AI-Assisted Fractional CMO

Every fractional CMO firm in the SERP claims AI. Most claim it as a tool they use. A few claim it as a service line. None operate AI products in production, embedded inside client systems, with the kind of operational depth that translates into a fractional CMO mandate.

IG does. The receipts are below.

Next Best Action

The /next-best-action/ pillar describes real-time AI personalization deployed inside client stacks. Four-layer architecture: Signals, Intelligence, Decisioning, Surfaces. Customer Intelligence Graph joining web, CRM, and intent data in near real-time. Same-session response replacing the 24-hour batch cycle that most enterprise personalization still runs on.

First proof of value in 4 to 6 weeks. Customer Zero is OneBenefits — the case study is live at /work/onebenefits-marketing-ai/.

Beat

Beat is a productized AI agent layer for local-business clients. Live data from Yelp, Google Analytics, Google Business Profile, and Local Falcon, with an AI-written weekly briefing in the client's voice using Claude. The Monday briefing reads the same data the IG team reads and translates it into a one-page recommendation.

This is an IG-built product that IG runs for clients, not a tool IG licenses. It proves IG can build, deploy, and operate AI agents. Most fractional CMO firms cannot say the same.

The AEO surface

IG operates the AEO citation surface for the discipline itself. The /aeo/ pillar plus the 24-term glossary means IG is not reading about AI citation strategy from a distance. IG operates the practice and ranks for it.

A fractional CMO engagement that does not include AEO discipline in 2026 is a 2022 playbook.

Agentic AI at production scale

The IG Insights blog codifies the patterns IG has lived through in production. The Shift POV The Agent Era frames the strategic shift: what changes when the buyer stops being a person and becomes software. Operator-level AI literacy, not vendor-level repetition.

AI Solutions specialty team

One of IG's six specialty teams. Ships agentic workflows, AI analytics, and AI-augmented HR. When Chris takes a fractional CMO mandate, the AI Solutions team is available as part of the integrated delivery stack. No other fractional CMO firm in the SERP can route work to an in-house AI engineering team.

The positioning sentence

Human-led fractional CMO with AI-assisted execution. Not AI-replaces-CMO. Not we-use-ChatGPT. A senior human operator running strategy, with AI as the leverage layer that makes IG's fractional CMO offer faster, deeper, and more comprehensive than any incumbent can match.

If your fractional CMO has never shipped a production AI agent, you are paying for last decade's playbook.

A fractional CMO at IG is not running the same playbook that worked in 2022. The playbook itself is being rewritten in production at IG, with named clients, named products, and shipped code.

The bottom line

AI does not replace the operator. AI replaces the team the operator used to need.