Diagnosed by a founder. Delivered by a vetted operator. Working systems in 90 days — not a strategy deck.
Every board is asking the same question this year: what is our AI strategy? Most companies our clients' size can't answer it — and can't justify a $400,000 Chief AI Officer to find out. The big consultancies will sell you a transformation roadmap. The platforms will sell you software. Neither will stand in your operation, find where AI actually pays, and be accountable for making it work. That accountability gap is what this engagement closes.
Mid-market manufacturing, industrial, engineering, supply chain, and B2B services companies — the operators with the most to gain from AI and the fewest credible partners offering it at their scale.
"What's our AI position?" — and you don't have one yet.
Investors and boards now expect a credible AI strategy the way they expect a forecast. "We're looking into it" stopped being an acceptable answer sometime last year.
"We tried AI. It didn't go anywhere."
88% of AI pilots never reach production — and the failures are operating problems, not model problems. Unclear success criteria, untrusted data, no named owner. The 12% that ship return roughly 171%.
"We need the leadership, not the $400K seat."
A full-time Chief AI Officer runs $350,000–$450,000 before equity. Mid-market companies need the judgment and the accountability — at 8–20 hours a week, not 40.
The same structure behind every ETHOSLINK engagement — a founder diagnoses, a vetted executive delivers, and ETHOSLINK manages the relationship end to end.
Every engagement begins with the AI Opportunity Diagnostic, led personally by an ETHOSLINK founder. We map where AI genuinely reduces cost or accelerates revenue in your operation — and where it doesn't, we say so.
A fractional Chief AI Officer from the ETHOSLINK bench deploys against the map — contracted, pre-vetted, and matched to your industry. No search. No delay.
Working systems in 90 days — not a strategy deck. Delivery standards are owned at the partner level, and the engagement compounds for as long as you're building.
A fixed-fee, founder-led assessment of where AI pays in your business. In two to three weeks you hold a document your board can act on — whether or not you ever engage ETHOSLINK again.
We don't advise on AI from the outside. We build with it. StageFlow is the proof.
StageFlow is ETHOSLINK's AI-native revenue platform, running RISQ™ risk-intelligence scoring inside client pipelines today. When your diagnostic shows revenue operations as the highest-payback system — and for most companies between $1M and $20M ARR, it is — your first AI implementation is a platform we built ourselves, deployed by the people who built it.
And because ETHOSLINK is an executive search firm at its core, the engagement never dead-ends. When you're ready for a permanent AI leader, we recruit and place them — and the fractional executive who built your systems hands off to a hire who fits them. Explore StageFlow →
A fractional Chief AI Officer — also known as a fractional CAIO, fractional head of AI, or fractional AI officer — is a senior executive who leads a company's AI strategy, deployment, and governance on a part-time, retained basis rather than as a full-time hire. In practice, it is the same seat: a single named leader who sits in the leadership meetings, owns the AI roadmap, is accountable for the systems reaching production, and answers to the CEO and the board for the return. What differs is the commitment — typically 8 to 20 hours per week, contracted, and scaled to what the operation actually needs.
The role emerged because the demand for AI leadership arrived faster than most mid-market companies could justify a full-time seat for it. A permanent Chief AI Officer runs $350,000 to $450,000 in first-year compensation before equity — a number defensible at large enterprises with AI already at production scale, and difficult to defend at a company still asking whether AI belongs in its operation at all. The fractional model closes that gap by delivering the same executive accountability at a fraction of the load, with the option to convert to a permanent hire when the operating tempo warrants it.
What a fractional head of AI is not is a consultant. A consultant produces a strategy deck and leaves. A fractional CAIO stays — sits inside the operating rhythm, is on the hook for outcomes after the recommendations are delivered, and hands off a working system rather than a report. That distinction is why the fractional model has become the default answer for mid-market companies whose boards are asking for an AI position they do not yet have.
Three ways to buy AI leadership. Each is the right answer in exactly one set of conditions — and expensive in the other two.
| Dimension | AI Consultant | Fractional CAIO | Full-Time Chief AI Officer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary output | Strategy decks, roadmaps, recommendations | Working systems, executive decisions, ongoing accountability | Working systems plus long-run org design and hiring |
| Engagement horizon | Fixed project, weeks to a few months | Ongoing retainer, month to month | Permanent, full-time |
| Time commitment | Project-scoped, then departs | Typically 8 – 20 hrs / week | 40+ hrs / week |
| Cost profile | Project-based; often $50K – $300K+ per engagement | Monthly retainer — a fraction of a full-time seat | $350K – $450K first-year comp before equity |
| Accountability after launch | None. Report-and-run. | Named executive on the hook for outcomes | Named executive; carries the P&L line |
| Decision authority | Advisory only | Delegated by CEO; sits in leadership meetings | Full — reports to CEO / board |
| Best when | A one-time strategy question, or a targeted pilot with a clear buyer | The board is asking for an AI position the company does not yet have, and the tempo is under 20 hrs / week | AI systems are in production at a scale requiring continuous leadership |
ETHOSLINK engagements begin with a fixed-fee AI Opportunity Diagnostic at $9,500, which is fully credited toward the retainer if a fractional Chief AI Officer is deployed within 60 days. From there the model shifts to a monthly retainer sized to the scope of what has been deployed — the diagnostic itself defines what that scope should be. Compared to a full-time Chief AI Officer at roughly $350,000 to $450,000 in first-year compensation before equity, a fractional retainer delivers the same executive accountability at a fraction of the total load — typically at 8 to 20 hours per week rather than 40-plus.
Most fractional Chief AI Officer engagements run 8 to 20 hours per week — enough to lead the diagnostic, sit in the relevant leadership meetings, own the roadmap, and be accountable for the systems reaching production. It is deliberately not a full-time seat. If the operating tempo demands 40-plus hours a week of AI leadership, the right answer is a permanent hire — and ETHOSLINK will recruit that hire when the time comes.
Yes. The fractional Chief AI Officer engagement is designed to run remotely by default and is available to companies in the United States and the United Kingdom. The diagnostic is founder-led and delivered as a written board-ready document; the deployment sits inside the client's existing operating cadence — leadership meetings, revenue reviews, and steering forums — via the tools the team already uses. When on-site presence is warranted, it is scoped in advance.
The AI Opportunity Diagnostic is a two- to three-week, founder-led assessment that produces four artifacts: the AI Opportunity Map ranking every viable AI use case in the business by estimated payback and implementation effort; a data and readiness assessment showing what the systems can support today and the shortest path to what they cannot; a 90-day implementation plan naming the first two or three systems worth building; and build-vs-buy guidance including whether the revenue operation is the right first system. The fee is $9,500 and is fully credited to the fractional retainer if deployed within 60 days.
A consultancy sells strategy and hands you a deck. A fractional Chief AI Officer sits in your leadership meetings, is accountable for shipping the systems the diagnostic identified, and stays on the hook after launch. The 88% pilot-failure rate is largely a consequence of the consultancy model: a report-and-run relationship with no named owner after the recommendations are delivered. The fractional engagement was built to close that gap — a single, named executive on the ETHOSLINK bench who owns the outcome, with delivery standards held at the partner level.
One strategy call. A founder on the line. A clear answer on whether this is worth your money — either way.
Book a Discovery CallAre you a senior AI or data leader open to fractional work? Here's how to reach us →