AI strategy retainer: quarterly advisory for the C-suite
A quarterly executive advisory retainer for CIOs, CTOs, and Chief Risk Officers in regulated industries who want a second pair of senior eyes on their AI roadmap, their vendor decisions, and the regulator briefings that land on their desk each quarter. Two engagement days per month, a written quarterly memo, fixed monthly scope, and the same partner across every call.
01.What does the retainer cover?
02.Who is the retainer for?
03.What is not included?
04.How does it differ from a partner-firm advisory?
05.What is the typical cadence inside a quarter?
06.How this SKU sits inside the TRACE methodology
This engagement is the Operate phase of the Impetora delivery model. The strategy retainer sits alongside the Operate phase, providing the executive read that an operations layer alone cannot.
Trust
Readiness
Architecture
Citations and evidence
07.What happens, week by week
- 01Wk 1-2
Onboarding sprint
Two-week onboarding: portfolio inventory, regulator-calendar import, executive-sponsor alignment, advisor introduction.
- 02Monthly
Monthly cadence
Two engagement days per month: roadmap review, vendor due diligence on request, regulator briefings, strategic-optionality memos.
- 03Quarterly
Quarterly memo and walk-through
Written quarterly strategy memo, walked through with the executive sponsor, circulated to the steering group.
08.Inputs we need from you. Outputs we ship.
From your team
- An executive sponsor (CIO, CTO, CRO, CDO, or GC) with the calendar for a monthly working session
- Read access to the AI portfolio inventory and the in-flight build engagements
- Forward visibility of vendor or partnership decisions on the calendar (1 to 2 quarters ahead is ideal)
- Access to internal regulator correspondence relevant to the AI portfolio
Concrete deliverables
- Written quarterly strategy memo, signed by the named partner advisor
- Vendor or partnership due-diligence reviews on request, one to two week turnaround
- Quarterly regulator-landscape briefing covering EU AI Act timeline events and sector guidance
- Strategic-optionality briefings on AI patterns moving into your sector
- Asynchronous review and feedback on internal AI strategy documents during each month
09.Who this is not for
We turn engagements down when the fit is wrong. If any of these match, a different SKU, or a different partner, will serve you better.
See the full list of fit signals we screen against
- Engagements where the buyer is looking for implementation; the retainer is advisory only
- Buyers who want general management consulting; the retainer is AI-specialist by design
- Organisations without an executive sponsor for the monthly working session
- Buyers expecting a slide-deck cadence; every deliverable is written prose with citations
Frequently asked questions
Can the retainer recommend other build partners?
Yes, and frequently does. The retainer is deliberately decoupled from our build SKUs. When the right partner for a particular build is not us, the memo says so. The advisor's job is to make the executive sponsor better-informed, not to route work to our delivery team.
Who is the named partner across the engagement?
Justas Butkus, founder of Impetora. The retainer is a partner-level engagement by design; the advisor does not change across calls, and the substitute model used by larger firms is not part of this SKU. If continuity is broken (for example, by holidays or illness), the engagement pauses or the calendar slips, rather than the advisor changing.
What is the contract term?
Twelve months minimum, with quarterly review gates. Either party can exit at the end of any quarter with 30 days' notice. The minimum term protects the depth of the engagement: a one-quarter advisory does not get to the strategic optionality work, only the inherited roadmap review.
Can the retainer cover M&A AI due diligence?
Yes. AI due diligence on acquisition targets sits inside the vendor due-diligence workstream, with extra scope on the eval-suite review and the regulator pack inheritance. Deal-driven scope can compress into a one-week turnaround when needed.
Is the quarterly memo confidential?
Yes. The memo is delivered under the engagement NDA, with circulation tightly defined (steering group only, by default). We do not publish the memos and we do not reuse memo content across clients.
How does the retainer integrate with our Big Four advisory partner?
It complements rather than replaces. The Big Four advisory is broad and typically partner-firm-driven; the retainer is AI-specialist and partner-named. Several buyers run both. The retainer's quarterly memo can be written to brief the Big Four advisor as much as the executive sponsor.
Book a discovery call for a fixed-scope plan.
One form. We reply within two working days with a written scope, a delivery plan, and the team you would work with.