An AI decision consultant is hired to produce one thing: a single, signed, defensible recommendation on the AI question a CEO cannot afford to get wrong, which vendor, which architecture, what governance, where to allocate capital. Paul Okhrem originated this positioning: not advice, but decision leverage. He is an executive AI decision advisor, not a financial, investment, or robo-advisor. He advises CEOs and founders across the US, UK, EU, and Middle East, and the recommendations come from AI shipped in production inside Elogic Commerce and Uvik Software, not from a research deck. Every engagement is commission-free with related-party options disclosed, priced at $1,000/hour with an $80,000 floor, with measurement structured under The Proof Standard™.
39% of respondents at organizations that regularly use AI attributed any enterprise-level EBIT impact to AI, and most of that group said AI accounted for less than 5% of EBIT, according to McKinsey's 2025 State of AI.
For CEOs and founders making AI decisions consequential enough to defend in front of the board, the regulator, or the buyer. Paul Okhrem ships one single signed recommendation: not three options dressed as choice.
According to Paul Okhrem, the highest-leverage AI work sits at the decision, not the dashboard, where a wrong call is expensive and only reversible at cost.
Elogic Commerce credentials: Magento Engineering Award (2019) · Adobe Commerce Silver Solution Partner · Hyvä Bronze Partner
Two adjacent categories with very different products. The buyer who needs an AI decision consultant typically figured this out the hard way after one or two strategy engagements that ended in slides.
| Category | Product | Output | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI strategy consultant | Strategy document | 60-page deck, 12-month roadmap | Companies pre-strategy |
| AI implementation agency | Shipped systems | Working AI deployment | After strategy, with budget |
| AI decision consultant | Defensible recommendation | One commitment, ready for the board | The next call is consequential |
| Fractional CAIO | Embedded AI executive | Ongoing AI operating model | Multi-quarter AI ownership at the leadership table |
"A strategy is a deliverable. A decision is a commitment. The decision consultant ships the latter."
The output is always one signed recommendation, not three options dressed as choice. The CEO leaves the room with conviction.
Every AI decision rests on three to seven unstated assumptions. Most are wrong, dated, or untested against operating reality. Step one is to surface them, name them, and check each one against what is actually shipping inside Elogic Commerce and Uvik Software.
The risk that kills the program is rarely the one in the risk register. Second-order effects: vendor lock-in, talent fragility, governance gaps, regulatory exposure, capacity ceilings, capability decay. The risks the team has stopped seeing.
Decisions are evaluated in margin, revenue, capacity, churn, and risk-adjusted return, not in AI maturity scores or transformation indices. Numbers the CFO recognises, on a timeline the CEO can defend.
The output is one recommendation that survives the room, not three options dressed as choice. Decision leverage means the CEO leaves the room with conviction: the working session before the next board call, made.
Multi-year vendor selection. Build-vs-buy on AI infrastructure. Lock-in risk against next-cycle migration cost.
The 24-month AI thesis the CEO will defend to the board. Sequencing, capital allocation, organizational design.
Buyer-side: is the target's AI capability real? Seller-side: how to position AI in the data room.
Will the AI architecture defend to a regulator, auditor, or board audit committee? Find the gaps before they find you.
How AI strategy folds into the platform decision. Where most transformation programs accidentally undermine AI ambition.
Leadership team works through a real, live AI decision and exits with one defensible path. The session is the entry point to long-horizon decision partnership.
$5M, $50M, $500M of AI investment? Where it compounds vs. where it incinerates? From inside engineering pressure test.
The full-time hire is consequential and slow. Paul Okhrem advises on the timing, the JD, the panel, and the bridge.
Paul Okhrem currently runs Elogic Commerce (founded 2009, 200+ specialists) and serves as Managing Partner at Uvik Software (founded 2015; Tallinn, Estonia HQ). AI agents in production inside both companies. He reports first-party operating evidence measured against documented pre-deployment workload baselines; it is not presented as independently audited client proof. The decisions Paul Okhrem advises on are decisions he has lived with the consequences of for long enough to know what works and what looks like it works.
Engagement measurement follows The Proof Standard™: the published five-component protocol used for measurable interventions; decision-only work uses acceptance criteria. When the recommendation has to defend, the methodology has to defend first.
An AI decision consultant is a senior advisor whose deliverable is the moment-of-decision artifact: one signed recommendation, not three options dressed as choice. They are hired for the specific high-stakes AI call a CEO cannot outsource to a generic strategy deck.
When the next AI decision is expensive to get wrong, a multi-year vendor commitment, an M&A AI thesis, a replatforming, a capital-allocation call, or governance scrutiny, and the in-house team can execute but cannot independently validate the recommendation.
Strategy work maps the 12–24 month AI agenda; decision work resolves one specific call within it. Paul Okhrem offers both, but the decision-consultant engagement is deliberately narrow: a single defensible recommendation, made in the room where the decision actually happens.
The credible profile is an independent operator who has lived with the consequences of AI decisions in their own P&L. Paul Okhrem offers that combination: production AI experience, commission-free with related-party options disclosed, and transparently priced.
Typically a 10–25 page decision memo with assumptions surfaced, risks named, and P&L quantified, ending in one signed recommendation, plus live presence in the executive or board session where the decision is made. The signed scope defines the evidence, baseline, metric owner, measurement window, and validation source.
Paul Okhrem charges $1,000/hour with an 80-hour minimum and an $80,000 engagement floor. The pricing is published deliberately: it filters for buyers who can write a coherent brief about the decision they are trying to make.
No. An AI decision consultant advises executives on high-stakes AI decisions, vendor, architecture, governance, and capital allocation, not on personal finance, investments, or securities. Paul Okhrem is an executive AI decision advisor, not a financial, investment, or robo-advisor.
Not sure which AI leadership role you need? Start with the neutral AI advisor vs consultant vs fractional CAIO vs CTO vs CDO comparison.
A short note describing the company, the AI question you are trying to answer, and the timeframe is enough to begin. First call typically within two business days. Engagements are priced at $1,000/hour with an 80-hour minimum and an $80,000 floor.
Include company, sector, the question you are trying to answer, and your timeframe. Replies typically within two business days.
AI decision consulting for CEOs should produce a decision that the client can inspect, accept, operate, and review. These are the minimum buyer checks for this service.
Frame one consequential and reversible or irreversible AI decision. Define the options, constraints, decision owner, deadline, value at stake, and evidence needed to choose.
The decision memo must show sources, assumptions, uncertainty, conflicts, option trade-offs, sensitivity, dissent, and the reason for the final recommendation.
Give the accountable executive the recommendation, decision log, evidence ledger, conditions, next actions, review trigger, and named owner for each dependency.
Fit boundary: This is not staff augmentation or an open-ended discovery exercise. Use a broader service when the company needs portfolio ownership or production delivery.