Services · Ongoing support

Fractional AI Lead.

Someone inside your company who constantly drives AI adoption, navigates the landscape of models, tools and vendors, and pursues real, measurable results. But not a full-time position. The Fractional AI Lead is exactly that: experienced AI leadership, at the volume you need.

When a Fractional AI Lead fits

Senior competence, no full-time role

You need architectural leadership for your AI, but the volume does not (yet) justify a permanent position.

Nobody leads the whole

AI initiatives are running, but scattered and without one person holding architecture, operations and roadmap together.

The bridge until you hire

You want to fill the role internally and need someone to run it reliably until then.

What the role covers

Architecture roadmap

The AI architecture keeps evolving: new use cases, new models, changing requirements.

Operations oversight

The productive systems in view: quality, cost, security and the coordination of the hosting and operations partners.

A standing contact

One fixed person for management, IT and partners: present in the relevant bodies, reachable between meetings.

Rollout & enablement

AI arrives in the organisation: introduction, training, knowledge transfer, so dependency decreases instead of growing.

How it runs

  1. 01

    Onboarding

    Taking stock of systems, initiatives and partners, plus a jointly defined mandate for the role.

  2. 02

    Ongoing support

    Typically two to four days per month: architecture, operations, governance bodies, coordination, reliable and plannable.

  3. 03

    Hand-over or extension

    The role ends when it is filled internally, or continues as long as it creates value.

Price & scope

from CHF 8’400 / month

Typically two to four days per month, agreed as a monthly scope and adjustable at any time. No annual contract required. Prices excl. VAT.

What you gain

Your AI has a responsible owner without you having to fill a senior position before the volume carries it. And when you do fill the role internally, it is cleanly prepared.

More about Joel Barmettler →

References

Architect of the Swiss AI Hub, published AI researcher (WWW ’26), entrepreneur with 62 delivered projects. You work with the person who researches and builds.

Platform

Architect of the Swiss AI Hub: 35 integrated containers, air-gapped on a single GPU or on Swiss cloud. 15 projects, 12 companies, 2 government tenders.

Research

ConceptFormer: published at The Web Conference (WWW ’26); +348% factual accuracy when grounding language models in knowledge graphs.

Education

MSc in Computer Science, University of Zurich (summa cum laude, AI major, master’s thesis grade 6.0).

Entrepreneur

Co-founder of PolygonSoftware (2019–2023): 62 projects for 25 clients across five industries in four years, incl. a computer-vision system for Swiss Post.

Teaching

Workshops at the CH Open Source AI Conference and the Swiss AI Conference, SWICO keynote on AI for Swiss SMEs, panel at the Swiss AI Impact Forum.

Network

Known participant in the Netzwerk Digitale Selbstbestimmung (netzwerksds.ch), via bbv.

Own open-source tools: vue-mcp · slidev-mcp · gheim.ch

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from a project?
A project delivers a result and ends. The Fractional AI Lead is a role: one responsible person who stays at your side. Architecture, operations and further development in one hand, instead of ever new individual mandates.
How much time is included?
Typically two to four days per month, agreed as a monthly scope. The volume can be adjusted when your needs change.
Does this not make us dependent?
The opposite is the goal. Part of the role is transferring knowledge and enabling the organisation, so dependency decreases. The role is designed to be filled internally at some point.
What does a Fractional AI Lead cost?
From CHF 8’400 per month for typically two to four days. The exact scope follows volume and responsibility and is agreed monthly, with no annual commitment required.