You're deploying LLMs and agents faster than your security function can keep up, and you don't have a CISO — let alone one fluent in AI risk. A virtual CISO for AI gives you that leadership on a fraction of a hire: someone who owns the AI risk posture, runs the governance cadence, and can answer your board and your auditor when they ask whether the AI you shipped is under control. From $6k/mo, fixed scope, with a runbook on exit.
An AI-program vCISO is not a generalist security contractor with "AI" added to the title. It's retained leadership for the specific place where model risk, data governance, and information security stop being separate problems and become one job. Your engineers can ship an LLM feature in a sprint; what they can't do is decide how it's governed, what evidence an auditor will need, and who signs off that the risk is acceptable. That decision needs an owner with the seniority to make it and the fluency to make it correctly.
Concretely, an AI-program vCISO interprets the frameworks so your team doesn't have to. That means translating the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (Govern, Map, Measure, Manage) into controls your engineers can actually implement, reading ISO/IEC 42001 and the EU AI Act for what they demand of your specific systems, and keeping a single, current view of risk as both the technology and the regulations move underneath you. Interpretation is the work — the standards are public; knowing which clause binds which system, and what "good enough" looks like for a company your size, is what you're retaining.
The fit is a mid-market company — roughly 50 to 500 people — that is deploying LLMs or agents in production but has no CISO, or a CISO without AI-specific depth. You feel it as a set of questions nobody owns: which AI systems are we actually running, who decided that one was acceptable, and what do we tell the auditor or the insurer when they ask. There are millions of unfilled cybersecurity roles and most organizations report a moderate-to-critical skills gap; hiring a full-time AI-fluent CISO is slow and expensive even when the talent exists. A fraction of that hire buys the senior cover an AI program actually needs.
It's the wrong call if you have no AI in production yet — then you want a one-time governance readiness read, not a retainer — or if you already have a capable CISO who simply needs a scoped AI assessment rather than ongoing leadership. We'll tell you which of those you are on the first call; the retainer is for companies whose AI risk is now continuous enough to need a continuous owner.
The retainer is scoped, fixed-fee, and renewable — not an open-ended hourly arrangement. A typical engagement starts at $6k/mo and covers the standing work of owning an AI program's risk posture. Scope scales with the number of AI systems and the regulatory surface you face.
It's worth being precise about what a vCISO for AI is not, because the title gets stretched. It is not a full-time employee you're renting by another name — there's no seat to backfill and no benefits to carry, and the engagement is built to leave you with a documented program rather than a dependency. It is not a 24/7 security operations center; we provide advisory leadership and governance, and where you need continuous monitoring or managed detection and response, that's delivered by a vetted partner you contract while we help you scope and orchestrate the requirement.
It is also not certification, and not legal advice. We get your AI program ready and keep the evidence trail current, but the certificate — where one exists — comes from an accredited body, and the legal interpretation of the EU AI Act and your contractual obligations stays with your counsel. What you're buying is a senior owner for the AI-risk surface that currently has none: someone accountable for the posture, fluent in the frameworks, and present enough to answer the board, the auditor, and the insurer when they ask. That accountability, on a fraction of a hire, is the entire value of the model.
A retained vCISO for AI starts at $6k/mo, scoped and fixed-fee rather than billed hourly. The figure scales with how many AI systems you run and how much regulatory surface you face — a single EU-facing product is a different scope than a dozen internal tools. We size it on the first call so you approve a number, not an open-ended meter.
A governance consultant delivers a project — an inventory, a gap assessment, a roadmap — and leaves. A vCISO owns the program over time: the same risk posture, kept current as your systems and the regulations change, with standing board and insurer reporting and a senior owner for exceptions and incidents. Consulting is a deliverable; a vCISO is accountability.
No. We provide readiness and risk leadership, not certification. We are not an accredited certification body, and we don't issue ISO/IEC 42001 certificates or certify EU AI Act or NIST AI RMF compliance — only accredited bodies do that. We keep you ready and assemble the evidence; the certificate, where one exists, comes from the accredited body.
No. We work alongside your counsel. Interpreting the frameworks and maintaining the control program is an engineering and governance exercise; your attorneys own the legal interpretation of the EU AI Act, enforcement risk, and your contractual obligations.
It augments, it doesn't replace. Where you have a CISO or security lead, the AI vCISO owns the AI-specific risk surface they don't have the bandwidth or the framework depth to cover, and reports into your existing structure. Where you have neither, we provide the senior security leadership for the AI program directly.
You keep everything: the AI risk register, the policies, the evidence trail, and a runbook documenting how the program runs. The engagement is designed to leave you operable on exit — high-value advisory with a runbook, not a dependency you can't unwind. And to be clear, a vCISO is advisory leadership, not a 24/7 SOC; continuous monitoring, where you need it, is delivered by a vetted partner you contract.
If you're shipping AI faster than anyone is governing it, that gap is a board-level risk waiting to be asked about. A vCISO for AI closes it deliberately — owning the posture, the evidence, and the reporting so you can keep moving without flying blind. Bring us your AI program and the questions you can't yet answer, and we'll scope a retainer that fits it.