Erin Moore — Fractional Chief AI Officer
    Vol. XI — Fractional Chief AI Officer
    Fractional Chief AI OfficerTwo Formats

    Fractional Chief AI Officer — without the full-time hire.

    Hire a Fractional Chief AI Officer — embedded AI executive leadership on a monthly retainer. Strategy, vendor evaluation, and board-ready guidance.

    A full-time Chief AI Officer commands $300K–$400K+ in total compensation. Most growing companies need that level of strategic AI leadership but can't justify — or find — the hire. The Fractional Chief AI Officer cost reflects the depth of the engagement: senior executive leadership at a fraction of the full-time salary.

    I embed directly into your leadership team as a Fractional Chief AI Officer: owning your AI roadmap, evaluating vendors, pressure-testing decisions, and ensuring every automation dollar drives measurable ROI. Every engagement runs inside a dedicated workspace on Orchestra (orch.so) — calls, async messaging, documents, and action items in one place. Not a Slack channel. Not scattered emails. A purpose-built operating environment for executive advisory.

    The shift is already underway: 76% of organizations now report having a Chief AI Officer in some form, up from 26% a year earlier (IBM, 2026). But headcount isn't the problem. Most AI initiatives stall not because of technology, but because no one owns the strategy.

    This is not consulting. This is not coaching. This is an executive function.

    Three Ways Forward
    01

    Hire a full-time Chief AI Officer.

    $300K–$400K+ a year, plus benefits and a 3–6 month search. Out of reach for most growing companies, and more capacity than most need.

    02

    Do nothing and hope.

    Tools get bought without a strategy. Pilots stall. Budget burns on software nobody adopts. That's a gamble, not an investment.

    03

    Fractional AI leadership.

    Senior AI executive ownership at a fraction of the full-time cost. Measurable ROI in 90 days, scaled to what your company can actually absorb.

    ◆ The recommended path
    The Engagement Ladder

    Two rungs. One clear path.

    Not sure which fits? The Strategy Intensive is the front door — the full $750 credits toward your first month if you move to the retainer.

    IStrategy Intensive
    The Front Door
    $750One-time · 90 minutes

    One high-stakes AI decision, worked through with a senior operator. A written assessment in 24 hours, and full credit toward your first retainer month.

    Book a Strategy Intensive
    IIFractional CAIO Retainer
    The Engagement
    $7,500/moThree-month minimum · Limited availability

    A senior AI executive embedded in your leadership team — owning strategy, evaluating every vendor, and delivering board-ready guidance month over month.

    Book an onboarding call
    IStrategy Intensive
    $750One-time

    A focused 90-minute working session on a single strategic AI decision.

    Format
    • 90-minute 1:1 call, recorded
    • Pre-call brief — you submit the situation in writing
    • Written strategic assessment and action plan, delivered within 24 hours
    • One follow-up question via email, 7 days post-call
    • Full $750 credit toward your first month if you move to the retainer — a 10% head start
    This is right for you if…

    You’re evaluating whether to hire a Fractional Chief AI Officer and want to test the working relationship first. Or you have a single high-stakes AI decision — vendor selection, build-vs-buy, board presentation prep, AI readiness assessment — and need a senior operator who’s done this across 100+ businesses to look at it with you. This session is designed as the front door to the retainer, not a standalone product.

    Book a Strategy Intensive
    IIFractional Chief AI Officer Retainer
    $7,500Per month · Three-month minimum · Limited availability

    A senior AI executive embedded in your leadership team.

    Format
    • Dedicated workspace on Orchestra — calls, async messaging, documents, and action tracking in one operating environment
    • Strategic calls scheduled as needed — not capped at a fixed number. Most months this is two or three; some months it’s four because something urgent is live
    • Async access between calls — voice memos, deal review, quick decisions. You send a question, I respond same business day
    • 90-day AI strategic roadmap delivered in the first 30 days — where you are, where the highest-ROI opportunities are, and the prioritized execution plan. Updated quarterly
    • Vendor and tool evaluation on an ongoing basis — unbiased assessment of every platform, agent, and integration your company considers
    • One board-ready or leadership-ready deliverable per quarter — AI strategy presentations, ROI models, business cases, or vendor comparisons on request
    • Full access to operating frameworks and SOPs from my playbook
    This is right for you if…

    You’re a founder, CEO, or COO running a company doing $1M–$30M in revenue and you know AI should be a strategic advantage — but you don’t have the internal expertise to separate signal from noise. You need someone who’s deployed AI across 100+ businesses to own the strategy layer so your team can focus on execution. You’re not looking for a consultant who delivers a report and disappears. You’re not looking for a coach who asks how you feel about AI. You want a fractional executive who shows up in your operating rhythm, knows your business, and owns outcomes. Unlike a one-time consulting engagement, this AI strategy retainer gives you sustained executive leadership month over month.

    Get Started
    The First 90 Days

    What the first 90 days look like.

    This isn't a consulting timeline. It's an operating tempo.

    Days 1–30

    Assessment & Roadmap

    Full audit of your current AI activity — what's working, what's burning budget, where shadow AI is creating risk. I map your vendor landscape, interview key stakeholders, and deliver a 90-day strategic roadmap prioritized by ROI. You get clarity on where you stand and a sequenced plan to move forward.

    Days 31–60

    Governance & First Initiative

    We establish the governance framework — who owns what, how AI decisions get made, what gets measured. Your first priority initiative moves from plan to pilot. Vendor evaluations are completed and recommendations documented.

    Days 61–90

    First Measurable Win

    The first initiative delivers a measurable result — cost reduction, time saved, revenue influenced, or risk mitigated. We review what worked, what needs adjustment, and set the roadmap for the next quarter. At day 90, you have proof that the engagement pays for itself.

    The Comparison

    How the model compares.

    Full-Time CAIOAI ConsultantFractional CAIO(Erin Moore)
    Annual cost$300K–$400K+$50K–$150K/project$90K ($7,500 × 12)
    Time to start3–6 month recruit2–4 weeksImmediately
    Owns the strategyYesNo — advises onlyYes
    Embedded in leadershipYesNo — externalYes
    Execution capacityDepends on teamDelivers reportConnected to full agency
    CommitmentPermanent hirePer project3-month minimum
    Risk of wrong hireHighLowLow
    AccountabilityReports to boardReports to PMReports to CEO/COO

    I'm Erin Moore. U.S. Army veteran. Founder of AutomateNexus. Author of The AI Automation Field Manual (Amazon). EMBA, MS, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

    I've led 100+ AI implementations across SMBs and growing companies. My work has been featured in the Associated Press, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, and Benzinga.

    I don't advise on AI from the sidelines. I build, deploy, and run AI systems through AutomateNexus — which means the strategy I develop as your Fractional Chief AI Officer is informed by what's actually working in production today, not what worked in a case study from 2023.

    Most fractional AI executives are either strategists who can't build or engineers who can't lead. I do both.

    What this engagement does not include.

    Implementation. I don't build your automations, configure your tools, or write your prompts. That's what AutomateNexus is for — and when you need implementation, the agency is already built to deliver it. The Fractional Chief AI Officer retainer is the strategy layer. The agency is the execution layer. They work together, but they're separate engagements.

    Unlimited on-call access. Async means responsive within business hours — not 24/7 concierge service. I'm a fractional executive, not a helpdesk.

    Hands-on-keyboard work. I'll tell you exactly what to build, who should build it, which tools to use, and how to measure whether it's working. I won't be the one building it.

    Common Questions

    Frequently asked questions.

    What size company is this for?
    The Fractional Chief AI Officer retainer is designed for companies doing $1M–$30M in annual revenue — large enough to have complex AI decisions, lean enough that a $300K+ full-time hire isn't justified. The Strategy Intensive is open to companies at any stage.
    How is this different from hiring an AI consultant?
    A consultant delivers a report and leaves. I embed in your leadership team, attend your operating rhythm, and own outcomes over time. The retainer is a relationship, not a project.
    Do you build the AI tools or only advise?
    Both. Through AutomateNexus, I lead a full agency that handles implementation — CRM, voice agents, workflow automation, MCP deployments. When a retainer client needs something built, we scope it through the agency. Strategy and execution under one roof.
    What if I already have a CTO?
    A CTO owns technical infrastructure. A Fractional CAIO owns AI strategy and governance. These are complementary roles. Most of my clients have both, and I work directly with their CTO to align priorities.
    What does "limited availability" mean?
    I cap active retainer clients at 8. This isn't artificial scarcity — it's the maximum number where every client gets embedded executive attention, not a watered-down version of the engagement. When I'm full, new clients start with a Strategy Intensive and join a waitlist for the retainer.
    Getting Started

    Every engagement starts personally.

    I take on a small number of Fractional Chief AI Officer retainer clients at any given time to ensure the depth of engagement each one requires. Every retainer begins with a brief onboarding call to align on scope, goals, and start date.

    If we're not a fit, I'll tell you directly. And where I can, I'll point you to the right resource inside the AutomateNexus ecosystem or elsewhere. See what this looks like in practice on the case studies page, or learn more about me.

    Response within 2 business days