Fractional Chief AI Officer for Australian mid-market businesses.
A Fractional Chief AI Officer (CAIO) for Australian mid-market businesses. Senior leadership for your AI agenda, from someone who's run the P&L and ships the code.
What I do
Three things, done seriously.
Own your AI agenda.
I sit on your leadership team part-time and run AI strategy end to end. Priorities, build-versus-buy calls, vendor selection, kill decisions. You stop being the bottleneck.
Build alongside the team.
I'm not a PowerPoint operator. I prototype, I write code, I sit in the repo with your engineers. I can work with your team or build you one. Twenty-five years of shipping technology means I know what's hard, what's hype, and what's two weekends of work.
Tie it to outcomes.
Every initiative ties to a commercial result: revenue, cost, customer experience, risk. If it doesn't, we kill it. You'll know what the AI spend is buying.
Who this is for
Is this the right fit?
This is for you if
- You're a CEO or founder of a $5M to $50M revenue business
- You've experimented, but there's no coherent strategy and things are moving too slowly
- You've thought about hiring a head of AI but it's premature or too expensive
- You're worried an AI-native competitor will eat your category
This isn't for you if
- You want someone purely hands-off-keyboard. I'll happily prototype and code, but I'm hired to lead, not to be your sole developer
- You want a 4-week project, not a leadership engagement
- You're under $3M revenue (the engagement likely isn't the right fit yet)
Not sure?
Start with the 90-day AI Strategy Jump Start. Lower commitment, clear deliverable, an honest answer on whether ongoing fractional leadership is right for you.
Start here →How an engagement works
Four steps. No mystery.
First call.
30 minutes. We work out if there's a fit. No deck, no pitch.
Diagnosis.
Two weeks embedded, light touch. I read your business, talk to your team, surface the real opportunities and the real blockers.
Plan and prioritise.
A short, sharp AI roadmap tied to commercial outcomes. We agree what we're doing and what we're not.
Lead the work.
Weekly cadence with your leadership team, ongoing execution leadership, quarterly reviews. Three-month minimum, designed to compound.
Two ways to start
Test the water, or commit to the agenda.
90-day AI Strategy Jump Start.
$15K to $25K + GST. For when you know you need to do something about AI but can't articulate what. Scoped engagement, three months, priced against the complexity of your business and your existing technology footprint.
You'll end with a stack-level call on the technology you already run, a prioritised AI roadmap, and an honest view on what comes next.
Best for: CEOs who want a low-risk first step.
Learn more →Fractional Chief AI Officer
For when you know you need senior AI leadership in the business. One to two days a week, embedded in your leadership team.
Three-month minimum, designed to run 12 months or more.
Best for: CEOs who are ready to commit to an AI agenda and want someone to own it.
Learn more →
About
Paul Salvage.
Senior operator. AI native.
I've spent 25 years running technology and operations inside real businesses. Former Chief Information Officer at a telco group operating across 24 countries. CTO of a Silicon Valley scale-up. CEO of a product development agency. Founder of a wealth management AI startup. I've shipped systems, led teams, and carried the can when real money was on the line.
Most fractional AI providers in Australia sit at one of two extremes: ex-consultancy strategists who deliver decks but never ship, or technical AI specialists who can build models but don't run businesses. I sit in the middle. Operator with build chops.
I still build. I've shipped agents, RAG systems, and internal AI tooling with my own hands in the last twelve months. That's the difference: when I tell your team a vendor's quote is three times what it should be, or that a build is two sprints not two quarters, I know because I've done it.
The pitch isn't "I know AI." The pitch is: I'll lead your AI agenda the way I'd lead it if the business were mine.
FAQ
The questions you'd ask in the first ten minutes.
Book a call
Thirty minutes. No deck, no pitch.
Grab a slot that suits you. If we're not a fit, I'll tell you on the call and point you somewhere better.