Decide what AI leadership you need before choosing the arrangement.

Identify the recurring gap

Is the organisation struggling to prioritise investment, coordinate functions, govern deployment or hold benefits accountable? Which decisions remain unresolved and why?

A capable internal team may need independent challenge or executive coordination. It may also already have everything required once authority is clarified.

Compare the alternatives

Use project advice for a bounded question. Consider fractional leadership for recurring decisions needing continuity. Consider a permanent role when the mandate and workload support it.

Where the main need is architecture, engineering or operations, a different specialist arrangement may be more appropriate.

Write a role charter

Define outcomes, responsibilities, decision rights, stakeholder access and reporting. Distinguish advice from delegated executive authority.

An adviser cannot reasonably be held accountable for a result they have no ability to influence. Equally, attending a leadership meeting does not grant authority over budgets or staff.

Ask what proof fits the job

Look for relevant judgement, method and experience. Evidence supporting a diagnostic engagement is not automatically evidence supporting an enterprise-wide transformation mandate.

Request the proposed outputs, examples of how decisions are structured and clear limits on technical or specialist scope.

Agree how to review and end it

Set expectations for progress, internal capability and handover. A useful arrangement should reduce unresolved decisions, not create a permanent reporting layer.

Review cost against the mandate and actual contribution rather than comparing a fractional fee with an invented salary benchmark.