Consulting Desk · Fractional AI Leadership
A seat inside your
organisation.
With decision rights, in writing.
Not advisory hours. One of the two founders holds a seat with decision rights agreed in writing before day one — commissioning AI work, reviewing what comes back, killing what is not working, and being the person accountable when the board asks.
You hold: a standing decision log, a quarterly written position on the AI portfolio, board-ready and direct founder access between the quarterly points, not an account manager.
What the seat actually is
The difference is the last clause: accountable when the board asks.
Plenty of firms will sell you senior AI advice. What they will not do is sit in the accountability line. This seat does: it commissions the work, reviews it, stops it when it is not working, and answers for the portfolio in front of your board. That is a materially different product from a day rate, and it is priced and scoped as one.
It is held by someone running an AI company the rest of the week — which is the point. The judgement you are buying stays current because it is being spent on live builds, live regulators and live failures, not on a slide deck refreshed each quarter.
Because there are two of us, we hold a small number of these at a time. When we are full we will tell you, rather than passing you to someone else with a similar title.
It is designed to end
From month six there is a named successor plan. We will not hold the seat past the point your own hire could do it — and we will tell you when that point has arrived, which is usually earlier than a firm on a rolling fee would mention.
How it runs
Decision rights first, then everything else.
The first conversation is not about scope. It is about what this seat is allowed to decide alone, what it must bring to a board, and what it can stop. Everything else follows from that.
- EngagementFractional AI Leadership
- Cadence1–2 days a week, rolling, 30 days’ notice
- MethodA seat with decision rights, not advisory hours
- GateDecision rights agreed in writing before day one
- ReviewQuarterly, with a named successor plan from month six
Decision rights, agreed and written
What the seat decides alone, what goes to a board, what it can stop, and where escalation lands. Signed before day one, because a seat that cannot say who stops a project is a job title.
The portfolio, inherited honestly
Everything AI already running or in flight, with an owner against each. Where there is no owner, that is the first finding. An estate review is often the fastest way to establish it.
A standing decision log
Every decision, who made it, when, and why — the same artefact our own operation runs on. It exists so a successor can pick the seat up without a handover meeting.
A quarterly written position
Where the AI portfolio stands, what changed, what we recommend stopping. Written to be read by a board and defended in the meeting afterwards.
The handover, planned early
From month six there is a named successor and a route to them. Where that is an internal hire, we help you specify and assess for it.
The two lists that matter
What you hold, and what we will not do.
Both are in the engagement letter before you sign it. The second list is the one worth reading twice — it is where most disappointment in this market actually comes from.
What you hold at the end
- A standing decision log — what was decided, by whom, when and why
- A quarterly written position on the AI portfolio, board-ready
- Direct founder access between the quarterly points, not an account manager
- A named successor plan from month six, and help hiring into it
- The operating-model artefacts the seat creates as it goes
What we won’t do
- Seats without decision rights agreed in writing
- Figurehead roles that exist to fill a board slide
- Accountability for decisions we do not get to see
- Holding the seat past the point your own hire could do it
- Taking on more of these than two founders can hold properly
Where the seat usually starts
Most seats begin by finding out what is already running.
You cannot own a portfolio you cannot see. Where the estate is unclear, the first month is usually an estate review — on paper if that is enough, or through Sentinel if you want the picture to stay live rather than going stale the week after it is written.
See Sentinel →What we are on the hook for
Every agent we ship being inspectable and stoppable, with a named human accountable for what leaves the building. That applies to the work this seat commissions exactly as it applies to our own.
Before you commit
What the seat can and cannot do.
What can the seat decide without coming to us?
Whatever is agreed in writing before day one — typically commissioning work inside an agreed budget, stopping work, and setting technical standards. Anything a reasonable person could disagree about goes to your board, not to us.
What happens when we hire someone into the role?
That is the intended ending. From month six there is a named successor plan, and we help you specify and assess for the hire. We will tell you when your own hire could do it, which is usually earlier than you expect.
Can you hold the seat and build for us at the same time?
Yes, and the conflict is disclosed in writing. Where the seat would commission work from our own Factory Floor, that decision goes to your board with the alternative named. We do not approve our own invoices.
Need someone in the accountability line?
Thirty minutes with a founder. We will tell you honestly whether this seat is the right shape, whether an Advisory Sprint answers it more cheaply, or whether you should be hiring.
Rolling · 30 days’ notice on both sides · Reviewed quarterly