one moment
Services / Fractional CAIO
A Chief AI Officer. Without the full-time hire.
Sustained senior judgment inside your team — not another deliverable.
Some of the AI journey needs a deliverable. Some of it needs a presence — someone senior in the room, week after week, while the hard calls get made. That's what a Fractional CAIO engagement is.
The work
We join your leadership cadence, run the AI council if you have one, sit in vendor calls, and take the late-night Slack message when something breaks. Two days a week is typical. We're scoped by quarter, renewable, with a clean exit clause on either side.
The arrangement works when there's an internal owner we're sparring with — sharpening their judgment, not replacing it. If that owner doesn't exist yet, the honest first step is hiring one, and we'll help you write the job description.
Engagement shapes
Scoped before we start.
Every shape is fixed-scope and named before kickoff — no time-and-materials, no surprise change orders.
Per quarter, renewable
Fractional CAIO retainer
Two days a week embedded with your team. Leadership presence, architectural calls, vendor selection, hiring — the whole role, fractionally.
Monthly cadence
AI council chair
We chair your internal AI council. Lighter touch — once-a-month working sessions, async between. For orgs that already have an internal AI lead.
Weekly, 90 min
Executive sparring partner
A standing slot in your week with a senior outsider who can read the room and call the BS. The lightest version of the engagement.
Questions we typically tackle
- Who's the AI-accountable executive in our org, and what do they actually need from us?
- How do we resist the pull of every shiny vendor demo without becoming the 'no' department?
- What hires do we make in what order, and what are we hiring against?
- When does this stop being a fractional engagement and become a full-time hire?
When this isn’t right
You don't have an internal owner for this work yet. Hire one first — we'll help you write the JD — then bring us in alongside them.
Start here
Tell uswhat you’re trying to do.
The first conversation is free, takes about thirty minutes, and goes wherever it needs to. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll say so and point you somewhere that is.
Hambone
HB Services AI assistant
Hi — I’m Hambone.
Ask me about the practice, what AI could do for your business, or how engagements work. I keep answers short.