Fractional AI lead

One person accountable for the return on your AI, about two days a week.

With your team, I sort every AI workflow into keep, fix or stop, take the next ones live, and report value, cost and risk monthly.

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  • One AI lead, about two days a week, linked to the workflow list, delivery, the monthly report, governance and your team

Companies I’ve worked with

Across product, analytics, and AI.

Who this is for

For leaders who need one person accountable for their AI workflows (business processes where AI does part of the work and your people check the results).

CEO

• AI is on the board agenda, and nobody below you owns it end to end.
• You need one accountable person this quarter, not after a six-month search.

CFO or board

• You fund AI in several teams and can’t say what it returns.
• You need value, cost and risk reported one way, every month.

COO or head of transformation

• Pilots multiply across functions, and nobody decides which ones get finished.
• You need someone to make that decision with you, then get the work done.

CPO or CTO

• You need a senior AI lead who builds alongside your engineers, not around them.
• You’re not ready to decide on a permanent hire.

PE operating partner

• You want AI run and measured the same way across your portfolio companies.
• You don’t want to hire a Head of AI for every company.

Why it matters

AI needs an owner, and most companies can’t hire one fast enough.

76%

of organisations surveyed now have a Chief AI Officer, up from 26% a year earlier.

Source: IBM Institute for Business Value, CEO Study 2026, 2,000 CEOs.

75%

of executives say their AI strategy is more for show than real guidance.

Source: WRITER, 2026 enterprise AI survey, 2,400 respondents.

25%

of AI initiatives have delivered the ROI expected of them. Only 16% have scaled enterprise-wide.

Source: IBM Institute for Business Value, CEO Study 2025, 2,000 CEOs.

79,000

IT specialists short in Germany, and 18% of companies are turning more to external specialists to close the gap.

Source: Bitkom, 2026.

Large companies have answered with a named AI leader. For a mid-sized company, a full-time hire is a big, slow bet on a role still being defined. A fractional lead puts someone accountable in the seat now, and lets you define the permanent role from real work. In a SmartProduct analysis of 1,069 AI-leadership and adjacent job descriptions in Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and the US, Aug–Sep 2026, 40% to 52% ask the leader to build hands-on.

What you get

One owner for your AI workflows, from the first decision to the monthly numbers.

Every AI workflow assessed, with a decision on each.

  • One list of everything in production, in pilot and proposed.
  • Each scored on value, cost, adoption and risk, in your numbers.
  • Keep, fix, stop or start next, decided by your sponsor, the executive I report to.
Scorecard of four AI workflows with their value, cost and adoption, and a keep, fix or stop decision for each
Evidence chain from quality to use, process and money, each with its own evidence

The next workflows in production and adopted, one at a time.

  • I lead each one hands-on with your engineers, using the AI delivery sprint method.
  • Production-grade: reliable enough for daily work on your real data.
  • Each measured on quality, use, process and money, against today’s numbers.

One monthly report your board can use.

  • Usage, cost per case (like per invoice), value in euros against today’s numbers, and open risks.
  • Every AI workflow in production, in the same format every month.
  • Each number linked to data your finance team can check.
Monthly AI report showing three AI workflows by adoption, cost per case, value against baseline and open risks, with two issues flagged
AI register listing what's running, who signs off and where rules apply, leading to faster delivery

Governance that fits the risk.

  • A register of what’s running, and who signs off what.
  • Sign-offs agreed upfront, so approvals don’t stall delivery.
  • A use policy people can follow, and where the EU AI Act and product liability rules apply.

Teams that run it without me.

  • A named owner for each AI workflow in production.
  • Adoption tracked per team, not per person, so a stall shows up early.
  • Coaching for your engineers on AI agents, testing and logging, where they want it.
Rollout stage tracked per team, not per person, with one team's stall flagged early
From fractional lead to permanent lead: role defined, search run, handed over

A permanent hire, if you want one.

  • A role definition written from what the work turned out to be.
  • Help with the search and interviews, including internal candidates.
  • A handover to the person who takes the seat.

How it works

Four stages; by day 90 you have a decision on every AI workflow, governance in place and the first workflow in production.

1. Map and decide (days 1 to 30)

• Every AI workflow in production, in pilot or proposed, scored the same way.
• A register of what’s running, and a 90-day plan your sponsor signs off.

2. First workflow in production (days 30 to 90)

• The highest-value workflow taken to production and rolled out, team by team.
• Its results report comes 30 days after go-live, against today’s numbers.

3. Run it (every month)

• The monthly report, the next workflow, governance and team coaching.
• About two days a week, remote or on site, agreed upfront.

4. Hand over (when you’re ready)

• To your permanent lead or your team, with the workflows, the method and the numbers.
• The best outcome: you no longer need me in this seat.

Pricing

A monthly fee for about two days a week, not billed by the hour.

Fractional AI lead

From €7,500 a month

  • About two days a week, remote or on site
  • 3-month minimum; give 30 days’ notice in month three to stop there
  • A decision on every AI workflow, and a register of what’s running
  • The next workflows led to production, one at a time
  • A monthly report your board can use
  • Governance, team coaching and hiring support
Book a call

More days, or several companies

A fixed quote after the call

  • More than two days a week, up to a full-time interim Head of AI
  • Several portfolio companies, run and measured the same way
  • Each company’s monthly report, plus one summary across all of them
Book a call

Extra days cost €900 each, agreed before they’re used. Prices exclude VAT. Model, hosting and licence costs are paid to your providers. Need one workflow live first? Start with the AI delivery sprint.

Who I work with

I’m Ravi, and I take the seat myself. Advisors and specialists join only where named in your proposal.

Ravi Ayyala

Ravi Ayyala

Founder and product AI lead

  • Leads the review, translates from business to AI, the build if it makes sense, and user adoption.
  • Ex-LinkedIn, ex-Blacklane (Uber) product leader.
  • MBA (Oxford), AI trained (Stanford), Engineering (NUS)
Linde Scheers

Linde Scheers

Marketing and growth advisor

  • Advises SmartProduct and selected client work on positioning, adoption and distribution.
  • Former Google leader and former CMO at eBay Germany.
  • Currently CMO at ING Germany.
Linde Scheers work and education
Shankar AVSB

Shankar AVSB

Finance and strategy advisor

  • Advises SmartProduct and selected client work on investment thinking, business outcomes, and technology.
  • Technology investor with experience at ABB and Infosys and study at Stanford.
Shankar AVSB work and education

FAQ

Everything else worth knowing before you book a call.

  • The review is a one-off: a keep, fix or stop decision on each AI workflow.
  • A sprint is a fixed-length, time-boxed piece of work with a measured result, as in agile. It takes one workflow to production.
  • As your fractional AI lead, I own all of it, every month, and lead the next workflows myself.
  • Know exactly which workflow needs work? Go straight to the delivery sprint. Weighing a few, or not sure where to start? The review picks it for you.
  • A consultant hands you a recommendation. I own the outcome alongside your team: the decisions, the delivery and the monthly numbers.
  • Compared with a permanent hire: faster to start, no headcount decision, and you learn what the role needs before you hire for it.
  • Usually, at mid-market size: the job is deciding, unblocking and delivering one workflow at a time.
  • Your engineers do most of the build; I lead it and build the hardest parts.
  • If two days aren’t enough, we agree extra days openly, not less scope quietly.
  • One named sponsor, usually the CEO or COO, sometimes the CTO.
  • I recommend keep, fix or stop for each workflow; your sponsor decides.
  • Architecture and tooling stay with your CTO. I propose, and build within them.
  • Yes. I build workflows, tests and logging in your repositories, reviewed by your engineers.
  • Code, test cases and dashboards are yours once paid.
  • Every step is logged (traced) in your logging stack, or in Langfuse or LangSmith if you have none.
  • Tested against the OWASP top 10 for LLM applications. OWASP is the open application-security community.
  • Documented against AIUC-1, the standard for AI agent security, safety and reliability.

They’re scored the same way as everything else: value, cost, adoption and risk. Some are kept, some fixed, some stopped, each with the evidence written down. My own work is scored by the same rules.

It can, if it’s right for both sides. If not, I help you hire the person who takes it on, including internal candidates.

  • Three months covers mapping every workflow and getting the first one into production.
  • Either side can give 30 days’ notice during month three, so the shortest engagement is three months.
  • After that, either side can end it at any time with 30 days’ notice.
  • Yes. One method and one way of measuring across your portfolio companies.
  • Each company gets its own days and monthly report, and you get one summary across all of them.
  • Scoped and quoted per portfolio on a call.

Access is agreed upfront, read-only where possible. I show you anonymised examples before you share anything real, and nothing proprietary leaves your environment without your agreement.

Put someone accountable in the seat.

A free 30-minute call, no slides. It ends with a yes or no on a three-month start.

Book a call Take the 2-minute AI check