Fractional Chief AI Officer. Senior AI ownership, without the full-time hire.
A fractional Chief AI Officer is a part-time executive who owns your firm’s AI strategy, governance, and build decisions, for a few hours a week instead of a full-time salary.
Flat-fee, month-to-month retainer. Quoted after a 30-minute call.
A fractional Chief AI Officer owns strategy, governance, and build decisions.
Five responsibilities, one accountable person.
AI strategy and roadmap
A written AI strategy tied to your firm's actual work, and a roadmap that sequences it: what to adopt now, what to pilot, what to ignore, and why.
Governance and policy ownership
Ownership of the acceptable-use policy, the data classification, and the approved-tools list, kept current as tools and rules change rather than filed away.
Build decisions and vendor evaluation
Independent evaluation of tools and build-versus-buy decisions, with no resale and no vendor commissions, so the recommendation serves you and not a margin.
Board and leadership reporting
Plain-language reporting to partners, the board, or the management committee: what the firm is doing with AI, what it costs, and where the risks sit.
Incident and exception handling
A named owner when something goes wrong or falls outside policy: a tool request, a data question, or an AI incident that needs a decision today.
Fractional, full-time, or nothing yet?
The honest version: not every firm needs this, and very few firms our clients’ size need the full-time version.
Nothing yet
If nobody at your firm is using AI, no client is asking about it, and nothing regulated is in play, a short governance conversation may be all you need. When that is the case, we say so.
A fractional CAIO
Most firms between 20 and 250 staff need senior AI ownership a few hours a week: someone accountable for strategy, governance, and build decisions, without a full-time salary.
A full-time hire
A full-time Chief AI Officer is a mid-six-figure executive hire. It makes sense when AI is the product, or when the work fills an executive's entire week. For most regulated boutiques, it does not yet.
Still weighing it? Our explainer, What Is a Fractional Chief AI Officer (And Does Your Firm Need One)?, walks through the role and the decision in plain language.
An honest answer first, then a flat-fee, month-to-month retainer.
It starts with a 30-minute call. You tell us where AI stands at your firm, and we tell you honestly whether you need a fractional Chief AI Officer, a narrower engagement, or nothing yet. If it fits, a fixed-fee discovery maps your tools, your data obligations, and your exposure, and produces the first version of the roadmap.
From there, the role runs as a flat-fee, month-to-month retainer, quoted after that first call. No annual lock-in. The engagement continues because it is earning its keep, not because a contract says so.
It folds into a Virtual CTO engagement as a named lane, covering AI alongside infrastructure and security, or it stands alone if your technology leadership is already covered.
Firms where an AI mistake is a regulatory event, not an embarrassment.
Firms where the data carries an obligation.
SEC-registered investment advisers
Firms handling MNPI and non-public client data, where AI governance has to survive an examination, not just an internal review.
CPA and forensic accounting firms
Practices whose work product carries professional standards, and sometimes has to hold up under cross-examination.
Law firms and litigation-exposed practices
Firms where privileged material and protective orders decide what any AI tool is allowed to touch.
Regulated boutiques, 20 to 250 staff
Big enough that AI exposure is real. Not big enough to justify a full-time AI executive.
An AI officer who can also build
Most fractional AI leadership stops at advice. Ours sits on top of a firm that builds. When the roadmap calls for a document workflow with an audit trail, a Claude rollout with policy and training, or an internal application to replace a manual process, the same engagement carries the decision into working software. Governing and building from the same seat means the strategy is never something your firm cannot actually do.
AI Governance
Policy, data classification, and approved-tools lists that survive an audit or an examination.
AI Document Automation
Intake and classification automated with verification and an append-only audit trail.
Claude Rollout & Training
Your team on Claude, configured to your policy, with training and certification.
Not sure your firm needs an AI officer at all?
A 30-minute call is enough to tell you whether you need ongoing AI leadership, a one-time governance engagement, or nothing yet. You get the honest answer either way.
Book a 30-Minute CallNo commitment. We tell you honestly whether we can help and what that would look like.
AI Readiness Checklist
The questions every regulated firm should answer before adopting AI
The Regulated Firm's AI Readiness Checklist
Six questions that decide whether your firm can adopt AI without putting client data, a renewal, or an examination at risk. Walk them before your next audit, not after.
- Where client data is leaving your environment through public AI tools
- Whether your AI controls would survive a SOC 2 audit or an examination
- Where a human, not the model, needs to ratify the output
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Common questions about the fractional Chief AI Officer
Give AI a named owner.
Start with a 30-minute call. We will tell you honestly whether your firm needs a fractional Chief AI Officer, something smaller, or nothing yet, and quote the retainer before any work starts.
Book a 30-Minute CallNo resale, no vendor commissions. Independent by design.