Part-time ownership of your AI strategy, governance, and rollout, with the automations built on the Microsoft stack you already own. From $3,700 a month. Columbia, Maryland.
By Mark Lucas, founder of JamesTech LLC, Columbia, MD. Roughly thirty years on the Microsoft stack, three of them at Microsoft. Artemis program contractor at NASA.
A fractional AI officer is a senior person who owns your company's AI strategy, governance, and rollout on a part-time retainer instead of a full-time salary. The role is also called a fractional Chief AI Officer, or fractional CAIO. Same job, different title.
For a 5 to 200 person firm the math is simple. There is real AI work to do every month: which automations to build next, which vendors to trust, what the team is allowed to do with client data, whether last quarter's investment paid off. There is not forty hours a week of it. A fractional officer fits the actual size of the work.
JamesTech LLC provides Fractional AI Officer retainers to firms in and around Columbia, Maryland, and remotely across the Baltimore-Washington corridor. Retainers start at $3,700 a month.
| Fractional AI officer | AI consultant | Full-time AI hire | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owns the roadmap month to month | Yes | Only for the project | Yes |
| Builds, not only advises | Yes, on your Microsoft stack | Sometimes | Depends on the hire |
| Trains your team | Monthly | Rarely | If they have time |
| Reports ROI to leadership | Quarterly | At project end | Varies |
| Cost | From $3,700 a month | Project fees, often $5,000 and up | Six-figure salary plus benefits |
| Right-sized for a 5 to 200 person firm | Yes | For one-off projects | Usually too much |
Owners and practice leaders of professional services, financial services, nonprofit, and manufacturing operations firms who have already felt the gap: AI tools are everywhere, nobody in the building owns them, and every quarter the same two ideas get discussed and not built.
The best starting point is still the AI Opportunity Review. It produces the first roadmap, and the retainer is how that roadmap keeps moving after the first build. If you want the concept explained first, read what an AI operating system is.
A fractional AI officer (also called a fractional Chief AI Officer) is a senior advisor who owns a company's AI strategy, governance, and rollout part-time instead of as a full-time hire. JamesTech LLC offers Fractional AI Officer retainers to 5 to 200 person firms in and around Columbia, Maryland, covering which automations to build, building them on Microsoft 365 and Power Platform, and keeping data security and compliance in view.
JamesTech retainers start at $3,700 a month. A full-time chief AI officer in the Baltimore-Washington market costs several times that in salary alone, and most 5 to 200 person firms do not have full-time work for one.
A consultant delivers a project and leaves. A fractional AI officer stays: sets the roadmap, builds the automations, trains the team, reports monthly, and answers for the results quarter after quarter.
One to two new automations or AI recipes shipped, a training or coaching session for the team, ownership of the AI roadmap (vendor evaluations, governance, usage policy), and a plain-English status report. Each quarter, an ROI report for leadership.
No. Most firms start with the AI Opportunity Review (from $2,500) and a first build, then move to the retainer once the roadmap has more on it than a one-time project can cover.
The AI Opportunity Review produces the first roadmap. Most retainers begin after the first build, once the roadmap has more on it than one project can cover.
Book your AI Opportunity Review