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FAQ

Fractional Chief AI Officer questions, answered

These are the Fractional Chief AI Officer questions people ask me most, before they book a call. If your question is not here, email it. I answer in writing, and the good ones end up on this page.

Questions

Working together

  1. What does a Fractional Chief AI Officer actually do, and how is that different from an advisor?

    I carry the AI register as a named officer.

  2. Is my company too small, or too early, for a Fractional Chief AI Officer?

    Size isn't the real test.

  3. What size of company do you actually work with?

    Companies of 30 to 300 people, with at least one engineer.

  4. What's the difference between the Assessment, the Sprint and the Retainer?

    Three fixed offers, three stages.

  5. What happens on a fit call, and does it cost anything?

    It costs nothing and runs thirty minutes, booked at cal.com/meshin.

  6. How quickly can you start, and how does availability work for a remote officer?

    One client at a time.

  7. What if we already have a data science team or an internal AI lead?

    Your data science team stays exactly where it is.

Questions

Governance and risk

  1. Who owns the code and the data?

    You own both the code and the data.

  2. Who answers customer security questionnaires?

    I do, as the named officer on record.

  3. What do NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001 and the EU AI Act each require of a company our size?

    None of the three sets a headcount threshold.

  4. How does AI risk get recorded, and who signs it off?

    In an AI register.

  5. What do we do about tools staff are already using without approval?

    Add unapproved tools to the AI register, not a ban list.

  6. What if the AI we're building goes into a product we sell, not just an internal workflow?

    I cover products you sell as well as internal workflows.

  7. Who owns the frameworks, templates and playbooks built during the engagement?

    Everything written for your business belongs to you.

Questions

How engagements run

  1. What does the two-week Assessment produce, and is the fee credited if we continue?

    The two-week Assessment produces a memo your board can act on.

  2. What counts as 'in production' for the 90-day Sprint?

    Real users, real transactions, a rollback path, someone on call.

  3. How do you charge for the work?

    Three fixed structures, no hourly billing.

  4. How does the Retainer end?

    With a named internal owner in place, not a fading call.

  5. Can you get us certified to ISO/IEC 42001, or do you just build a working system?

    I build a working system, not the certification itself.

Questions

Building the systems

  1. How is a prompt or model change stopped from shipping unnoticed?

    Evals in continuous integration.

  2. Are models trained on our customer data?

    Not by default.

  3. What happens if the evals say a workflow isn't good enough?

    If the evals say no, the workflow does not ship.

  4. Can you work with our existing AI vendor or platform, or do you bring your own tools?

    I work with what you already run.

Questions

For boards

  1. Why hire a fractional officer instead of a full-time head of AI?

    You get a named officer's accountability, without a full-time salary.

  2. How is cost per outcome measured?

    On a dashboard built during the Sprint.

Still unsure

Ask it on a 30-minute call.

No slides. If your situation does not need me, I will say so.

Book a 30-min fit call

Or email hello@meshin.co