What is a Fractional Chief AI Officer?

A Fractional Chief AI Officer is a senior AI advisor who works with your leadership team part-time, rather than as a full-time executive hire. At Versantly, that advisor sits at your leadership table and builds the AI roadmap with you. Every project is tied back to a dollar figure on the problem. You leave the 45-minute diagnostic with that figure.

What does a Fractional Chief AI Officer do?

A Fractional Chief AI Officer is an AI consultant who first measures the leak: where your business loses time and money each week, and what that costs. Then the work starts with the biggest leak. We sit with you, go through the numbers, and you leave with a dollar figure on the problem. That sequence begins in the 45-minute diagnostic.

In my brokerage, the useful work did not start with a new tool. It started when I could see which tasks were eating the week, and what that time was worth. A Fractional Chief AI Officer should do the same with you.

After that figure is on the table, the advisor helps you pick the first job worth doing, then works with your people so they can run the fix. We build the AI roadmap with you, starting with the work that will move the number.

The advisor is not a full-time executive. You stay accountable for the business.

Who is a Fractional Chief AI Officer for?

This is for CEOs of firms with 50 to 200 staff who suspect AI should be saving them time and money, and who want someone to prove where before they spend. If you already bought the tools and nothing much changed, this is the starting point.

A licence in the building can look like progress. The Australian Bureau of Statistics found that 12% of Australian businesses used AI in the 2024-25 financial year, up from 1% in 2021-22. Among medium businesses (20 to 199 people employed), 22% reported using AI, up from 3%. Among large businesses (200 or more people employed), the figure was around 35%, up from 9%. The ABS released those results on 25 June 2026 and says the question is not designed to measure how deeply AI is used inside the firm.

A business can sit in those figures and still have no idea what the unfixed work is costing. The ABS size groups are 20 to 199 and 200 or more, so they are not an exact match for the 50 to 200 staff band we work with.

How is a Fractional Chief AI Officer different from a consultant or a full-time hire?

A full-time Chief AI Officer is a permanent executive hire. A Fractional Chief AI Officer is a part-time advisor for firms that want senior help without that appointment. A project consultant often leaves a plan and steps off. At Versantly, the advisor builds the AI roadmap with you. You can decide later whether a full-time hire is justified.

The useful distinction is how the work starts, and what you still have if the engagement ends.

| | Fractional Chief AI Officer | Full-time Chief AI Officer | Project consultant | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Time in the business | Part-time, for as long as you need the help | A permanent executive role | Usually a fixed project | | What you should get first | A dollar figure on the leak, then a plan tied to it | A mandate, then a team and a budget | A report, sometimes a prototype | | When it tends to fit | You want senior help, and you are not ready to create the role | AI is already large enough to justify the appointment | You want a bounded piece of advice or a one-off build | | How Versantly starts | The 45-minute diagnostic | Not a hire we make for you | Not our model |

If a later full-time hire is the right move, that decision is cleaner once you have the number. If it is not, you have not created a role you then have to unwind.

Why start with a dollar figure, rather than another tool?

You start with a dollar figure because a tool without a number attached is just another subscription. The 45-minute diagnostic is how we get that figure. We work through your numbers with you and, if it helps, whoever runs operations. You leave knowing what the leak is costing you. We don't talk price until you have that figure.

The National AI Centre's foundations guidance, published on 5 May 2026, tells organisations to assign a senior leader as the overall AI governance owner, to keep an AI register, and to test a system before they deploy it. It also says you do not need to do everything at once.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, in its guidance on commercially available AI products, says organisations should consider whether an AI product is necessary and the best solution in the circumstances. AI products should not be used simply because they are available.

In a firm of 50 to 200 staff, the waste is usually sitting in a weekly process nobody has priced. Find that first. Then decide whether AI is the right fix, or whether the process itself needs to change.

What should an Australian CEO keep in mind about privacy?

If your organisation is covered by the Privacy Act, the Australian Privacy Principles apply when your staff use AI with personal information. The OAIC recommends, as a matter of best practice, that organisations do not enter personal information, and particularly sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools.

I mention it because I still see people paste a client file into a public chatbot and call it adoption. The OAIC's guidance, last updated on 17 January 2025, is written for organisations using these tools. Privacy obligations can apply to information you put in, and to personal information the tool generates.

A separate transparency rule takes effect on 10 December 2026. From that date, APP entities that use personal information in automated decision-making with the potential to affect an individual's rights or interests will need to include certain information in their privacy policies. That does not mean every use of ChatGPT is captured. Read the OAIC's pages if this might apply to you.

Governance belongs in the roadmap from day one.

Put a dollar figure on the problem

Book the 45-minute diagnostic and leave with a dollar figure on the leak.

Author

I'm Johnny Sukkar, founder of Versantly, which is operated by Lycaon Media Pty Limited (ABN 22 671 975 983). I've been in lending since 1990 and in broking since 2008, and I've been building and running AI workflows inside my own brokerage since 2023.