire someone — and the option where you don't do anything at all.
| Fractional AI Officer | Full-time hire | Big-firm consultants | Going it alone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per year | From $60K | $300K–$550K+ comp | Six figures per engagement | "Free"— paid in stalled quarters |
| Who does the work | The senior operator you met | One hire (if you can land them) | A rotating bench, mostly junior | Whoever has spare time |
| Commitment | Monthly, cancel anytime | Salary, equity, severance | Long engagements, change orders | None — and it shows |
| Best for | $2M–$50M companies | $100M+ with AI at the core | Enterprise transformation programs | Hobbyist experiments |
What's included
One number. Six standing responsibilities.
No tiers to decode. One retainer, everything below, priced to your size in writing.
01
Roadmap ownership
Someone senior finally owns the AI roadmap — keeping it ranked, current, and moving as your business and the tools change.
02
Monthly ROI reporting
Usage, efficiency, and P&L impact — measured and reported monthly, so you always know whether the investment is earning its keep.
03
Governance & policy upkeep
Your AI usage policy stays current with the tools and the law. Human-in-the-loop review stays enforced where money and customer data move.
04
Vendor & pitch evaluation
Every AI vendor pitch your team receives gets a senior, commission-free read before you sign anything.
05
A build bench on call
Small fixes and improvements handled inside the retainer; bigger builds get a scoped fixed price with priority scheduling.
06
Quarterly strategy reviews
A working session with leadership every quarter: what earned its keep, what didn't, and what's next on the roadmap.
Fit
The retainer is optional by design.
Our method ends with your team owning AI. Some companies want senior counsel on call anyway — that's who this is for.
This is for you if
- A pilot or two proved AI earns its keep, and now nobody owns what's next.
- You want senior judgment on every AI decision without a $400K hire.
- Vendor pitches are piling up and you can't tell signal from noise.
- You want the roadmap, governance, and reporting handled — visibly.
This is not for you if
- Nothing is live yet. Start with the audit — the retainer earns its keep after there's something to govern.
- You want a full-time presence in the office. This is a few focused hours a month, by design.
- You're hoping a retainer means unlimited build work. Builds get scoped honestly instead.
FAQ
Before you ask.
What does 'from $5,000/month' include, exactly?
Everything in the list above — roadmap ownership, monthly ROI reporting, governance upkeep, vendor evaluation, minor builds and fixes, and the quarterly review. The 'from' scales with company size and how much build capacity you want on standby, and it's fixed in writing before you sign.
Why not just hire a Chief AI Officer?
At $100M+ revenue with AI at the core of the product, you probably should. Below that, a full-time AI executive is $300K–$550K in compensation for a role your roadmap doesn't fill forty hours a week — the fractional model buys the same seniority for the hours you actually need.
Is there a lock-in period?
No. Month to month, cancel anytime, and everything — roadmap, reports, policies, documentation — lives in your accounts, so nothing leaves when we do. Our method literally ends in a step called Own; a retainer that traps you would contradict the whole point.
How is this different from just calling you when something breaks?
Ad-hoc help fixes problems after they've cost you a quarter. The retainer exists so someone senior notices the drift early — the workflow nobody's using, the vendor bill creeping up, the policy the new hires never read. Prevention is the product.
Do we need to have done the audit or a sprint first?
Usually the retainer starts after a pilot proves value — that's the natural path. If you're coming in cold with AI already deployed, we start with the audit to baseline what exists, then the retainer takes over from there.
Senior AI leadership, without the executive search.
Book a 30-minute call. If a retainer isn't the right move yet, we'll point you at the step that is.