A full time AI Director costs upwards of £180,000 and takes nine months to recruit. Most scaling businesses cannot defend the cost and cannot wait the time. The work needed in the meantime gets deferred, distributed across people who already have day jobs, or pushed to junior team members learning on the work itself.
Teylu fills the gap. A senior AI Director embedded inside your business on a fractional basis. Two to four days a month leading the AI practice, working with your leadership on strategy, with your teams on delivery and with your governance leaders on compliance. Enterprise grade thinking without the enterprise overhead. Partnership, not transaction.
What you get:
An AI Director's job is leadership, not key-pressing. The work is decisions, sequencing, governance and team direction. A senior person at two to four days a month covers that work properly. A junior full time hire at five days a week does not.
A consultant arrives, runs the project, leaves the deck and bills. A fractional director arrives, takes ownership, runs the function, attends the leadership meetings and sticks. You get an internal director with external context, accountable to your business not to a utilisation target.
Leads the AI roadmap. Owns the governance posture. Sits in the leadership team. Briefs the board on AI. Coaches your senior managers. Liaises with IT, risk and legal. Manages the implementation partners. Reviews the model decisions. Steps into client conversations where credibility matters.
They do not write your prompts day to day. They do not run your campaigns. They are not a glorified consultant on retainer. They are a leadership hire on a fractional basis, focused on the work only a senior AI leader can do.
You get an experienced AI Director on your leadership team without the cost of a full time hire. The board sees a credible AI direction. Your senior team gets the coaching and direction they need to deliver. You buy time to make the right full time hire when the business actually needs one.
You get a senior peer who can lead the AI conversations you do not have time to lead yourself. The director sits in your meetings, owns the AI workstreams and lifts the work to a level you would expect from a properly resourced internal practice.
You get a counterpart who understands governance, compliance and architecture. The director brings the model card, the EU AI Act position and the ICO alignment work to the table so your teams can sign off with confidence.
You get a leadership presence that helps the team build internal capability rather than depending on external resource. The director coaches your senior managers, designs the training and creates a transition plan towards a full time internal hire when the moment is right.
You know who your director is. They are named in the engagement letter. They sit in your meetings. They are accountable to you. The relationship is built on partnership, not on transaction.
The director draws on the Teylu AI Labs team for delivery work behind them. When the strategy needs a data unification build, a content operations layer or a workspace setup, the bench is there. You get a senior leader with a team behind them, not a lone consultant.
The standard engagement is two to four days a month, sized to the operating need. Some businesses want a director one day a week. Some want a director one day a fortnight plus a half day in the leadership team meeting. We design the rhythm around your operating model.
Most engagements run six to twelve months. Enough time to lead a coherent strategy phase, ship two or three meaningful implementations and build the internal capability that supports a full time hire when one is justified.
The directors come from the Teylu AI Labs team. The work that backs their leadership is the same work that produced 391% search market share growth and 73% cost per lead reduction for HMS Networks, 411% conversion lift for Blake Mill Menswear and the multi region account based scoring engine for Arrow ECS. Proof over promises.
Our team has shipped AI implementations across B2B industrial distribution, manufacturing, professional services, outdoor and leisure, ecommerce and direct to consumer. Whichever sector you are in, the director brings relevant context to the leadership conversation.
If you are a traditional UK business and you have not made the full time AI hire yet, this is the right intermediate step. You get senior leadership without the recruitment timeline, the salary commitment or the risk of hiring before you know what you need.
If you are scaling fast and the next hires are commercial rather than technical, this gives you AI leadership inside the existing leadership team without taking a headcount slot you do not yet want to use on AI.
The director owns the EU AI Act categorisation work, the ICO AI Code of Practice alignment and your internal acceptable use policy. They sit between the people doing the AI work and the people accountable for risk, translating fluently.
The director's loyalty is to your business. Teylu is an independent agency with no vendor rebates. The director will recommend the right tools, the right partners and the right sequencing regardless of the supplier logo on the slide.
Freelance fractionals are one person, with one perspective and no team behind them. The Teylu director has the AI Labs team for delivery and a network of partners for specialist capability. You get the leadership of a fractional and the delivery muscle of an agency.
A Big Four partner will charge you several thousand a day to lead an AI practice and bring junior consultants to the work. We bring a senior AI Director, the Teylu AI Labs team behind them and a fixed monthly engagement you can defend to the board.
Month one is onboarding and current state diagnosis. Months two and three deliver the strategy direction and ship the first implementation. Months four onwards run the practice, coach the team and prepare for the full time hire if and when one is justified.
Fixed monthly retainer. Two to four days a month standard. Six to twelve month commitment. Transparent pricing. The director is named in the engagement letter. The Teylu AI Labs team is included for the implementation work that follows the strategy.
See how a Teylu fractional AI Director has led AI practices for scaling and traditional UK businesses, and the outcomes that came with senior leadership in place.
This is built for businesses that need senior AI leadership but cannot, or should not, hire full time yet. That usually means:
Founders and CEOs of scaling businesses needing AI leadership in the team before the business can defend a full time AI Director salary.
Traditional UK businesses moving from no AI direction to a coherent one, with leadership capability that cannot yet be hired internally.
Marketing, commercial and operations leaders who have inherited the AI work alongside their day job and need a senior peer to carry it.
Businesses approaching a full time AI hire wanting to define the role and prove the value before the headcount is committed.
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Week 1
We meet your leadership and define the director's mandate, the operating rhythm and the accountability lines. We name the director and confirm the engagement.
A documented engagement scope. You know exactly what the director will lead, how often they will be in your meetings and which workstreams they will own.
Month 1
The director onboards into your leadership team, meets the wider organisation and documents the current AI state, the priorities and the immediate decisions on the table.
An onboarded director with a working brief. Leadership team aligned on priorities. First decisions ready to take.
Months 2 to 3
The director leads the strategy direction, makes the first major decisions, kicks off the first implementation engagement and embeds the operating model.
A coherent AI direction, a first shipped implementation and a leadership team operating with a credible AI conversation in the room.
Months 4 onwards
The director runs the practice, coaches your senior managers, prepares the business for a full time hire when the moment is right and supports the recruitment process when it begins.
A working AI practice, internal capability that compounds and a clear transition plan to a full time hire when the business is ready.
Tell us about the leadership gap, the operating model and the timeline you are working to. We will tell you whether a fractional director is the right next move.
One engagement model, sized to your operating need.
Standard Fractional Engagement
Two to four days a month with a named senior AI Director, embedded in your leadership team for six to twelve months. The Teylu AI Labs team is included for the implementation work the director leads.
Light Touch Engagement
One day a fortnight plus a half day in the leadership meeting, for businesses where the AI workload does not yet justify the standard model.
Intensive Engagement
One day a week or more, for businesses with active AI workstreams that need senior leadership in the room more often.
Pricing is transparent and sized to the engagement model.
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The directors come from a team that has shipped AI implementations across HMS Networks, Arrow ECS, Timberplay, TouchWood Play, Blake Mill Menswear and a wider portfolio that supported £31 million plus in client revenue growth across 350 plus brands launched. Senior leadership grounded in real implementation depth.
If you need senior AI leadership in the business now and a full time hire is months away, this is built for you.
Speak to a senior member of the team. We will scope a discovery in the call and give you a clear next step.
How is fractional different from a consultant on retainer?
A consultant arrives, runs the project, leaves the deck and bills. A fractional director arrives, takes ownership, runs the function, attends the leadership meetings and sticks. You get an internal director with external context, accountable to your business not to a utilisation target.
Who actually does the work?
A named senior Teylu AI Director on every engagement. The director is in the engagement letter. The Teylu AI Labs team sits behind them for delivery work. You get senior leadership and the bench to back it.
How long is the typical engagement?
Six to twelve months. Enough time to lead a coherent strategy phase, ship two or three meaningful implementations and build the internal capability that supports a full time hire when one is justified.
What happens when we hire a full time AI Director?
The director supports the recruitment, helps define the role and transitions ownership cleanly. Partnership, not transaction. The point of the engagement is to leave the business stronger and independent, not dependent on us.
How much is this?
Fixed monthly retainer, sized to the engagement model (Light Touch, Standard or Intensive). Transparent pricing, defensible to the board. We will quote in the discovery conversation.
Have a question we have not answered? Tell us. We will give you a straight answer, not a pitch.
