Start in two weeks. Cancel anytime.
Start with a fixed-scope AI Strategy Sprint to see exactly where AI moves the needle in your business — or move directly into a monthly retainer. No annual contract either way.
AI Strategy Sprint
A fixed-scope, two-week engagement that gives your leadership team a clear picture of where AI can move the needle — and exactly what to do about it. No ongoing commitment required.
$15,000
one-time
Two weeks · No monthly commitment
AI Readiness Report
Scored across five dimensions — Strategy, Process, Data, Team, and Governance. Identifies your biggest gaps and highest-potential starting points.
Process Opportunity Map
Top automation targets in your business, ranked by ROI potential and implementation complexity. A clear list of what to build first.
90-Day AI Roadmap
A prioritized initiative list with owners, timelines, and success metrics. Ready to hand to your team — or to your new Fractional CAIO.
Governance Gap Analysis
AI policy requirements, data handling gaps, and immediate fixes. What your legal and compliance teams need before any automation goes live.
Most Sprint clients transition into a monthly retainer after seeing the roadmap. No pressure — the Sprint stands on its own.
One engagement. One price. Full accountability.
Month-to-month. No annual commitment. An embedded executive in your seat, accountable for outcomes — not just recommendations.
Fractional CAIO Retainer
$15,000
/ month
25–35 hrs / month · Month-to-month
30-day cancellation. No annual contract.
- ✓One to two days per week of embedded executive time
- ✓AI strategy ownership and roadmap maintenance
- ✓Hands-on system building and integration
- ✓Vendor selection and management
- ✓Role-specific employee training program
- ✓Governance, security, and compliance framework
- ✓Weekly leadership cadence
- ✓Monthly written ROI report
- ✓Quarterly business reviews
Tool costs (OpenAI, Anthropic, integration platforms) are billed at cost directly to your company card. You own every account and API key from day one.
See the week-by-week engagement arc →The same executive on payroll costs three times more.
And that's before the 60–90 day recruiting cycle and the 90-day onboarding ramp. AALI is operational in two to three weeks.
Full-time Chief AI Officer
Fully loaded — base, bonus, equity, benefits, recruiting, onboarding
$300K–$400K
Top-tier AI consulting engagement
Per project, no ongoing accountability after delivery
$50K–$250K
AALI Fractional CAIO Retainer
Per year. Month-to-month. No equity, no benefits, no recruiting.
$180K
Doing nothing
The cost of watching competitors compound while you run webinars
∞
Clean, simple, designed to be fair on both sides.
I.
Month-to-month
No annual commitment. 30 days notice from either side to end the engagement. We earn renewal by being valuable, not by holding you in a contract.
II.
Company card for tool costs
OpenAI, Anthropic, integration platforms, vendor subscriptions — all billed directly to your card. You own every account and API key. We never mark up tool costs.
III.
You keep what we build
All systems, integrations, prompts, agents, documentation, and runbooks belong to you. No vendor lock-in. No IP claims. No exit fees.
IV.
Transparent reporting
Weekly leadership sync. Monthly written update on what shipped, what's blocked, what's next. Quarterly business review with measurable outcomes.
V.
Standard MSA + SOW
Master Services Agreement with a clean Statement of Work attached. NDAs, data processing agreements, and security questionnaires handled before kickoff.
VI.
Operational in 2–3 weeks
Discovery interviews in week one. Roadmap drafted in week two. First quick-win automation live by week three. No 90-day onboarding theater.
Does it pencil? See your numbers.
Adjust the inputs to match your company. The math is conservative — real engagements typically outperform these estimates after month three.
Assumes $75/hr loaded cost · 40% AI capture rate (conservative)
Your numbers
Based on 20 employees × 8 hrs/wk of automatable work at a $75/hr loaded rate
Annual cost of wasted labor
8,320 hrs × $75/hr
$624K
AI-recoverable savings (40% capture)
Conservative — most clients see 50–60% capture by month 6
$250K
AALI annual investment
$15K/month · month-to-month · no annual contract
$180K
Net Year 1 value
Pays for itself in 9 months
+$70K
AALI retainer as % of your revenue
0.90%(benchmark: ~1%)
The pricing questions we hear most.
If your question isn't answered here, book a discovery call and we'll cover it in the first fifteen minutes.
What is the AI Strategy Sprint?
The Sprint is a fixed-scope, two-week engagement designed to give your leadership team a clear picture of where AI can move the needle in your business. It produces four deliverables: an AI Readiness Report, a Process Opportunity Map, a 90-day AI Roadmap, and a Governance Gap Analysis. It is priced at $15,000 and requires no ongoing commitment. Many Sprint clients transition directly into a monthly retainer.
What does the monthly engagement actually cover?
Embedded leadership — one to two days a week of executive time inside your organization. That includes weekly leadership cadence, AI strategy ownership, hands-on system building, vendor management, team training, governance documentation, and quarterly business reviews. Think of it as a Chief AI Officer seat, without the full-time hiring overhead.
Is there a minimum contract length?
No annual contract. Engagements are month-to-month. Either side can end the relationship with 30 days notice. We earn continued partnership through results, not lock-in.
What's not included in the monthly fee?
Third-party tool costs (OpenAI, Anthropic, vendor SaaS subscriptions, integration platforms) are billed directly to your company card. You own everything we set up. We never mark up tool costs.
Why a company card instead of reimbursement?
Tool costs scale with usage and need to be provisioned quickly. Putting them on your card keeps the audit trail clean, avoids reimbursement lag, and ensures you own every account and API key from day one. No vendor lock-in to us.
How does this compare to hiring a full-time Chief AI Officer?
A full-time Chief AI Officer runs $300,000–$400,000 fully loaded when you add base salary, bonus, equity, benefits, recruiting fees, and onboarding ramp — plus a 60–90 day minimum time-to-hire. AALI is operational in two to three weeks at less than half the all-in annual cost, with month-to-month flexibility and no recruiting overhead.
How does this compare to AI consulting?
Consultants deliver a project — a strategy report, an audit, a deck. They leave when the engagement ends. A Fractional CAIO is an embedded executive accountable for outcomes after delivery. The relationship is ongoing, the work compounds, and someone owns the result.
What does cancellation look like?
30 days written notice on either side. We hand off all documentation, API keys, system access, and runbooks. You keep everything. No exit fees, no escape clauses, no IP claims on work delivered.
Citation
The Applied AI Leadership Institute. “Engagement & Pricing.” https://appliedaileadership.org/pricing. Accessed [date].
Start with a discovery call.
Thirty minutes. No deck. We'll discuss your current AI posture, the outcomes you care about, and whether a Sprint, a retainer, or neither is the right fit. If it's not right, we'll tell you.