JAMES SCHLAUCH · CONSULTING PRACTICE San Diego AI
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JAMES SCHLAUCH · CONSULTING PRACTICE

Pricing.

Three ways to work together. All initial calls are free. Travel anywhere in Southern California is included on Charter and Voyage engagements.

Book a 30-minute call

Single-engagement

Compass

For the operator who needs orientation. A senior eye, a clear opinion, a one-page memo to share with the board, or a working session with the team.

You might need this if

You might need this if you have a single AI decision in front of you and the people in the room have already disagreed twice.

What's included

  • Free 30-minute scoping call (always)
  • 1–3 day on-site executive workshop OR 2–4 week AI Strategy Sprint
  • One-page memo as the deliverable — no slide deck
  • Travel anywhere in Southern California, included

Engagements that fit

Training & coaching. Strategic advisement. Technical due diligence on a single AI vendor or build proposal.

Engagement scoped per

Starts in the high four figures per onsite training day. AI Strategy Sprints in the mid five figures, fixed-fee.

Talk through a Compass engagement

Embedded retainer

Charter

Most engaged

For the operator who needs ongoing senior judgment without a full-time hire. Quarterly board readouts. Vendor evaluation. Build-vs-buy decisions. The AI risk register.

You might need this if

You might need this if your board is asking quarterly questions about AI that nobody on your leadership team can answer with the kind of confidence that ends the conversation.

What's included

  • Free 30-minute scoping call (always)
  • Fractional Chief AI Officer at 0.5–2 days per week
  • 6 to 18 month engagement; minimum 6-month commitment
  • Quarterly board-readout memos, not slides
  • Vendor strategy, governance, model evaluation, eventual full-time CAIO hire process
  • Travel anywhere in Southern California, included

Engagements that fit

Fractional Chief AI Officer. Ongoing strategic advisement. Vendor & governance program design.

Engagement scoped per

Starts in the low five figures per month. Minimum six-month commitment.

Talk through a Charter engagement

Full implementation

Voyage

For the operator who has a board-approved AI mandate and nobody inside the building who has shipped a production model end-to-end.

You might need this if

You might need this if the strategy is settled, the budget is approved, and the next failure mode is an implementation that doesn't ship.

What's included

  • Free 30-minute scoping call (always)
  • 3 to 9 month hands-on engagement
  • Architecture, model selection, evaluation harness, MLOps pipeline, governance
  • Production deployment + explicit handoff to your operating team
  • Two on-site visits within 90 minutes of San Diego per month, included
  • Working systems and one-page memos — never slide decks

Engagements that fit

Enterprise AI Implementation. Production multimodal AI. Custom platform builds for mid-market and enterprise teams.

Engagement scoped per

Starts in the low six figures per quarter. Engagement scoped per quarter; multi-quarter commitments common.

Talk through a Voyage engagement

Transformation engagement

Odyssey

For the operator whose mandate isn't 'ship a model' but 'build an AI capability inside this company that survives the engagement.' One senior practitioner accountable for both the AI system and the human layer around it.

You might need this if

You might need this if you don't yet have a Chief AI Officer, an AI engineering team, or a governance function — and the board has given you twelve to twenty-four months to stand all three up alongside a working production system.

What's included

  • Free 30-minute scoping call (always)
  • 12 to 24 month embedded program
  • Everything in Voyage — architecture, evaluation harness, MLOps, governance, production deployment
  • Plus the human layer: hiring AI engineers, evaluation and governance leads, eventually a permanent Chief AI Officer
  • Plus the org layer: reporting lines, RACI, AI risk register, board-readout cadence, vendor strategy
  • Plus training and coaching for the team you hire — hands-on, repeatable, durable past James's exit
  • Weekly on-site visits within 90 minutes of San Diego, included
  • Explicit handoff with a permanent CAIO overlap window before James's exit

Engagements that fit

End-to-end AI capability build. Fractional Chief AI Officer with team-build authority. Org design plus production AI plus permanent-team transition.

Engagement scoped per

Starts in the mid six figures across the engagement. Quarterly milestone-based contracts; multi-quarter commitments standard. Single buyer, single accountable practitioner, single end date.

Talk through an Odyssey engagement

What's free

Every initial scoping call. No obligation, no follow-up sales cadence. The call is the call.

Where we work

Based in San Diego County. Travel anywhere in Southern California is included on Charter and Voyage engagements.

How many engagements

Engagements capped at six per year, across all tiers.

Next step

Talk through which tier fits

Thirty minutes. We compare the mandate, the operating reality, and the next useful step. The only correct outcome of a first call is a clearer answer than the one you walked in with.

Book a 30-minute call