A Sheffield-based fractional practice making AI leadership accessible for UK service businesses in the £3M to £20M band, structured around a 13-Angle Framework.
Digital Agency Leaders Editorial · May 10, 2026 · Source: Digital Agency Leaders
The Chief AI Officer role is no longer a Fortune 500 conversation. According to recent IBM research, 26% of enterprises already employ a CAIO and 66% expect to within two years. For UK service businesses in the £3M to £20M revenue band, however, the economics of a full-time CAIO have rarely worked. The CAIO, a Sheffield-based fractional practice, was built specifically for that gap.
We profile The CAIO as one of the more structured fractional AI leadership offerings in the UK market.
A Practice Built Around an Operator
The CAIO is led by Leeroy Powell, an operator who runs his own portfolio of AI-augmented businesses including the GEO agency MarGen, the AI phone automation product MyAutobot, and a B2B publishing operation. The thesis is direct. The methodology being sold is the methodology being used to operate.
Most fractional AI consultants are senior consultants. The CAIO is positioned as a senior operator who happens to consult.
The 13-Angle Framework
The practice's intellectual property is the 13-Angle Framework. Every business is scored across thirteen specific angles in five clusters covering Sales and Revenue, Marketing and Content, Operations, Customer, and Talent. Each angle is rated against the business on five dimensions and ranked. The top three become the next quarter's priorities. The remaining ten are explicitly parked with documented reasoning, deferred rather than ignored.
This is a structured antidote to the most common failure mode of AI consultancies, which is to recommend everything plausible without forcing prioritisation.
Three Engagement Models, All Public Pricing
Where most consultancies sell hours, The CAIO sells three discrete engagement models with public pricing:
- Audit: £3,000, 14 days, 40-page report and 12-month roadmap, money-back guarantee if it tells the business nothing it did not already know
- Embed: £5,000 per month, six-month minimum, up to 8 hours of direct time per month, one quarterly build included
- Build: £15,000 to £35,000, four to eight weeks, discrete project delivery
The publication of pricing is itself notable. Most fractional AI advisory engagements are quoted privately and vary by perceived budget. The CAIO's transparency is a deliberate signal of confidence in the methodology.
At a Glance
- Category: Fractional Chief AI Officer practice
- Headquarters: Sheffield, United Kingdom
- Operator: Leeroy Powell
- Target market: UK service businesses, £3M to £20M revenue
- Methodology: 13-Angle Framework
- Engagement options: Audit (£3k), Embed (£5k/mo), Build (£15k to £35k)
- Track record: 14+ systems shipped, £2M+ revenue under AI ops, 4 brands operated
- Website: thecaio.co.uk
Where The CAIO Fits
The CAIO is best suited to UK service-led businesses where AI strategy has become a recurring board topic without a clear next step, and where the business is too small to justify a full-time CAIO hire (£250,000+ all-in) but too important to leave to a passing consultancy engagement.
For businesses that have tried external consultants and received decks rather than shipped systems, the operator-led structure of The CAIO is a meaningful differentiator. For agencies advising clients on AI transformation, The CAIO is the type of fractional partner worth maintaining a referral relationship with.