The Fractional CAIO Playbook

1. What a fractional CAIO actually does

The job is to connect AI spend to operational reality: data, workflows, ownership, and controls. A CAIO worth hiring can explain — in your systems — what must be true before a model or copilot produces trustworthy output. If the answer is only process slides, keep looking.

2. The 90-day sequencing rule

Month one: stabilize source data and one critical workflow end-to-end. Month two: integrate or automate the highest-volume manual bridge. Month three: pilot one AI workflow with evaluation criteria and rollback. Skip the sequence and you will build fragile demos that quietly rot.

3. Data gates before "AI ready"

• • Single source of truth for customer and revenue identities across CRM and ERP.
• • Close calendar under control — accruals and cutoffs agreed, not improvised.
• • Named owners for integration failures and data corrections.

4. Vendor and pilot discipline

Require acceptance tests in the contract path: sample inputs, expected ranges, latency, and human override. Run a time-boxed pilot with a kill date. AI features demo well and disappoint in production when evaluation is fuzzy.

5. ROI you can defend

Tie each initiative to hours, cycle time, or error rate — not "productivity vibes." Before kickoff, write down the baseline and who signs off on the measurement. After go-live, review at 30 and 90 days; if the metric does not move, fix or cut the workflow.

6. Governance without bureaucracy

Document where customer and employee data may go, which models are approved, and how to revoke access. For most SMBs, two pages beat a fifty-page policy nobody reads.