Engagement types
Bounded pieces of work
Last updated
Justas Butkus is a fractional AI officer and AI expert based in Vilnius, Lithuania, working with mid-market companies and scale-ups across the UK, EU and US at two to four days a month. He builds and operates the production AI systems he advises on.
Short answer
Not every problem needs an ongoing arrangement. Three bounded engagements cover most of what companies actually need first: establishing where AI can pay for itself, putting proportionate governance in place, and choosing which use case to build.
Which engagement do you need?
AI readiness assessment
Where AI can and cannot pay for itself here. Ranked shortlist, data verdict, explicit exclusions, named owner.
Readiness assessment →AI governance framework
Proportionate governance for a mid-market company: inventory, named owners, wrong-answer path, reconstructable record.
Governance framework →AI use-case selection
The arithmetic that ranks candidates by what they actually cost, and what disqualifies them.
Use-case selection →Each is fixed in scope with a defined end date and a written deliverable you keep regardless of what follows.
When do you need ongoing work instead?
When the decisions keep arriving. A bounded engagement answers a question; an ongoing arrangement holds a mandate. If you find yourself commissioning a third assessment, what you actually needed was someone accountable between them.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of AI engagement are there?
Bounded ones – a readiness assessment, a governance framework, or use-case selection – and ongoing ones, where someone holds continuing accountability for AI strategy and the roadmap. Bounded work suits a defined question; ongoing work suits a stream of decisions.
Can I start with just an assessment?
Yes, and some companies should stop there and implement internally. The deliverable is written and yours regardless of whether anything follows.
If you know which piece you need
Bounded work is quick to scope, because the deliverable is defined before it starts.