The seat, without the hire
A Chief AI Officer on your leadership team, from the first week.
Most firms know what has to happen with AI. What they lack is a senior operator who has run it inside a regulated financial-services business, can tell a partner who has been successful for thirty years how their work is going to change, and can do it as help rather than a lecture. That is the fractional seat: one to two days a week, on the leadership team, accountable for the program.
The engagement is broader than a title. Alongside the fractional Chief AI Officer, senior support can cover AI strategy, data and infrastructure readiness, tooling choices and delivery leadership, matched to what the internal owner needs.
What the role covers
- Direction.
- The AI strategy, the operating model, and what the board sees each quarter.
- The committee.
- Chairing or coaching the AI or transformation committee; the software choke point; build-versus-buy.
- The program.
- Standing up the transformation office, the people agenda and governance, and running them until they have a permanent owner.
- The platform.
- Vendor-neutral choices on models, orchestration, knowledge layer and data foundation; token economics and model-selection discipline.
- The foundation and delivery.
- Making data, infrastructure and tooling decisions actionable with the technology owners and delivery partners, and carrying the program into build, installation and ongoing support where needed.
- The hire.
- Designing the permanent Head of AI role, helping select, and staying as sounding board through the first 100 days.
- The hard conversations.
- With partners, with vendors, with the reluctant tail.
How it runs
A standing cadence: leadership team, committee, and a weekly working block with the internal owner. The fractional seat is designed to end: it exists to make the permanent owner successful, and it steps back as they take hold. If the firm already has a Head of AI, the seat becomes a sounding-board cadence behind them.
Where it has run
- Fractional Chief AI Officer to a growth-stage fintech, leading a 90-day transformation program across transformation office, people agenda and governance.
- Fractional Chief AI Officer to two insurance and retirement businesses through a merger: AI platform strategy, knowledge layer, partner strategy.
- Fractional Chief Data Officer to a global consumer-security company ahead of a merger: the same model, standing up the data office.
- Independent director covering the AI agenda for the board of a private-equity-backed wealth manager.
A Chief AI Officer on your leadership team, from the first week.
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