Fractional Head of AI · For Australian businesses $10M–$100M+
Senior AI leadership that turns boardroom ambition into shipped systems - Advisory, Building, and Maintenance in one partnership, with the first builds live inside a month.
Fractional Head of AI is a Chief AI Officer (CAIO) role delivered as a fractional retainer to Australian businesses. NxtLayr AI offers two tiers: Embedded at $12,000 per month ex-GST for businesses $10M–$50M, and Executive at $20,000 per month ex-GST for businesses $50M–$100M and multi-entity operations. Earlier-stage businesses ($1M–$10M) start with Managed AI Operations at $5,000 per month. All tiers deliver CAIO-level accountability across three layers - AI Advisory, Building, and Maintenance - with the first production systems shipped within 30 days. Month-to-month, no lock-in.
In the US, the job market for senior AI roles is growing fast. In Australia, at the equivalent size - $20M, $50M, $80M - the role barely exists. There’s little talent for it, pay expectations start at $300K+, and many leadership teams aren’t yet ready to defend the headcount to the board.
Meanwhile the leverage is being captured without you. Your competitors are already deploying AI across operations, finance, and sales. Without someone owning AI internally, you keep kicking it down the road - “we’ll get to it next quarter” - or worse, end up with fragmentation: six departments running uncoordinated AI experiments that never compound.
A Fractional Head of AI gives you the upside with minimal downside. You get years of expertise and AI systems built for how you actually work - so you can use and scale AI, instead of just reading about it.
The Widening AI Value Gap
revenue growth
three-year total shareholder return
EBIT margin
AI leaders vs. laggards, measured across global enterprises.
Source: BCG, The Widening AI Value Gap, September 2025.
A consultant gives you Advisory and leaves. A project vendor gives you Building and re-quotes every brief. A full-time hire gives you all three at $400K loaded. NxtLayr gives you all three at a fraction of the cost.
The senior seat.
What to build, in what order. Vendor and build-vs-buy calls. Reading where the market moves. Translating ambition into a delivery plan.
The delivery engine.
Systems shipped in production. Skills, connectors, automations, roadmap delivery, team enablement. Not a deck - working software.
Kept compounding.
Shipped systems kept current as the platform changes. Account hygiene, optimisation, documentation. The work that stops AI from rotting.
"A consultant advises. A fractional partner leads."
Every engagement runs on a structured monthly rhythm. There is never a "wait, what's happening this month" moment. You always know what you are getting. We always know what we owe you.
What moved last month, what broke, what needs attention. KPIs reviewed against targets. Incidents investigated. Priorities for the month adjusted. Output: a clear list of what we're tackling next.
Ship the improvements identified in Week 1. Tune existing systems. Fix what's slipping. Harden what's working. Output: the existing AI stack runs measurably better than 30 days ago.
Net-new workflow or capability expansion. Every month a new piece of the AI stack goes live. Output: a new system in production, owned by your team.
Leadership update. Roadmap re-rank. Next month locked. Written monthly impact report delivered to your leadership team.
“Chris set up Claude on my MacBook and configured it specifically for how I work as a mortgage broker. He took the time to understand the business before touching anything, which made a real difference - what he built actually fits the way I operate day to day. Straightforward to work with, knows his stuff, and didn't overcomplicate anything. If you're a small business owner wanting to get AI working properly (not just installed), Chris is worth talking to.”
“We brought Chris from NxtLayr in to consult for us. He ran an AI audit which found a few gaps in our process. We're a concrete business and before meeting Chris I assumed AI couldn't do much for us. The team is fully in the know and using the AI System every day now for quoting, writing scopes, admin, and more. If you're a business owner who knows AI is coming but has no idea where to start then talk to him. We couldn't recommend him more highly.”
“I was hearing a lot about AI but not knowing where to start. Chris was very knowledgeable and patiently explained the advantages. Many of his recommendations were surprisingly low cost and easy to use. The audit paid for itself already, and we plan to engage NxtLayr AI to automate more processes.”
“Chris built my dental business a custom AI operating system. He connected my tools into AI so now I can ask it questions on my revenue, customers, and it helps me get more things done in my day.”
“In an evolving area Chris is really on top of what's available and how these can add real value to your business.”
“Every business owner is either already engaging with AI to looking to start. The conversation I had with Chris and the audit he conducted on my business was helped me understand it where to start and how easy it can be to get some quick wins. Thank you”
Month-to-month, no lock-in. Audit fee credits toward month one. Earlier-stage businesses start with Managed AI Operations.
For businesses $10M–$50M
Senior AI leadership embedded in the business
Companies going AI-native fast, replacing or postponing a full-time CAIO hire
For businesses $50M–$100M
A full AI department, led from the top
Multi-entity, multi-region or AI-native businesses running serious build pipelines
Every alternative gives you part of what AI leadership actually requires. Project vendors build but don't direct. Consultants direct but don't build. A full-time hire does both - at $400K loaded and a six-month ramp. We built NxtLayr so a mid-market business can have all three layers - Advisory, Building, and Maintenance - running from day one, at a fraction of the cost.
| Project-by-project | Consultant | Full-time hire | NxtLayr partnership | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advisory - what to build, market read | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Building - systems shipped in production | Yes | Limited | Yes | Yes |
| Maintenance - kept running, compounding | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Accountable for the outcome | Deliverable only | Advice only | Yes | Yes |
| Measured by | Deliverables | Reports + hours | Time + attendance | Outcomes |
| Cost | Adds up per project | High day rates | $280K–$440K loaded | $84K–$240K ex-GST |
"Embedded runs at roughly one third the cost of an in-house Chief AI Officer. Executive at the cost of the hire - but with a dedicated engineer, a proven build engine, and zero ramp, recruiting risk, or severance exposure."
Right when AI needs daily executive attention and the scale justifies it. For a business standing up its AI capability, fractional is the right stage: a fraction of the cost, no recruitment risk, already proven delivery, and a cross-client pattern library a single hire cannot have. The right time to go in-house is when the business has confirmed AI is a permanent department-level capability - until then, fractionalise.
One-off projects buy the Building layer only. No Advisory finding what is worth doing, no Maintenance keeping it alive, no compounding - and a re-brief and re-quote every time. The partnership is the cheaper structure once you cross two or three projects a year.
You own every build, configuration, and document. Everything is documented in your workspace, in your accounts. NxtLayr retains only general methodology. No platform lock-in, no IP hostage.
The founder (Chris Gulotta) sits the seat. NxtLayr is not an agency where senior people sell and juniors deliver. If you are paying for senior AI leadership, you get senior AI leadership - directly, in every meeting, on every build review, in every leadership session.
Rolling monthly. No lock-in. The partnership earns its place every thirty days. Pause-friendly up to sixty days per year without losing the seat.
Yes. Both tiers include board-ready monthly impact reports. Embedded includes quarterly board-level AI presentations on request. Several clients use us specifically for board-quality AI reporting they cannot generate internally yet.
We can review and sign reasonable enterprise MSAs. We will push back on terms that don't fit the fractional model. Our standard terms are at /terms.
Australian Privacy Act 1988 compliance. ACSC Essential Eight at Maturity Level 1. ISO 27001 alignment with certification targeted for mid-2027. Detailed in /trust-center.
20 minutes with the founder. No prep. By the end you'll know if Fractional Head of AI fits, which tier matches, and whether the audit is the right next step.