What is Cairn's EDGE framework?

EDGE is four phases that meet your organisation where it is — Evaluate what you have, Design what you'll do, Grow the team that can do it, and Embed AI into how you actually work. You can engage at any phase.

How do I get started, and what does it cost?

Most paid engagements start with a Discovery Workshop (NZ$2,500) — two hours with up to eight of your people, plus a written Discovery Report and a draft AI Policy within two weeks. Cairn Compass, our AI maturity assessment, is free.

vCAIO is a virtual Chief AI Officer — ongoing senior direction across three tiers: Standard (NZ$5,000/month), Plus (NZ$10,000/month) and Executive (NZ$15,000/month), each with named monthly deliverables.

Do we need to buy a lot of new AI tools?

No. Cairn helps you adopt AI without buying tools you don't need and without depending on Cairn forever — people, process, technology, in that order.

Practical AI

Practical AI for organisations across Aotearoa.

People, process, technology, in that order. Cairn helps New Zealand organisations adopt AI without losing the plot, without buying tools they don’t need, and without depending on Cairn forever.

Measure your AI maturity free Get in touch

Cairn’s EDGE framework is four phases that meet you where you are. Evaluate what you’ve got. Design what you’ll do. Grow the team that can do it. Embed AI into how your organisation actually works. Above all four phases sits the Foundations check, three things every organisation needs to have in place. Below them sits vCAIO, the ongoing direction that keeps it moving once the plan exists.

You can engage at any phase. Most clients start with Discovery and move forward from there. Some start with Workshops & Presentations at a board meeting or a leadership offsite, and come back later. Some skip straight to vCAIO because they already know what they need.

Evaluate

See where you are.

Cairn Compass

free

15 minutes online. 40 questions across 8 domains. A personalised radar plus a Foundations summary at the top. Compass is the prerequisite for paid Discovery, and it’s the artefact most clients show their board first. Take it at compass.cairn.nz.

Workshops & Presentations

from $2,500

A keynote at your conference. A board briefing for your leadership team. A custom workshop for your senior team. Three formats, one principle: every Cairn presentation is built bespoke for the audience and the question they’re trying to answer. Travel is additional.

Discovery Workshop

$2,500

Two hours with up to eight of your key people. We map the use cases that matter, do the Foundations check, and hand you a written Discovery Report including a draft AI Policy template inside two weeks.

Most paid Cairn engagements start here. Honestly, it’s the best $2,500 your leadership team can spend on AI right now.

Design

Decide what you’ll do.

AI Roadmap — three depths. The Roadmap is where vision becomes a sequenced, resourced plan. It includes the AI Maturity Assessment, the AI Policy ready for adoption, the AI Tool Selection (your vendor strategy), governance setup, and the Champion plan. Three depths so the engagement fits the scale of your organisation.

Roadmap Lite

$5,000

SME or single team. Half-day workshop, one-page plan, draft AI Policy, recommended tools, two-week turnaround.

Roadmap Standard

$10,000

Mid-tier organisations. Multi-session interviews, full Roadmap document, AI Policy, AI Tool Selection, governance structure, named champion plan. Three to four weeks.

Roadmap Full

$20,000

Board-facing. Six or more stakeholders interviewed. Full pack including comms plan and a board pack ready to present. Four to six weeks.

The Roadmap is the single most leveraged piece of work Cairn does. Without it, the engagement reverts to one-off purchases every quarter. With it, you have a 12-month direction and a plan the board owns.

Grow

Build the team that can do it.

Microsoft Copilot Training

$3,500 per 90-minute session

Cohorts of 10–25. Three levels, layered: Basic for everyone, Skills for active users, Advanced for power users. Sessions are workflow-grounded, not feature tours. Each cohort gets a use case register handed back. A 30-minute clinic follows four weeks after the last session. Travel is additional. In-person at your HQ; remote for regional teams.

Cairn Champion Programme

$13,500 / 6 months

Training without champions stalls at week 6. The Champion Programme builds 2–3 named champions inside your organisation so capability stays with you, not with Cairn. A structured cadence across setup, ongoing coaching, a mid-engagement check, and close. Includes the Champion Playbook, monthly 1:1 coaching, the AI Platform Radar tailored to your context, a mid-engagement peer session, and a final report you can take to the board. Standalone, or bundled into vCAIO Plus.

Embed

Make AI part of how you actually work.

Embed is where the Roadmap executes, governance matures, agents ship, and Cairn becomes a steady presence rather than a project. This work happens inside vCAIO. The standing deliverables include quarterly Guardrails Reviews, quarterly Compass re-runs (so the radar moves visibly outward over time), the AI Platform Radar tailored to your context, and monthly capability briefs to your leadership team.

Agent work in this phase is delivered through Cairn’s curated New Zealand partner network. Cairn writes the Agent Guardrails and oversees the build; trusted local partners do the engineering. vCAIO maintains ongoing governance.

See vCAIO below.

Ben Walker leader a Microsoft Copilot workshop. Helping businesses leverage AI in a practical way.

Evaluate

Cairn Compass — free AI maturity assessment

15 minutes online. 40 questions across 8 domains. A personalised radar plus a Foundations summary — the artefact most clients show their board first.

Take the free assessment

vCAIO

A virtual Chief AI Officer at a fraction of the cost.

vCAIO is the ongoing senior direction that holds your AI work together once the plan exists. Three tiers, each with named deliverables you can put on a calendar.

vCAIO Standard

$5,000 per month

Three-month minimum.

Monthly capability brief to leadership, monthly all-staff clinic, one champion coached, quarterly Guardrails Review for the board, quarterly Compass re-run and Roadmap re-grade.

vCAIO Plus

$10,000 per month

Three-month minimum.

Everything in Standard, plus bi-monthly strategy sessions, the full Cairn Champion Programme (2–3 champions), quarterly board attendance, AI Policy maintenance, and stakeholder communications support.

vCAIO Executive

$15,000 per month

Six-month minimum.

Everything in Plus, plus monthly board attendance with pre-read pack, extended Champion Programme (4+ champions), quarterly Agent Operations Review, and on-call advisory.

For comparison: hiring a senior AI Lead in NZ costs around $150,000 plus on-costs. vCAIO Plus at $120,000 a year is a fractional Chief AI Officer for less than half that, plus the external perspective a single internal hire can’t bring.

Frequently asked questions

What is Cairn's EDGE framework?: EDGE is four phases that meet your organisation where it is — Evaluate what you have, Design what you'll do, Grow the team that can do it, and Embed AI into how you actually work. You can engage at any phase.
How do I get started, and what does it cost?: Most paid engagements start with a Discovery Workshop (NZ$2,500) — two hours with up to eight of your people, plus a written Discovery Report and a draft AI Policy within two weeks. Cairn Compass, our AI maturity assessment, is free.
What is vCAIO?: vCAIO is a virtual Chief AI Officer — ongoing senior direction across three tiers: Standard (NZ$5,000/month), Plus (NZ$10,000/month) and Executive (NZ$15,000/month), each with named monthly deliverables.
Do we need to buy a lot of new AI tools?: No. Cairn helps you adopt AI without buying tools you don't need and without depending on Cairn forever — people, process, technology, in that order.