Fractional engagements · Remote worldwide
Fractional AI Product Lead
I take part-time product ownership of AI work inside teams that already have engineers and already have ideas. The job is deciding which of those ideas are real, proving it with a number, and shipping the ones that survive.
Twelve years in product across fintech, SaaS and regulated enterprise, shipped for clients in the EU, UK, UAE, Canada and Australia. Based in Budapest, working remotely worldwide. One to two days a week, three to six months.
Product work delivered for · four continents
01 / The role
Most teams stalling on AI are not short of engineering.
They are short of someone who will make a call about what to stop.
I sit inside the team rather than beside it. I write the specs, run the standups, argue with stakeholders, and put my name on the outcome. When an initiative should be killed, I say so in writing — and I am not selling you the implementation afterwards, so nothing about that recommendation is convenient for me.
01
Pick the bets
Which AI ideas have a user, a workflow and a measurable baseline. Which are demos wearing a roadmap.
02
Define proof
An evaluation set built before launch, a threshold agreed in advance, and a stop rule nobody can renegotiate later.
03
Ship it
Specs, backlog, delivery, rollout. Adoption measured against people who did not get the feature.
04
Keep it legal
EU AI Act classification, Article 50 transparency, DORA and GDPR handled at intake rather than a week before launch.
05
Leave capability behind
Your PMs run the process after I go. If they cannot, the engagement failed regardless of what shipped.
06
Say the quiet part
If you need a permanent hire rather than a fractional one, I will tell you, usually sooner than you would like.
02 / What it has produced
Measured against a baseline that existed before I started.
Four from shipped work. Each one could have come out badly, which is the only kind worth publishing.
Halved
Change-request creation time, after an AI assistant replaced a form nobody completed correctly — with policy compliance up sharply alongside it. Full figures in the gated case study.
Enterprise ITSM · T-Systems
24,000
Users in under six months on a consumer fintech platform, after research showed the funded brief pointed at the wrong product.
Consumer fintech · UAE
20% to 28%
Week-four retention on a product people actively disliked using. The hardest number on this page to fake.
Fintech · Canua
$1M+
Follow-on funding raised after an AI legal research product reached a demonstrable state with real users.
Legal AI · Jurisage, AltaML
03 / Fit
Worth a call, and worth skipping.
This tends to work when
- You have engineers building AI features and nobody senior deciding which ones deserve the time.
- A pilot has been running for months and nobody can say whether it worked.
- You are shipping customer-facing AI into the EU and the regulatory position is a guess.
- Your PMs are strong on software and new to probabilistic systems, and need someone alongside them for a quarter.
- You need product leadership at a level you cannot yet justify hiring full-time.
This is the wrong call when
- You want a strategy document. I would rather you kept the money.
- The decision has already been made and you need someone to validate it.
- You need a designer. I have the background, but it is not what you would be paying for.
- The work is under a day a week. At that size I am reviewing, and reviewing rarely changes anything.
- You need someone permanent. That point arrives sooner than most people expect.
04 / What clients say
Two from people who watched me change the plan.
On judgment
“She truly has a rare ability to turn complex challenges into elegant, user-friendly solutions. It’s not just design; she is a problem-solver at her finest.”
On evidence
“Her intelligence and analytical approach set her apart. She digs deep into behavior analysis, ensuring every decision is well thought out and effective.”
05 / Questions
The things people ask before the first call.
How is this different from hiring an AI consultant?
A consultant produces a recommendation and leaves. I own the outcome, sit in your standups, write the specs, and am accountable for whether the thing works. I also do not sell the implementation afterwards, which means I am free to tell you an initiative should stop.
How much time does an engagement take?
One to two days a week over three to six months. Less than that and I am reviewing rather than owning. More than six months and you should be hiring someone permanent, which I will say out loud when it becomes true.
Do you work with regulated companies?
Most of my work is regulated: enterprise ITSM under DORA, fintech, and health technology. I build governance into intake rather than bolting it on before launch, and I can tell an EU AI Act Article 50 transparency question apart from an Annex III high-risk classification without guessing at it.
Where are you based and which time zones do you cover?
Budapest, Hungary, on Central European time, and I work with teams worldwide. That gives me a full working day with Europe, the Middle East, Africa and much of Asia, and an afternoon overlap with the Americas. Shipped work includes clients in the EU, UK, UAE, Canada and Australia, so the pattern is well tested. Engagements are remote, with travel for a kickoff where it helps.
Can you work under NDA?
Yes, and most of my recent work is. Several case studies on this site are password-protected for that reason. Ask and I will send access.
Are you available full-time?
I hold a permanent role and take a small number of fractional engagements alongside it. I am also open to the right permanent position, remote, anywhere the hours work from Central European time. If you are hiring rather than contracting, the case studies are the better starting point.
06 / Next
Not sure whether you need this? That is usually a good reason to talk.
Thirty minutes, no charge, and I will tell you honestly if the answer is that you do not need me. Remote-first and working worldwide. Based in Budapest, EU-eligible, Central European time, which covers a full day with Europe, the Middle East and Asia and an afternoon with the Americas.