Fractional Chief AI Officer for Mid-Market Companies
A permanent Chief AI Officer in the US mid-market runs $400K–$750K all-in, and most companies who hire one before clarifying the scope of the role re-org within eighteen months. A fractional CAIO covers the same scope — capital allocation, vendor selection, governance, and board narrative — at $8K–$25K per month, while you find out whether the permanent role is actually needed. Delivered personally by Shawn Moore, not a junior team.
Who this is for
- CEOs of $25M–$500M companies whose board is asking for an AI strategy in writing — and the answer needs to be defensible, not aspirational.
- PE-backed leadership teams under thesis pressure to show AI traction without burning a $500K permanent hire on a role they cannot yet scope.
- Companies recovering from a stalled or wrong-hire CAIO search who need an experienced operator to clarify the role before re-opening it.
- Executive teams where the CIO, COO, and CFO are AI-curious but lack the bandwidth to run AI execution alongside their core P&L.
What you get
- An accountable AI owner sitting on your executive committee — two to three days a week — with veto authority on AI capital decisions above an agreed threshold.
- A scored AI readiness assessment across strategy, data, infrastructure, governance, talent, and culture, with a sequenced remediation roadmap.
- Portfolio ownership: every candidate AI investment plotted against build/buy/wait with three-year TCO, then killed, funded, or deferred on a written cadence.
- Vendor and partnership selection support — model providers, infrastructure platforms, agencies — with reference call scripts and contract red flags.
- Quarterly board-level AI updates, co-owned with the CEO, in language a non-technical board can defend.
- A written handoff plan so the role can transition to a permanent CAIO, fold into the CIO/COO charter, or stay fractional indefinitely — your call, based on evidence.
Methodology
Diagnose the role before doing the role
The first thirty days are spent stress-testing whether the company actually needs a CAIO at all. The three-condition framework — revenue scale, strategic priority, executive bench gap — gets applied to the real org, not the aspirational one. About a quarter of engagements end here with a written recommendation that the role is not needed; we restructure into project-based advisory instead.
Operate as a real executive, not a consultant
A fractional CAIO who only writes memos is a senior individual contributor with a fancy title. Engagements include explicit decision rights — vendor sign-off thresholds, kill criteria for active pilots, capital reallocation authority — agreed in writing with the CEO at the start. Without those, the role collapses inside ninety days.
Govern the portfolio like capital, not technology
Every active and candidate AI initiative is run through the build-vs-buy-vs-wait matrix and the four-failure taxonomy on a monthly cadence. Wait and kill are the two most under-used decisions in mid-market AI — a fractional CAIO whose calendar is dedicated to the portfolio uses them on schedule.
Build the permanent successor — or eliminate the need
Every engagement has a planned exit. Either the role transitions to a permanent CAIO with a profile we have de-risked through twelve months of evidence, or it folds into an existing executive charter once the organization has absorbed enough AI fluency to no longer need a dedicated owner. The wrong outcome is permanent fractional dependence.
Engagement model
- Fractional CAIO Retainer
- Two to three days per week, twelve-month minimum. $15,000–$25,000 per month depending on scope and travel cadence. Executive committee seat included.
- Light-touch Advisory
- One day per week or bi-weekly working sessions for companies with an existing AI lead who needs senior cover. $8,000–$15,000 per month.
- 30-Day Scoping Engagement
- Fixed-fee diagnostic to decide whether a fractional or permanent CAIO is the right answer. Written recommendation, no obligation to continue.
- Geographic scope
- United States and Canada. Hybrid delivery — quarterly on-site working sessions, weekly virtual cadence, on-demand for vendor and board moments.
Frequently asked questions
Related insights
Should We Hire a Chief AI Officer?
The three-condition test for when a permanent CAIO is justified — and why fractional almost always comes first.
Read more GovernanceWho Should Own AI in Our Company?
The three-role ownership model — strategy, execution, governance — that decides whether a CAIO is the right answer at all.
Read more MethodologyAI Consulting Cost Guide for 2026
Real ranges for AI advisory, fractional CAIO retainers, and project work — plus what drives price and the red flags inside a typical proposal.
Read moreRelated services & resources
Project-based AI strategy advisory
If you need a fixed-scope diagnostic instead of an ongoing fractional retainer, the diagnostic sprint is the cleaner first step.
Read more About ShawnAbout Shawn Moore, operator-CEO
Thirty years of P&L across digital strategy and AI. Why CEOs hire Shawn directly instead of a Big-4 team or a recently-rebranded data scientist.
Read moreReady to start the conversation?
Ninety minutes. No deck. We work the actual problem and you leave with a defensible next step.
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