Executive AI Coaching · Fractional CAIO & CTO · Accepting new clients

Your board is asking about AI. Who's answering?

I've been the engineer writing the code, the fractional CTO answering to the board, and before either, the teacher at the front of the classroom. Start with coaching on your real work. If it's working, go further: a fractional Chief AI Officer who owns the roadmap and the delivery, not just the advice. How I coach →

Book a Discovery Call →See the Engagement Model
$2M+
Annual savings driven at enterprise scale
15+
Years building & leading software
6
Engineering teams led at enterprise scale
Jacob Knight, executive AI coach and fractional Chief AI Officer
Accepting new clients
The Problem

The gap most growing companies live in

I've sat in both chairs: the one asking "what's our AI story," and the one everyone assumes has $250K-CTO answers on demand. Here's the gap I see most. You've outgrown ad-hoc technology decisions, but a full-time CTO runs $250K+ and a real Chief AI Officer is nearly impossible to hire. Meanwhile tech debt slows every release, AI pressure mounts with no one to lead it, vendor decisions feel like guesses, and you're the de facto CTO on top of your actual job. If you run an accounting or marketing firm, it's sharper still: your clients are already asking what your AI story is.

Not a consultant. Not a teacher, either. A coach.

Consultants leave a slide deck behind. What actually changes how a team works is coaching: same person, same context, week after week, until the new habit is just how you work. There's a reason people who do this well get called coaches, not teachers. Teaching is a one-time information dump; coaching is what happens after, when the real work starts.

Strategy in the boardroom at 9. Pull request review at 10. Same person, same day, no handoff.

What We Do

From executive coaching to embedded AI leadership

Executives and firms at inflection points (clients asking about AI, a round being raised, growth outpacing the systems under it) need a seasoned AI executive in their corner. JWAL meets you at either altitude: coaching you to fluency, or owning the whole roadmap. I don't walk in with a 40-slide AI curriculum. Every session starts with what's actually stuck for you or your team that week, so the concept you need surfaces right when you need it, tied to a real problem, and it sticks because you used it immediately.

Executive AI Coaching

One-on-one coaching for executives, partners, and the teams behind them (accounting, operations, the back office), on their real work, not a canned curriculum. Build the most AI-fluent firm in your market, with a use-case shortlist and the business case to back it.

AI Strategy & Readiness

Build your organization's AI roadmap. Identify high-value use cases, evaluate tools and vendors, manage risk, and create a governance framework that scales with your business.

Technical Architecture

Design scalable, maintainable systems, whether you're greenfield, migrating legacy infrastructure, or preparing your platform for rapid growth or acquisition.

Engineering Leadership

Hire, mentor, and build high-performing engineering teams. Establish the culture, processes, and technical hiring bar that attract and retain top talent.

Engagements

Start with coaching. Scale when it works.

Every engagement starts the same way, and not because it's a sales funnel: trust gets built by working on someone's real problem first, not by pitching a bigger contract before you've proven the smaller one. So we start with hands-on AI coaching for your people (leadership, accounting, and the business teams behind them). That's the wedge. It opens into a readiness audit, and the audit leads to the fractional seat. No open-ended retainer pitch, ever.

  1. 01 Start here: every engagement begins with coaching
    The Wedge

    Executive AI Coaching

    Contact me for pricingfive people included · additional seats available
    1:1 sessions · built on your real work

    One-on-one AI coaching for at least five team members (partners, managers, your accountant, the back office): kickoff plus weekly sessions on their actual work, not generic demos. Everyone leaves with a working AI practice, and you leave knowing exactly where AI pays next.

    Learn more →One-pager (PDF)
  2. 02 Go deeper: the organizational roadmap
    Roadmap

    AI & Technology Readiness Audit

    Contact me for pricingfixed fee · 2–3 weeks

    Your systems, data, vendor spend, and AI opportunities (front office to accounting and operations) mapped into one board-ready roadmap, with the business case attached to each opportunity and a first-90-days plan. The answer from an operator, not a slide deck.

    Learn more →One-pager (PDF)
  3. 03 The destination: embedded leadership
    Embedded Leadership

    Fractional CAIO / CTO

    Contact me for pricing1–2 days per week · no long-term contract

    Embedded executive leadership: roadmap, architecture, hiring, vendors, and board communication. Standups and sprint discipline, not a call once a month. Yours until you don't need it.

    Learn more →One-pager (PDF)

Also available standalone: technical due diligence for investors and acquirers, and AI workshops for whole leadership teams.

Results

Proof, not promises

This is the project I point to when someone asks what "fixing the mess" actually looks like in practice.

Case Study

Purple: $2M+ in annual savings and an e-commerce re-platform at enterprise scale

Senior Software Architect · 2021–2025
$2M+
Annual savings from vendor rationalization
~3%
Saved per transaction via e-commerce re-platform
20th → 72nd
Percentile site speed vs. comparable retailers
100%
Team satisfaction across 6 engineering teams, 2 years running

The problem

A national consumer-products company was carrying a sprawling SaaS vendor portfolio nobody owned, an e-commerce platform that took a cut of every transaction, a site slower than nearly 80% of comparable retailers, and a failed multi-year point-of-sale project with legal exposure attached.

The work

Founded and chaired the Technology Review Committee, forcing every vendor decision through one accountable process across a 20+ vendor portfolio. Re-platformed e-commerce from Shopify to CommerceTools. Took over the failed POS project and delivered a working solution, resolving the legal exposure. Led architecture across six engineering teams through SOC 1 / SOC 2 audit cycles.

The results

$2M+ in annual cost reduction. ~3% saved per transaction at enterprise scale. Site speed from the 20th to the 72nd percentile. 100% team satisfaction two years in a row. This is what embedded technical leadership looks like: not a recommendation, delivery. Or as I put it to clients: I'm not producing fruit, I'm weeding a garden. The results came from tending this every week for years, not one big rewrite.

AI-native by design

I don't just advise on AI, I run my own practice on it. Every engagement is backed by a structured team of AI agents I direct across architecture, backend, frontend, data, design, and QA, so you get senior judgment with the leverage of a full delivery team behind it. The advice you're paying for is the same practice I use on my own work, every day.

Jacob Knight, Fractional CAIO & CTO
Accepting new clients
Leadership

Led by a real CTO, not just an AI officer

JWAL is led by Jacob Knight, a software architect turned fractional CTO, Chief AI Officer, and executive AI coach, and before any of that, a classroom teacher. At Purple he chaired the Technology Review Committee that cut $2M+ in annual costs and re-platformed e-commerce at enterprise scale. Today he serves as contract CTO for OnScene, a vertical SaaS market leader. MBA, University of Utah · BS Physics, Utah State · 15+ years building software.

Read Jacob's bio →How I coach →
Where I work

Based in Layton, Utah. Working across the Wasatch Front and remote.

JWAL is a Utah practice. I meet clients in person from Ogden to Salt Lake City to Provo, and I work with firms nationwide over video with the same weekly cadence. If you run an accounting or marketing firm in Davis, Weber, Salt Lake, or Utah County, I am a short drive away. Fractional CTO in Utah →

Get In Touch

Start with a conversation

No commitment, no pressure. A direct discussion about your situation and whether JWAL fits. If we're not the answer, you'll leave with something useful anyway.

Book a Discovery Call →Download the One-Pager

Or reach out directly: jake.k@jwal.aiLinkedIn