Fractional AI Director
Fractional AI Director for Mid-Market Companies
Senior AI leadership working alongside your team for 10 to 20 hours per month. You get Fortune 500-caliber AI strategy, implementation, and team training at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire. Personally hands-on. No junior associates. No bait-and-switch.
30 minutes. No pitch. Just clarity on your best AI opportunities.
The Problem
The AI Leadership Gap
Companies in the $10M to $200M range face a unique challenge. Cisco’s 2025 AI Readiness Index found that only 13% of organizations are fully AI-ready, yet 83% plan to deploy AI agents. You’re big enough that AI could transform your operations, but not big enough to justify a quarter-million-dollar executive hire. That leaves most mid-market companies stuck.
You know AI matters, but you don’t have anyone to lead it. Your IT team is busy keeping the lights on. No one has the bandwidth or the expertise to evaluate, plan, and deploy AI across the organization.
A full-time AI executive costs $250K+ per year. For most companies in the $10M to $200M range, that’s hard to justify when you’re still figuring out where AI fits.
Consulting firms sell strategy decks, not outcomes. You’ve seen the proposals. $50K to $200K for a project that ends with a PDF. No one sticks around to build anything.
Random AI experiments are wasting time and money. Without senior leadership, teams adopt tools in silos. There’s no coherent strategy, no governance, and no way to measure ROI.
A fractional AI director solves this. Gartner forecasts that by 2027, over 30% of midsize enterprises will have at least one fractional executive on retainer. You get senior AI leadership, hands-on implementation, and measurable results for $5,000 to $10,000 per month. No recruiting. No ramp-up. No six-figure gamble.
The Role
What Does a Fractional AI Director Actually Do?
Think of a fractional AI director as your part-time AI executive. Some companies call this role a fractional Chief AI Officer, fractional CAIO, or virtual chief AI officer. I work alongside your team for 10 to 20 hours per month, bringing senior AI leadership to your most important initiatives. In a typical month, we focus on 2 to 3 priorities based on where your AI efforts are.
AI Strategy Development
Define your company’s AI roadmap. Identify the highest-ROI use cases, set priorities, and align AI initiatives with business goals.
Vendor and Tool Evaluation
Cut through the noise of 10,000+ AI tools. Get objective recommendations based on your actual tech stack, data, and team capabilities.
Compare AI tool data privacy by tierImplementation Oversight
Manage AI projects from prototype to production. I don’t just advise. I build working systems and oversee delivery.
Team Training and Enablement
Upskill your existing team to work effectively with AI. Custom workshops, prompt engineering training, and hands-on coaching.
AI Governance and Risk Management
Establish responsible AI policies, data handling practices, and compliance frameworks before problems arise. This includes drafting your AI acceptable use policy with tool approval tiers and data classification rules.
Get the AI acceptable use policy templateExecutive Communication
Translate technical AI progress into business language for your board, investors, and leadership team. Clear metrics, clear ROI.
Competitive Intelligence
Monitor how competitors and your industry are deploying AI. Keep your company positioned ahead, not behind.
The Process
How the Engagement Works
Most fractional AI engagements follow a consistent arc. The first month is focused on understanding your business and delivering quick wins. From there, we move to full implementation and ongoing advisory.
Many fractional AI engagements start with an AI Strategy Assessment to identify your highest-value opportunities before committing to ongoing work. Want the full breakdown? Read what a fractional AI director does month by month.
Ideal Fit
Is a Fractional AI Director Right for Your Company?
This service is designed for companies that need senior AI leadership but aren’t ready for (or don’t need) a full-time hire. If any of the following describe your situation, we should talk.
Mid-market companies ($10M to $200M revenue) without a dedicated AI leader
Technology and professional services companies adding AI capabilities to their offerings
Professional services firms looking to automate knowledge work
Companies with 50 to 500 employees where a full-time AI hire isn’t justified yet
Leadership teams that want AI strategy and implementation under one accountable leader
Organizations that have tried AI pilots but haven’t seen measurable results
Companies preparing for board or investor conversations about their AI strategy
Investment
What Does a Fractional AI Director Cost?
Fractional AI director retainers range from $5,000 to $10,000 per month depending on scope and hours. That’s $60,000 to $120,000 per year for senior AI leadership that would cost three to five times more as a full-time hire.
A CFO will run the math: $10,000 a month for 20 hours is $500 an hour. That’s a fair calculation, and it’s worth putting in context. Big Four AI consulting bills $350 to $500+ per hour, and most of that work is done by associates 2 to 5 years out of school. McKinsey and BCG charge $600 to $1,100 per hour at the partner level. A fractional AI director retainer puts a senior practitioner with 25 years of experience, hands on keyboard, at a rate that’s competitive with firms that staff your project with juniors. The difference: every hour is senior-led strategy and implementation, not oversight of someone else’s work.
3-month initial engagement, then month-to-month. No annual lock-ins. Scale hours up or down as your needs evolve. For a detailed breakdown of costs, tradeoffs, and when each model is the right fit, read the full comparison of fractional AI directors, full-time hires, and consulting firms.
Your AI Director
Who You’re Working With
I’m Jonathan Lasley. I’ve spent 25+ years in enterprise technology, including pre-sales engineering, solution architecture, and hands-on AI development. I’ve sold and delivered AI solutions to companies ranging from $10M to Fortune 500.
When you hire a fractional AI director, you want someone who doesn’t just advise. You want someone who builds. I write production code, deploy AI systems, and train teams with the same tools I recommend. I’ve built a win strategy system that compressed weeks of competitive research into hours, a content operations system that runs 3 websites with distinct brand voices, and an enterprise-grade SaaS platform as a solo operator. I set the strategy, lead the build, and stay accountable for the outcome. No bait-and-switch. No junior associates showing up after the sale.
Based in Michigan and working with mid-market companies nationwide. Looking for fractional Chief AI Officer services? Same role, same person. If you want to learn more, read my full background.
Common Questions
Questions I Hear in Every First Call
You’re one person. How do you handle multiple clients?
I limit my client roster to 3–5 active engagements at any time. Each client gets 10–20 dedicated hours per month with direct access to me. There’s no shared pool, no queue, and no junior associates picking up overflow. If my roster is full, I’ll tell you that upfront and offer a referral or a waitlist with a clear timeline. I’d rather turn down work than deliver less than what you’re paying for.
How do you work with our existing IT or engineering team?
I’m not here to replace your team or compete with them. I work alongside your existing engineers, IT staff, and operations leaders. My role is to set AI strategy, identify the right tools and architectures, and help your team build the capabilities to own these systems long-term. I handle the pieces your team doesn’t have bandwidth or expertise for, and I transfer knowledge as we go so you’re not dependent on me forever.
What if we’ve tried AI before and it didn’t work?
You’re not alone. Research from RAND Corporation and MIT shows that 80–95% of enterprise AI pilots fail to deliver measurable results. The pattern I see: a vendor demo that looked promising, a pilot without clear success metrics, and an implementation that never connected to actual business workflows. A failed pilot isn’t a sign that AI doesn’t work for your business. It’s usually a sign that nobody owned the outcome. That’s what I do. I own the strategy, the implementation, and the results. Read why AI projects fail and how to avoid it.
Ready to Add AI Leadership to Your Team?
Book a free 30-minute strategy call. I’ll learn about your business, your goals, and your AI challenges. If I can help, I’ll tell you how. If I can’t, I’ll tell you that too. No pitch. No pressure.
30 minutes. No pitch. Just clarity.
Want to benchmark your readiness first? Take the free AI Readiness Assessment to see where you stand in 5 minutes.