Your business needs a Chief AI Officer at the table. It probably doesn't need one full-time yet.
We hold the AI agenda alongside your executive team. Strategy, governance, vendor decisions, board reporting, and implementation oversight, on a fractional basis.
Saqr Solutions is the AI implementation arm of Saqr Academy, the KHDA-approved applied AI institute in Dubai Media City.
The shift
The Chief AI Officer role is moving into boardroom vocabulary in the same way the Chief Data Officer role did a decade ago. Boards are asking for it. CEOs are evaluating it. The strategic work is real: setting the AI portfolio across functions, choosing which vendors to build with and which to walk away from, governing how the technology is used, building AI literacy at the leadership level, and deciding what to build, what to buy, and what to leave alone.
For most mid-large organisations in the GCC, hiring a full-time Chief AI Officer is the wrong move right now. The senior talent is scarce, compensation expectations are high, and the role is still finding its shape.
What's needed at this stage is judgment at the table, not another full-time executive.
That's the gap a Fractional Chief AI Officer fills.
What we hold
We hold the AI agenda with your executive team. That means operational responsibility, not advisory observation.
Portfolio.
A live map of every AI system, vendor, and pilot across the business. Updated monthly. Used to prioritise, retire, and scale.
Governance.
AI register, risk classifications, audit trails, escalation paths. Aligned with PDPL, DIFC Regulation 10, ADGM, and any sector-specific requirements.
Vendor decisions.
Build versus buy. Platform consolidation. Partnership choices. Negotiation support on AI contracts.
Risk and board reporting.
AI maturity, risk posture, value capture, on the cadence your board needs.
Capability.
Executive AI literacy sessions, drawn from Saqr Academy's executive curriculum, run privately for your leadership team.
Escalation.
Coverage when something goes wrong. Rapid review, root cause, remediation plan.
This is structured as a working role at the executive level, not a quarterly check-in.
How it works
- 01
Month 1
Onboarding.
We meet your executive team, review the current AI estate (systems, vendors, pilots, governance), and produce an AI Maturity Assessment. From there we agree the cadence, the scope, and the priorities for the first quarter.
- 02
Months 2 onward
The fractional engagement.
A standing rhythm: monthly executive session, quarterly board-level review, ad-hoc availability for major decisions, and live oversight of the AI portfolio. The work scales up and down with what's actually happening in the business.
- 03
Year-end review
Annual reset.
Reset on scope, priorities, and the path forward. The expectation is that engagements run two to three years before the business has built enough internal AI capability to evolve the relationship into something lighter, or step back entirely.
Who this is for
CEOs, Managing Directors, and Boards of mid-large GCC organisations who recognise that AI is a strategic conversation that needs senior judgment in the room, not a project that can be delegated to IT.
The fit is strongest for businesses with 200 to 5,000 employees, multiple functions running AI initiatives, and an executive team ready to engage with the topic seriously. Real estate developers, financial services firms, family-owned conglomerates, professional services groups, large retail and hospitality businesses.
You'll get the most value if you have at least one executive sponsor (typically the CEO or COO) who wants a senior partner thinking about this with them, not just a vendor selling them tools.
What makes this different
- 01
You're not getting an individual advisor. You're getting an institute behind the work.
The Fractional Chief AI Officer who sits with your executive team can call in implementation engineers, training specialists, and curriculum designers when the strategy turns into execution. Saqr Academy's bench and Saqr Solutions' delivery team work as one. The advice you get at the executive level is grounded in what the implementation team is actually doing inside other GCC businesses.
- 02
Bilingual at the executive level.
The conversations that need to happen in Arabic with your board chair happen in Arabic. The conversations that need to happen in English with your CFO happen in English. The context doesn't get lost between languages.
Frequently asked questions
The same things a full-time Chief AI Officer does: sets AI strategy across functions, governs how AI is used, makes vendor and partnership decisions, builds AI literacy in the executive team, and reports to the board on AI maturity and risk. The difference is the time commitment and the fee structure. A Fractional Chief AI Officer is part-time and engaged on an ongoing basis, suitable for businesses that need senior judgment but don't yet need a full-time hire.
Strategy firm advisory engagements typically run for a fixed period (six to twelve months), focus on producing recommendations, and end with a handover. A Fractional Chief AI Officer is an ongoing role, focuses on holding the AI agenda alongside your executive team, and includes operational responsibility for the work that flows from strategy decisions. Different shape, different cost, different relationship.
Engagement intensity is set in the first month and adjusted quarterly. Typical patterns: monthly executive session, quarterly board-level review, ad-hoc availability for major decisions, and live oversight of the AI portfolio. Some clients want half a day a week, others want monthly only. The cadence fits the moment.
When the AI work inside your business is large enough that a senior leader needs to spend most of their time on it. The thresholds vary, but as a rough rule: more than five active AI initiatives across functions, more than thirty million dirhams annual AI spend, or AI capability becoming a primary competitive differentiator. Below those thresholds, fractional is usually the better fit.
We can join executive committees, AI steering groups, and digital transformation councils as a non-voting member. Formal board seats require a different conversation and are not the typical structure.
Alongside. The CIO holds the technology infrastructure mandate. The Fractional Chief AI Officer holds the AI strategy and governance mandate. The two roles overlap and need to work closely. In most engagements, a strong CIO partnership is what makes the work effective.
Twelve months minimum, with quarterly reviews. The expected shape is two to three years, by which point the business has typically built enough internal AI capability to evolve the relationship into something lighter or step back entirely. We're explicit about not creating dependence. The goal is for our role to become smaller over time, not larger.
Yes. In many engagements, we sit alongside an internal AI lead or governance committee and work through them. We can serve as the senior external voice that the internal team escalates to, the bridge between the technical team and the executive committee, or the partner who runs the AI council itself.
Tell us what's at the top of your AI agenda right now.
Send us a short note about where your business is on AI and what you need senior judgment on. We'll read it, get back to you within two business days, and arrange a call to talk through it.