How do you work with the existing management team?

We embed alongside them, not above them. The fractional AI Officer sits in leadership meetings, collaborates on strategy, and builds with the team, not in a silo. We're explicitly designed to make the existing team more capable, not to create dependency on outside consultants. The goal is always capability transfer.

Can you deploy across multiple portfolio companies simultaneously?

Yes. We've designed our frameworks to be repeatable across companies at different stages. A typical PE engagement starts with one portco, proves the model in 90 days, then rolls out a standardized AI playbook across the portfolio. Each company gets customized implementation, but the governance framework and methodology are consistent.

What's the typical timeline for measurable value creation?

First diagnostic and opportunity map in 48 hours. First AI workflow deployed in 2-4 weeks. Measurable revenue or efficiency impact within 90 days. Full operating model transformation in 6-12 months depending on complexity. We track everything against agreed-upon KPIs from day one.

How do you handle due diligence support?

We provide AI-specific due diligence assessment for target acquisitions, evaluating their AI maturity, technical debt, data infrastructure quality, and the realistic timeline and cost of AI transformation post-acquisition. This helps you price deals more accurately and build realistic integration plans.

How do you embed into our Value Creation Plan and 100-Day Plan?

AI strategy sits inside the VCP, not attached as an appendix. During the 100-Day Plan we run the AI Readiness Assessment, score the PortCo across five dimensions, and identify the top three EBITDA-impacting use cases. The output becomes a named VCP workstream with explicit owners, targets, and quarterly board review milestones. From day one, the operating partner and CEO share one document, not two.

What does the GP-level portfolio-wide program actually include?

A standardized AI operating playbook deployed across the portfolio. You get: a portfolio AI inventory and risk register refreshed quarterly, one vendor assessment framework every PortCo runs before adopting a new AI tool, a shared 90-day adoption methodology, cross-portfolio benchmarking, and a single dashboard view of AI exposure and EBITDA contribution for your operating committee. One contract at the GP level, customized execution per PortCo.

How do you measure AI's contribution to EBITDA in QoE?

Every AI initiative ships with documented baseline metrics, defined attribution logic, and a workbook structured to survive a Quality of Earnings review. Cost savings are tied to specific FTE or vendor line items. Revenue lift is tied to cohort comparisons or pipeline velocity deltas with named control groups. If the savings cannot be evidenced in a QoE workbook, we do not count them. That discipline is what makes the number defensible to the buyer.

Can you support pre-LOI AI diligence on a target?

Yes. AI Diligence Advisory is a per-deal engagement that runs alongside your commercial and financial diligence. We assess the target's data quality, AI tool inventory, governance posture, shadow AI exposure, and three-year AI value creation opportunity in dollar terms. The output is a scored memo that strengthens the investment thesis, sharpens the bid, and feeds directly into the 100-Day Plan if you win the deal.

Private equity command center with orange dashboard displays

AI Advisory for Private Equity

Portfolio companies don't need more consultants.
They need an AI operating partner.

Fractional AI advisory that deploys across your portfolio, working closely with portfolio company executives and deal teams to build agentic operating models that compound value creation from acquisition through exit.

We've operated inside enterprise environments (Salesforce, IBM) and scaled startups through IPO. We embed alongside management teams, consistent with PE's collaborative approach to helping companies scale. Speed, measurable EBITDA impact, and operators who leave the team stronger than they found it.

The AI value creation gap in private equity

Every PE firm talks about AI as a value creation lever. Few have a repeatable playbook for deploying it across portfolio companies. The challenge isn't identifying opportunity, it's execution speed and capability transfer in compressed timelines. That's what we solve.

Deal Team Support

AI Due Diligence

Assess AI maturity, data assets, and competitive positioning during diligence
Identify AI-related risks and upside opportunities
Quantify potential value creation to strengthen investment theses
Realistic transformation timeline and integration complexity mapping
Technical debt and data infrastructure evaluation

Portfolio Value Creation

Revenue Growth & Margin Expansion

Identify high-impact AI use cases tied to revenue growth, margin expansion, and efficiency
Build practical AI roadmaps tailored to each company's data and capabilities
Design and implement AI solutions, automation, analytics, and LLM applications
Track results and ensure initiatives deliver measurable EBITDA impact
Cross-portco AI playbook standardization and governance

Pre-Exit

Multiple Expansion

AI capability documentation for buyers
Demonstrated efficiency gains and margin improvement
Scalable systems that survive the transaction
Technology narrative for exit materials
Clean, AI-ready data infrastructure

The Three PE AI Plays

GPs are running three distinct AI plays. Most firms only see one.

The taxonomy is borrowed from FTI Consulting's PE research and tested against our own portfolio work. Knowing which play a PortCo is built for, and which one the fund is running at the firm level, is the difference between an AI program that compounds and an AI program that becomes shelfware.

Play 1

Transform the core business model

AI does not just make existing processes faster. It changes how the company sells, what it sells, and how it makes products. Example: a manufacturing PortCo moves from fixed pricing to AI-driven dynamic pricing and captures 8 to 12 percent margin expansion. Highest reward, highest data and leadership prerequisites.

Best for: platforms with proprietary data, scaled operations, and a CEO willing to redesign the model.

Play 2

Centralize AI orchestration at the firm level

Instead of every PortCo figuring out AI independently, the GP builds a central playbook, central vendor relationships, and central expertise that benefits the entire portfolio. One vendor contract negotiated once, deployed across ten PortCos. One governance baseline, one risk register taxonomy, one quarterly review template.

Best for: funds with five or more PortCos and an Operating Partner mandate for AI.

Play 3

AI in the buy-side and sell-side narrative

Before acquisition, AI Diligence assesses the target's AI readiness and the post-close value creation opportunity in dollar terms. Before exit, a documented AI capability stack and clean governance trail command premium multiples from strategic buyers. The exit story is no longer 'we use ChatGPT for emails.'

Best for: every deal team and every sale process. Compounds with deal volume.

Agentic AI in a PortCo, Concretely

"Agentic AI" is not a slide. It is a workflow that runs without you.

One example out of dozens we deploy. A stalled-deal recovery agent inside a B2B SaaS PortCo. Five steps, no rep prompting, audit trail in the CRM.

Monitor

Watches the CRM for deals stalled 14+ days with no buyer activity.

Analyze

Pulls deal history and email threads. Diagnoses the likely cause of stagnation.

Draft

Writes a personalized re-engagement message for the rep to review and send.

Log

Updates the CRM, changes deal stage, and flags it for manager review.

Report

Weekly rollup of every re-engaged deal and the forecasted pipeline impact.

The EBITDA Math

A B2B SaaS PortCo with 500 open opportunities. Historically 2 to 3 manual re-engagement touches per stalled deal, roughly 15 minutes of rep and manager time per touch. The agent removes the monitoring and drafting work, leaving humans only on review and send.

Conservatively recovered: 120 to 180 rep hours per quarter, 5 to 8 percent uplift in stalled-deal conversion, and one cleaner pipeline report into the GP. That is one agent. A typical Fractional CAIO engagement deploys four to six in the first 90 days.

Measurable Outcomes

What Success Looks Like

Clear, measurable EBITDA impact

Every initiative traces to margin expansion, revenue growth, or efficiency gains across portfolio companies.

Stronger AI-driven differentiation

New and existing investments gain defensible competitive positioning through practical AI capabilities.

Faster, more confident AI adoption

Management teams move from concept to implementation with repeatable playbooks and hands-on enablement.

The Operator You Get

Not a consultant. An AI operating partner.

We deploy operators who combine deep AI expertise with financial acumen and executive leadership. The rare profile that connects model architecture to EBITDA impact.

Financial Acumen

Connects AI initiatives directly to EBITDA impact and valuation drivers
Models financial implications of technology initiatives
Strong structured thinking. MECE frameworks, Pyramid Principle communication
P&L fluency that earns CFO and board trust

AI & Technology

Deep understanding of AI use cases including Generative AI and LLM applications
Hands-on experience building and deploying modern AI solutions
Familiarity with data infrastructure and implementation realities
Ability to distinguish practical value from hype. Fast

Leadership

Proven ability to lead technical teams across multiple companies simultaneously
Strong executive communication. Translates technical concepts into practical action
High ownership mentality, comfortable building from ambiguity
Entrepreneurial operators, not career consultants

Profile: 8–12+ years in AI, machine learning, data science, or analytics. Experience in SaaS, tech-enabled services, consulting, or PE environments. Hands-on with modern AI solutions including LLM applications. Comfortable balancing strategy and execution across multiple companies simultaneously.

Why PE firms work with us

Speed to Impact

48-hour diagnostics, 30-day first deployments, 90-day measurable outcomes. PE timelines, not consulting timelines.

Portfolio Scalability

Prove the model in one portco, roll the playbook across the portfolio. Consistent methodology, customized execution.

No Lock-In

Month-to-month engagements. We build capability, transfer it, and exit. Our success metric is your team's independence.

Operator Mindset

We've been inside the companies, not advising from the outside. 3 IPO exits. We know what 'good' looks like at scale.

AI Enablement & Leadership

Upskill company leadership and raise AI literacy across the portfolio. Lead workshops showcasing practical, high-impact use cases. Help companies test ideas quickly and move from concept to implementation.

Collaborative Approach

We work alongside portfolio company executives and deal teams, never in a silo. Build repeatable playbooks, tools, and partner networks. Share best practices and accelerate cross-portfolio learning.

Governance and AI Risk Across the Portfolio

The AI exposure your LPs will ask about is the one no portco can describe in writing.

Shadow AI is endemic at every company between $5M and $100M in revenue. Personal model accounts. Customer data pasted into consumer-grade tools. Vendor concentration nobody documented. We deliver a portfolio-wide governance baseline that makes board-level AI accountability auditable, not aspirational.

Portfolio AI Inventory

Live catalog of every AI tool in use across portcos, with owner, data scope, and business process tagged. The first artifact LPs ask for and the last one most firms can produce.

Standardized AI Risk Register

Common taxonomy across the portfolio. Hallucination, data leakage, bias, agent failure modes, vendor concentration. Scored by likelihood and dollarized impact, refreshed quarterly.

Vendor Assessment Framework

One checklist every portco runs before adding a new AI tool. Data handling, security posture, model transparency, exit terms. Procurement leverage compounds across the portfolio.

Board-Level AI Accountability

Quarterly AI risk review on every portco board agenda. The same template, the same metrics, the same evidence trail your auditors and acquirers expect to find.

Standards Alignment

Every artifact maps to EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001, and GDPR/CCPA. The regulatory frameworks your enterprise customers and insurers already audit against.

Exit-Ready Documentation

AI capability documentation, governance artifacts, and a clean data infrastructure trail that survives the LOI, the quality of earnings review, and the next owner's diligence team.

The compounding effect. One portco builds the inventory and the risk register. The next portco adopts the templates in a week instead of a quarter. By the third deployment, the framework has paid for itself in deal-team time alone, and your operating committee has a single dashboard view of AI exposure across the fund.

PE-Shaped Engagements

Three ways to buy us. Per deal, per PortCo, per fund.

Generic consulting retainers do not map to how PE actually operates. These engagements match the buying motion. The GP-level Portfolio Program compounds the hardest, which is why it is our featured tier.

Per Deal

AI Diligence Advisory

$5K to $15K per deal

Pre-LOI and post-LOI AI readiness assessment on a target. Data quality, AI tool inventory, shadow AI exposure, governance posture, and a dollarized three-year value creation opportunity. Sharpens the bid, feeds the 100-Day Plan.

Target AI readiness score
Shadow AI and vendor risk findings
Three-year value creation opportunity in dollars
Integration complexity rating

Highest Leverage

Per Fund

Portfolio-Wide AI Program

$75K to $250K annual

Sold once to the GP. Deployed across 3 to 10 PortCos with customized execution per company. Becomes the fund's AI Operating Partner motion. One playbook, one risk register taxonomy, one vendor framework, one quarterly review template.

Portfolio AI inventory and risk register
Shared vendor assessment framework
90-day adoption methodology per PortCo
GP operating committee dashboard
Cross-portfolio benchmarking and rollup

Per PortCo

Fractional CAIO and Sprints

$8K to $25K per month

Embedded AI executive inside a PortCo. Owns governance, vendor relationships, execution cadence, and board reporting. Available as a 30 to 60 day Value Creation Sprint, an ongoing retainer, or a half-day Executive AI Workshop for leadership.

Readiness Assessment, 3 to 5 days, $8K to $15K
Executive Workshop, half or full day, $5K to $12K
Value Creation Sprint, 30 to 60 days, $20K to $50K
Fractional CAIO retainer, monthly

The 5-Dimension AI Readiness Scorecard

We score every PortCo on the same five dimensions. So does every deal team.

Five dimensions, scored 1 to 4, benchmarked across the portfolio. The output is one comparable number per PortCo, plus a heatmap that tells the operating committee where to invest next quarter, not in twelve months.

Data Readiness

Is revenue truth unified, queryable, and trustworthy in minutes, not weeks?

Leadership Alignment

Does the CEO own the AI mandate? Is the executive team AI-literate?

Tech Infrastructure

Is the stack integration-ready, or held together by spreadsheets and Zapier?

Process Automation Maturity

Are core workflows documented enough to be automated, or tribal knowledge?

Governance Readiness

Is there a written AI policy, a risk register, and named accountability?

Operating Partners can self-score in 10 minutes.

The Revenue Architecture Audit now includes an Operating Partner / PE persona track. Seven questions, scored across the same four dimensions we run on every PortCo.

FAQ

Common Questions

Ready to discuss your portfolio?

Portfolio companies don't need more consultants.They need an AI operating partner.