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Fractional Services

AI Agent Engineering

Production AI agents that do real work reliably — designed, built, and operated by someone who has shipped them.

Most AI pilots die on contact with production

An AI pilot demoed well and then died on contact with real data, edge cases, and cost.

There's obvious repetitive work that should be automated but the team can't make it reliable.

You wired up a prompt and a model and now can't make it observable, safe, or consistent.

Leadership wants an "AI strategy" but no one can separate hype from what will work.

No one owns evaluation, so no one can say whether the agent is getting better or worse.

What you get

Not hours on a timesheet — decisions made, systems shipped, and a program that works.

A working agent in production

Scoped to a real task, measured against an eval set, deployed with guardrails. Not a demo.

Evals and observability

Traces, evals, and dashboards so quality is a number, not a vibe — and regressions are caught before they ship.

Human-in-the-loop by design

Guardrails, checkpoints, and cost controls appropriate to the risk — so the agent earns autonomy over time.

Something your team can own

A runbook, handoff, and architecture your team understands — or that we operate for you on the platform retainer.

Three shapes, one operator

Start where the pain is acute. Scale as trust is established.

Agent Sprint

4–8 week fixed-scope build

$12,000 – $40,000

per month · 3-month minimum


  • One agent or workflow from design to production
  • Use-case assessment and agent design doc
  • Eval harness with versioned test set
  • Observability: traces, dashboards, cost tracking
  • Guardrails, human-in-the-loop gates
  • Runbook and handoff documentation
Most Popular

Agent Platform Embedded

Monthly retainer

$8,000 – $16,000

per month · 3-month minimum


  • Multiple agents and shared infrastructure
  • Eval harness and observability platform
  • Guardrails and tool/integration layer
  • CI for prompts and model versions
  • Ongoing build, monitor, and improve cadence

AI Agent Engineering (in-a-box)

Fractional retainer + Sprints

$16,000 – $20,000

per month · 3-month minimum


  • Everything in Platform Embedded
  • Owns the company's agent portfolio
  • AI strategy, roadmap, and vendor/model selection
  • Pairs with the Fractional CTO line
  • Sprint add-ons at $12K–$40K each
Start here

AI Opportunity Assessment

$3,000 fixed fee

A 1-week ranked list of your agent-suitable use cases — value × tractability — with a go/no-go on each and a recommended first agent. Credits toward the first Sprint. Model, inference, and third-party tool costs are pass-through.

Your first 90 days

A predictable ramp with clear deliverables at each phase.

1

Week 1 — Assess

Rank use cases, pick the first agent, define the eval set and success bar. Deliver AI Opportunity Assessment.

2

Weeks 2–3 — Design & scaffold

Agent design doc; stand up eval harness and tracing; integrate the first tool or action.

3

Weeks 4–6 — Build to the bar

Iterate against evals until the success threshold holds. Add guardrails and human-in-the-loop gates.

4

Weeks 7–8 — Ship & instrument

Deploy to production behind monitoring. Deliver runbook and handoff.

5

Weeks 9–12 — Scale

Measure real-world performance, harden, and decide: next agent or the platform retainer.

Not the right fit?

We are selective about engagements. This may not be right if:

Wants a fully autonomous system with no human-in-the-loop and no tolerance for iteration.

Has no data access and no willingness to instrument systems the agent must act on.

Expects a finished product after a single demo — agents earn autonomy through evaluated iteration.

Ready to move?

The discovery call is free. We scope the engagement together, and you leave with a clear picture whether or not we work together.

Fractional CTO, CIO, CISO and AI Agent Engineering. Executive-level technology leadership for companies that need a senior technical partner without a full-time hire.

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