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Fractional Chief AI Officer

Fractional Chief AI Officer: Turn AI Pilots Into Business Results.

Senior AI strategy, governance and delivery oversight, part-time. Backed by the engineers who build what we plan, so ideas reach production.

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  • Strategy tied to a business case
  • Governance and risk built in
  • Delivery by our own engineers
  • Start with a fixed-fee assessment

Trusted by 200+ companies worldwide

What is a fractional chief AI officer?

A senior AI executive, on part-time terms

A fractional chief AI officer (CAIO) works with your business part-time. They set AI strategy, rank investments by value and risk, put governance and security in place, and oversee delivery, without the cost of a full-time hire.

  • Executive judgementDecisions, not just advice
  • AccountableOwns results through delivery
  • Backed by engineersOurs build what the roadmap plans
AI consultant AI engineer Full-time CAIO Fractional CAIO Our model
Owns AI strategy Partly No Yes Yes
Governance and risk Partly No Yes Yes
Accountable after handover No Partly Yes Yes
Builds and deploys No Yes Partly Yes
Flexible commitment Yes Yes No Yes

Yes Partly No

Responsibilities

What Your Fractional CAIO Owns

01

Readiness and opportunities

Assess your data, systems and processes, then find where AI helps and where it does not.

02

Strategy and roadmap

A prioritised plan linked to business goals, with owners and decision points.

03

Business case and ROI

Costs, benefits and risks for each initiative, so you fund the right work first.

04

Architecture and build-versus-buy

Independent advice on models, platforms and vendors.

05

Governance, security and risk

Usage policy, data handling and approval routes that hold up to board and client scrutiny.

06

Delivery, adoption and measurement

Engineering oversight, team enablement and agreed metrics, so AI gets used and results show.

The problem

Most AI spend stalls between the pilot and production

  • Pilots that never ship

    The demo works. Nobody owns security review, integration or adoption.

  • No clear AI strategy

    Every team picks its own tools and nobody sets priorities or budget.

  • High-value use cases stay hidden

    Many ideas, no reliable way to rank them by return and effort.

  • Manual work keeps costing more

    Repetitive, document-heavy tasks grow with headcount.

  • Security and adoption worries

    Staff use tools you have not approved, and boards ask how AI is controlled.

Best fit Mid-market businessesFunded start-ups and scale-upsPE-backed companiesProfessional services firms

Strongest in B2B technology, real estate, financial services and operations-heavy sectors. Also useful when a board, investor or competitor is asking for your AI plan. Not sure yet? Try the AI readiness scorecard.

Free tool

Do you need a fractional CAIO?

Answer six quick questions. Get an honest verdict, a fit score with the reasons behind it, and a prefilled brief for our team if you want to talk.

  • An honest answerIncluding "not yet" or "hire an engineer first"
  • A fit scoreWith the five factors that drove it
  • Private by designNo sign-up. Nothing is stored or sent.
Question 1 of 6
How It Works

How a Fractional CAIO Engagement Works

01

Discover

Understand your objectives, constraints and current AI activity. Assess readiness across data, systems, people and risk.

Assessment
02

Prioritise

List the opportunities and score each on value, effort and risk. Agree where to invest first.

Assessment
03

Roadmap

Turn priorities into a sequenced plan with owners, budgets and the metrics you will review.

Assessment
04

Implement

Guide build and deployment, review architecture and security, and keep delivery tied to the business case.

Monthly retainer
05

Improve

Track results against agreed metrics, adjust priorities and extend what works.

Monthly retainer
Book an AI Strategy Call See the assessment deliverables
What you walk away with

Assessment deliverables, yours to keep

  • AI readiness findings
  • Ranked use-case list
  • Business case per initiative
  • Build-versus-buy recommendation
  • Governance and security policy outline
  • Roadmap with owners and success metrics
Start here

Fixed-fee AI readiness assessment

Scoped work that ends with the deliverables above.

Ongoing

Monthly fractional CAIO retainer

Senior strategy, governance and delivery oversight.

When you want it built

AI engineering projects

Agents, automation and integrations, run under the same governance.

We do not publish prices because scope decides them. We agree scope and fees on the first call.

Is it right for you?

A fractional CAIO fits some businesses better than others

A good fit if

  • AI is a leadership priority but not yet full-time work
  • You have several pilots and no clear owner
  • You have processes worth automating and an executive sponsor
  • You want strategy and delivery from one team

Probably not yet if

  • You already have a strong internal AI leader: an advisory arrangement may be enough
  • You only need hands-on building: hire an AI engineer
  • AI is your core product and needs daily executive leadership: consider a full-time CAIO
Why Groovy Web

Why hire Groovy Web as your fractional CAIO

You get a senior AI executive's judgement and the engineers who build what the roadmap says, in one team that answers for the result.

Book an AI Strategy Call
  1. 01

    One accountable team, from roadmap to live system

    The people who plan your AI work are the people who build and deploy it. No re-briefing a second vendor, and nobody to blame when a handover goes wrong.

  2. 02

    Advice you can trust, because the roadmap is yours

    Build-versus-buy and vendor advice is independent. Take the roadmap to your own team or another partner whenever you like. There is no lock-in.

  3. 03

    Plans that engineers have already tested

    Priorities, costs and timelines are checked by engineers who build this kind of system, so your roadmap is buildable and realistically scoped.

  4. 04

    Governance and security before launch, not after

    Usage policy, data handling and approval points are set up first, so your AI work stands up to board, client and regulator questions.

  5. 05

    Low commitment to start

    Begin with a fixed-fee assessment. Move to a monthly retainer only if it makes sense, with scope and fees agreed before you commit.

  6. 06

    A delivery record you can check

    Trusted by 200+ companies. NDA from day one and 100% of the IP is yours. The case study below shows the problem, the build and the result.

Related work we have delivered

  • 8 to 35engineers under part-time AI-first CTO leadership, with 3 AI-powered products launched in 12 monthsCase study →

See how our AI-first engineering works or browse all case studies.

Fractional CAIO FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

A fractional chief AI officer (CAIO) is an experienced AI executive who leads your AI strategy, governance and delivery oversight on a part-time, ongoing basis. You get senior judgement and accountability without hiring a full-time chief AI officer.
A fractional chief AI officer sets your AI strategy, ranks opportunities by value and risk, builds the business case, oversees delivery and puts governance and security controls in place. They work with your leadership team on a part-time, ongoing basis and stay accountable for progress against agreed measures.
Hire one when AI has become a leadership question but there is not enough work for a full-time executive. Common triggers are an investor or board request for an AI plan, several pilots with none in production, pressure on margins from manual work, or unclear ownership of AI risk.
A consultant usually delivers advice or a report and then moves on. A fractional CAIO holds an ongoing leadership role, makes and owns decisions with you, and stays involved through delivery and measurement. With Groovy Web, the engineers who build the solutions are part of the same relationship.
It depends on your size, the number of live initiatives and whether we are also building. We agree the time commitment with you at the start and review it as the work changes, so you are not paying for time you do not need.
The assessment is designed to give you a prioritised view of opportunities and risks early, so decisions do not wait for a long programme. Delivery timelines depend on what is built, and we set them out in the roadmap before work begins.
Yes. Groovy Web is an AI engineering company. We build AI agents, workflow automation and integrations. You can have us build what the roadmap recommends, or take the roadmap to your own team or another partner.
We treat governance as part of the roadmap, not an afterthought. That includes agreeing acceptable use and data-handling rules, reviewing vendors and architecture for security and privacy, defining human approval points, and keeping a risk register that leadership can review.
We do not publish a fixed price because the cost depends on scope: the size and complexity of your business, the number of initiatives in flight, the time commitment you need and whether engineering delivery is included. We confirm a fixed fee for the assessment and a monthly arrangement for the retainer after the first call.

Give AI a Senior Owner, Without a Full-Time Hire

Best for leadership teams with real processes to improve and an executive sponsor. In 30 minutes we tell you honestly whether a fractional CAIO fits.

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