Forward-deployed AI consultant · Fractional CTO

Vikram Rathour

I work inside your team as a forward-deployed AI consultant: with the people who will use the system, finding the problem that is really holding your AI back, and staying until it works in production. Twenty-five years in banking, healthcare and manufacturing. I can also step in as a fractional CTO or an interim head of data and AI.

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25 yrsBanking, healthcare, manufacturing
$2B+Platforms shaped & delivered
0Failed flagship platforms

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How we might work together

Three ways we can work together.

Each is a fixed piece of work with a clear finish, and leaves your team with something it owns and understands. None of them is an open-ended transformation programme.

01 · Foundations4 to 8 weeks

Get your data ready for AI

When this helpsSeveral AI pilots are giving your leadership different answers to the same question.

Together we write down the business meaning behind the 30 to 50 numbers your organisation actually runs on: what each one means, where it comes from, who looks after it, and the traps people have learned to step around. We follow industry standards where they help, such as BIAN for banking or FHIR for healthcare. Then we test it honestly: how accurately your AI answers your real questions, before and after, not a generic benchmark.

What stays with your teamAn agreed, documented set of business definitions your AI can use, a scorecard of how ready your data is, and a 90-day plan for what to fix next.
02 · Reliability3 to 6 weeks

Make your AI agent reliable enough to launch

When this helpsYour AI agent works in the demo but fails with real users.

I sit with your own experts to turn their knowledge into a test set, run each case repeatedly, and share plainly how often the agent is right and how it fails. Then we review the design around it together: whether it should be a fixed workflow or an agent, what it is allowed to read, how documents are prepared, what records it keeps, and what it costs to run.

What stays with your teamA reliability number the board can trust, and a design your team feels ready to build.
03 · Direction4 to 8 weeks

One plan for your data, reporting and AI

When this helpsYour data platform, reporting, AI and automation projects grew up separately and are now heading in different directions.

Together we design where you are heading, from the source systems through shared business definitions to reports, AI agents and automated actions. We agree how people and AI agents will work alongside each other, and plan the steps: pilot to daily use, one project to many, fragile to dependable.

What stays with your teamA clear target design, the standards that hold it together, and a handover plan so your team runs it confidently on its own.

Where I will point you to someone better

Security testing of AI agents and the tools they connect to deserves a dedicated specialist, and that is not me. If it is what you need, I will tell you honestly and introduce you to someone I trust, rather than stretching my own experience to cover it.

Portrait of Vikram Rathour

Vikram Rathour

Forward-deployed AI consultant

"Anyone can wire up an intelligent system now. The hard part is sensibility."

Rathour.vikram@gmail.comPune, Maharashtra, India
Let's talk

Where is your AI work stuck?

I work with only two or three organisations at a time, usually two to three days a week, for six to twelve months. That is enough to stand beside your team through the difficult decisions and see them through, without adding a permanent role. Most conversations begin with a 45-minute call where I listen first, then tell you honestly whether I can help, or whether your team already has what it needs to close this on its own.

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