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Virtova services · By Sultan Meghji

AI-as-a-Service: the full operating program in a single engagement

Virtova's bundled, multi-month engagement: AI strategy, AI governance under SR 26-2, multi-rulebook compliance, and production deployment of the Frontier Foundry platform line — for regulated firms wanting one integrated program rather than four advisory sprints.

AI-as-a-Service is a six-to-twelve-month bundled engagement covering AI strategy, AI governance under SR 26-2, multi-rulebook compliance, and Frontier Foundry platform deployment under a single statement of work, led personally by Sultan Meghji.

Most AI programs in regulated firms are built sprint by sprint. A strategy engagement, then a governance build, then a compliance program, then a platform deployment — each scoped separately, each delivered by a different team or vendor, each producing its own artifacts. The result is four binders that do not fit on the same shelf and a regulatory narrative that takes three meetings to assemble in a room.

AI-as-a-Service is the alternative. One engagement, six to twelve months, that delivers the full operating program — strategy, governance, compliance, and deployed platform — under a single statement of work and a single accountable engagement lead.

The engagement profile is closest to the published bank case study: a top-20 U.S. national bank that converted twelve months of strategy work, an agentic regulatory-documentation factory, the Phase-1 multi-rulebook compliance program, and the production deployment of the Frontier Foundry AutoCEN platform into a single examination-readable AI operating discipline. Same shape; different sectors and different platforms depending on the client.

What the engagement covers

Phase 0 — Strategy. Office-of-the-CEO assessment, Virtova AI Rubric scoring across the candidate use-case backlog, Hybridization Strategy applied to the firm’s data and regulatory surface. The output is a triaged use-case portfolio — typically five or fewer use cases worth real investment over the next twelve months — and an AI operating model the board can absorb.

Phase 1 — Governance. Charter, accountability, model inventory, board cadence, multi-rulebook compliance coverage. The artifact set runs from the SR 26-2 / SR 11-7 / SR 21-8 stack and the FFIEC IT Handbook through BSA/AML, OFAC, NY DFS Part 500, the Colorado AI Act, the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001, ISO 27001, and SOC 2 Type II — the surface depends on the firm. Deliverable artifacts include the MRM Vendor Response Template, the MRM Agentic Orchestrator, and the MRM QC Validator — the same agentic regulatory-documentation factory deployed in the bank case study.

Phase 2 — Platform deployment. Production deployment of one or more Frontier Foundry AI products, tuned to the firm’s data and regulatory surface:

Phase 2b — Governed pilot portfolio. A slate of targeted AI pilots scored against the AI Rubric and governed under the Phase 1 framework. Each pilot has a measurable value-capture target and a defensible answer to its regulatory exposure before it ships.

Ongoing — Operating discipline. Quarterly governance recalibration, examiner-readiness reviews, and performance monitoring tied to the Phase 1 artifacts so the program stays current as the regulatory surface moves.

What the engagement is not

It is not an off-the-shelf AI product. It is not a productized consulting menu where the client picks templates from a catalog and a junior implementation team executes. The engagement is led personally by Sultan Meghji and runs against the same boutique-advisory standard as every other Virtova engagement; the difference is the scope and the bundled platform deployment.

It is also not for firms outside the regulated-industries surface. If the firm is not under a sectoral rulebook (BSA/AML, SR 26-2, NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act, NY DFS Part 500, FDA, FedRAMP, or equivalent), AI-as-a-Service is more program than the firm needs — one of the four standalone practice areas is a better fit.

Engagement profile

Six to twelve months. Single statement of work. Single accountable engagement lead.

Pricing is sized after a discovery call and a written scope; the engagement runs longer than a standard advisory sprint and is billed against a defined deliverable program rather than per hour. Frontier Foundry platform deployment is a separate license and deployment line item, disclosed in writing alongside the engagement scope.

Both Virtova and Frontier Foundry share ownership, and the relationship is disclosed on every contract and at the start of every conversation.

If the engagement profile is the right shape for the firm, the discovery call is the entry point.

Last updated · April 28, 2026

"An AI program that examiners read as one document — strategy, governance, compliance, and deployed platform — is a different engagement shape than four advisory sprints stitched together."
— Sultan Meghji

Frequently asked

What is Virtova AI-as-a-Service?
Virtova AI-as-a-Service is a bundled, multi-month engagement combining all four Virtova advisory practice areas — AI strategy, AI governance, AI compliance and regulation, and PE / M&A / investor services where applicable — with the production deployment of one or more Frontier Foundry AI platform products tuned to the firm's regulatory surface. One statement of work, one accountable engagement lead (Sultan Meghji, personally), one delivered program.
Who is this for?
Regulated firms — U.S. banks (community through top-20 national), insurers, life-sciences companies, federal contractors, and PE-owned firms with regulated assets — that want a single integrated AI operating program rather than a sequence of advisory sprints. The engagement profile is closest to the published bank case study at /case-studies/bank-ai-regulatory-engagement/: roughly twelve months, strategy through deployment, examination-grade output.
What's included in the engagement?
Four advisory layers and a deployment layer. Phase 0 — AI strategy assessment scored against the Virtova AI Rubric and the Hybridization Strategy. Phase 1 — AI governance build: charter, model inventory, board cadence, MRM factory under SR 26-2, multi-rulebook compliance coverage. Phase 2 — production deployment of the Frontier Foundry platform line (AutoCEN for financial crime, Limni for specialized inference, Kundi for regulated-industry knowledge systems, CyberAudit for code-security audit, Monui for trust-bank call reports) tuned to the firm's data and regulatory surface. Phase 2b — a governed slate of targeted AI pilots scored against the Rubric. Ongoing — performance monitoring, examiner-readiness reviews, quarterly governance recalibration.
Why a bundled engagement instead of four separate ones?
Examiners read the program as a single document, not four. So does a CEO, a CFO, and a board. Four separate advisory sprints — each with its own framing, deliverable shape, and accountability surface — produce a stack of artifacts that don't reconcile cleanly when an examiner asks how the strategy, the governance program, and the deployed platform fit together. One engagement, one statement of work, one accountable lead — same artifacts, but written to compose. The unit economics also tend to favor the client: fewer scoping conversations, fewer onboarding cycles, fewer transition seams.
What does this not cover?
AI-as-a-Service is for regulated industries — banking, insurance, life sciences, federal contracting, PE-owned regulated assets. It is not an off-the-shelf consumer AI offering, an e-commerce analytics package, or a general-purpose ML consulting retainer. If the firm is not under a sectoral rulebook (BSA/AML, SR 26-2, NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act, NY DFS Part 500, FDA, FedRAMP, or equivalent), there is a better-fit boutique elsewhere.
How is pricing structured?
Virtova does not publish rate cards. AI-as-a-Service is sized after a discovery call and a written scope. The engagement runs longer than a standard advisory sprint (six to twelve months is typical) and is billed against a defined deliverable program rather than per hour. Frontier Foundry platform deployment is a separate license and deployment line item, disclosed in writing alongside the engagement scope.
Who runs the engagement?
Sultan Meghji, personally. Specialist support is brought in by name when depth warrants. The Frontier Foundry platform deployment is staffed by Frontier Foundry engineers; both entities share ownership, and the relationship is disclosed in writing on every contract and at the start of every conversation.

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