Automation audit
$4,500two weeks, credited if you continue
Measurement. I watch how the work actually happens, map where the hours go, and rank what to automate first.
Fractional Chief of AI and Automation for your business
I'm a Fractional Chief AI Officer, working from Lisbon on US hours. Most people in this seat write the strategy. I also build the systems. I own AI and automation inside service businesses between $1M and $50M, and every system lives in your accounts.
Mode
Hand steps
5 per cycle
Example
230 h/month at FirePlan
How AI gets bought when nobody owns it
Month one
Someone on the team reads that you are behind on AI. They buy a tool. It works for a month. Then the person who set it up gets busy, or leaves, and it quietly breaks. Nobody notices for a while.
Month twelve
Twelve months later you are paying for thirty subscriptions and two AI seats per employee. The CRM does not talk to the invoicing system. A chatbot answers questions nobody asked. Your ops manager still re-types data from one screen into another every Friday.
The cause
That is the cost of AI without an owner. The tools are fine. The problem is that no one is responsible for the whole picture, and no one is measuring what any of it returns.
What a Fractional Chief AI Officer does here
Maps the work
Every repeated task across sales, delivery, finance and support. What it costs in hours. What it costs when it goes wrong.
Owns the roadmap
One prioritized list of what gets built, in what order, and what each item is worth. Reviewed monthly with you.
Picks the tools
Which model, which platform, which vendor, and which of your data any of them may touch. Decided once, by someone who has used all of them, so your team stops evaluating.
Gets it built
Either by directing your team and vendors, or by my own hands and my delivery bench. Depends on the package.
Reports the return
Hours removed. Errors removed. Headcount you did not have to hire. One page, every month.
Measure, decide, act. Pick how much of the loop you hand me.
The audit measures, Advisor adds the decisions, and Owner closes the loop with the building. Coaching puts you in the loop yourself.
Advisor
$6,500a month
An open loop. I own the decisions on what gets built, in what order and on which tools. Your team or vendors build it.
Owner
$12,500a month
A closed loop. The decisions plus the building, by me and the engineers at 2V Automation, measured every month.
AI coaching
$225a session, about 90 minutes
You in the loop. You build your own AI operating system, your hands on the keyboard. No minimum.
The first 90 days
Drawn to scale. Most of the time goes into building, because the audit and the roadmap only matter once something runs.
-
Days 1 to 14
Audit
I sit with your team and watch how the work actually happens. I inventory every tool you pay for. You get a written map of where the hours go.
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Days 15 to 30
Roadmap
A ranked list of automations with the estimated saving on each. We agree on the first three. I cancel the subscriptions you do not need.
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Days 31 to 90
First three live
The first three automations run in production with your team trained on them. You get the first monthly report showing what changed.
Hours taken off the floor
Five results clients have put their name to.
| Client | Removed | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| FirePlan Strategies | 230 h/month | Compliance document handling and reporting automated, the team now reviews and signs off. |
| Signature Champions | 300+ h/month | Orders connected to invoicing, recurring finance processes gone. |
| Contrail Financial | 360 h/year | Client reporting, ops updates and follow-ups automated. |
| A strategic consultancy | 150 h/month | In the words of its senior program manager. |
| An SEO agency | 2 people do 8 | The agency was later rebuilt AI-native as Shila. |
All delivered through 2V Automation, the agency Valerian founded and runs. Each outcome is published on 2vautomation.ai with the client named. 2vautomation.ai
What clients say
More reviews on Clutch and Upwork, where I hold Top Rated Plus with a 100% job success score.
I worked with Valerian on a full automation build for my companies. His work has significantly reduced manual tasks and improved the accuracy and speed in our operations. Highly recommend to any business looking to automate its operations.
Valerian is the guy, that when you find him, you keep him around, for life.
Valerian is a great teacher and very experienced. I came in knowing almost nothing about AI development, and now I understand how the whole stack fits together and have my own n8n server running. He's patient, honest, and makes complex topics simple. Five stars.
Who this is for
Service businesses
Agencies, trades, professional services, field service, logistics. Companies that sell people's time and want to sell more of it.
$1M to $50M revenue
Big enough that manual work is now a real cost line. Too small to justify a $400K executive who only thinks about this.
An owner still in the weeds
You know which parts of the business run on you personally. You want them to run without you, and you want it done this year.
Valerian Valkin
- Function
- Fractional Chief AI Officer
- Studied
- Automated computer control systems, honors, 2010
- In business
- 15 years running businesses
- Built
- 2V Automation and Shila
- Certified
- n8n Expert Partner
- Record
- Upwork Top Rated Plus, 100% job success, $1M+
- Capacity
- 4 companies at a time
- Location
- Lisbon, Portugal, working US hours
Valerian Valkin is a Fractional Chief AI Officer for US service businesses between $1M and $50M in revenue, the founder of 2V Automation, an n8n Certified Expert Partner agency, and the co-founder of Shila, an AI-automated SEO agency. He is based in Lisbon and works US hours.
I run two agencies. 2V Automation is an n8n Certified Expert Partner that builds automation for founder-led service businesses, and it is the delivery bench behind the Owner package. Shila is an AI-automated SEO agency. Running both is why a conversation with me starts at payroll, margin and the hire you are about to make, rather than at tooling.
The fractional role exists because of a pattern I kept seeing. Agencies build what they are asked to build and leave. The client is left with workflows nobody owns. I wanted to sit on the other side of the table, inside the company, accountable for the result over time.
Questions founders ask
What is a fractional Chief AI Officer?
A fractional Chief AI Officer is a senior executive who owns AI and automation inside a company part time, on a monthly retainer, and is accountable for the results. They map the repeated work, keep the roadmap, choose the tools, get the systems built and report the return each month. The role exists for companies that have the problem a Chief AI Officer solves and cannot carry a $400,000 salary for one.
How does this compare to a consultant, an agency or a full-time hire?
A consultant delivers a recommendation and leaves. An agency builds the scope it is given and leaves. A full-time Chief AI Officer costs $400,000 a year and up, which is out of reach below about $50M in revenue. A fractional Chief AI Officer owns the function part time and, in my case, builds as well as decides.
How is this different from hiring an AI agency or consultant?
An agency is paid to build a scope. A consultant is paid to produce a recommendation. I'm paid to own an outcome over time. I decide what should be built at all, I measure whether it worked, and I'm still here next quarter. On the Owner package my own agency is part of what I bring, working under my direction.
Chief AI Officer or Chief Automation Officer?
Both describe this seat. Most fractional AI officers stop at strategy, governance and a board deck. I do that part, then I build the systems that carry it out. If your priority is a policy document, hire one of them. If your priority is work leaving your team's hands this quarter, hire me.
Which tools do you use?
Whatever fits. Most builds run on n8n with Claude, GPT and the other major models, connected through MCP to your existing CRM, accounting and project tools. I have no reseller deals. If the right answer is a $30 plugin, that is what you get.
Will this replace people on my team?
Usually it removes the work people hate and lets you grow without the next hire. Where a role does become unnecessary, you will know months in advance from the roadmap, and it is your decision.
What happens to the automations if we stop working together?
They are yours. Everything is built in your accounts, documented, and your team is trained on it. The last month includes a full handover.
Do you work with companies outside the US?
Yes. Most of my clients are in the US, but I have run engagements in the UK, EU and Australia and I'm comfortable across time zones.
Show me the hand steps.
A 30-minute call. Walk me through the work your team re-types every week, and leave with a clear yes or no and two things to fix either way.