Fractional CAIO Retainer
The AI officer your customers can ask for by name.
Monthly fee
This fractional CAIO retainer buys one or two days a week as the AI officer your customers can ask for by name. The week is procurement answers, design reviews and a board update, in that order of urgency. The engagement is built to end: there is a handover plan from the first month.
Published · Updated
Who this is for
This is for you if
- Security questionnaires are stalling deals and nobody owns the answers
- Your board wants an AI position and a budget it can defend
- You need a named officer on record without hiring a full-time executive
This is not for you if
- You want a name on a slide and no involvement
- You expect hands-on delivery of several systems at once
- You already have a full-time AI leader in place
What you get
- Named officer for security questionnaires, contracts and audits
- Quarterly roadmap with a budget next to each item
- Review of every AI initiative, including the shadow tools nobody approved
- Handover plan, so an internal owner can run this without me
How it runs
Register and policy
An AI register, an acceptable-use policy and a data classification your engineers can actually follow.
Weekly cadence
Procurement answers and design reviews as they arrive, plus one written update a month.
Board rhythm
A quarterly roadmap with costs, risks and the decisions you need to make.
Handover
Named internal owner, written decisions, and a date when the retainer ends.
| Stage | What happens | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Register and policy | Register, policy and classification, drafted with your team | A register, a policy and a classification your engineers actually follow. |
| Weekly cadence | Procurement questions and design reviews, handled as they land | Every AI initiative reviewed, including the shadow tools nobody approved. |
| Board rhythm | The board sees the costs and the risks first | A quarterly roadmap with a budget next to each item. |
| Handover | A named owner and a closing date | A handover plan, so an internal owner takes it over. |
In my words
What this is
One or two days a week, on the record, as your AI officer. Every week follows the same order: procurement, design, the board.
How it ends
With an internal owner and written decisions. The handover plan exists from the first month, not the last.
What the register maps to
The register, policy and classification are the GOVERN function (one of the framework’s four functions) of the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF). The scope is one company, not a whole sector. ISO/IEC 42001 asks for the same three documents inside a certified management system. This retainer keeps them current without pursuing the certification.
What people ask
Are you on our org chart?
Yes, as a fractional officer. Your customers can name me in a security review, and I answer their questionnaires directly.
How is this different from an advisor?
An advisor gives an opinion. I sign the answers, review the initiatives, and carry the AI risk register.
How long does the retainer run?
The engagement is built to end, not to continue indefinitely. A named internal owner takes over, with written decisions handed off. If you still need me once that handover is done, I did it wrong.
Sources and neighbours
Sources
- AI Risk Management Framework
NIST · retrieved 2026-09-08
- ISO/IEC 42001:2023 — Information technology — Artificial intelligence — Management system
ISO/IEC · retrieved 2026-09-08
Related terms
Related questions
- Can you work with our existing AI vendor or platform, or do you bring your own tools?
- How do you charge for the work?
- How does AI risk get recorded, and who signs it off?
- How does the Retainer end?
- What do we do about tools staff are already using without approval?
- What's the difference between the Assessment, the Sprint and the Retainer?
- Who answers customer security questionnaires?
- Why hire a fractional officer instead of a full-time head of AI?