In late January, Fractional AI Health, an enterprise division of Fractional AI, officially launched in the Triangle. Led by General Manager Kyle Bryant and Engineering Leader Rebecca Bilbro, the division aims to expand Fractional AI, recruit top talent from across the Triangle, and bring Fractional’s established applied AI services model to the region.
The Roots: Founding Fractional AI
Fractional AI was originally co-founded by Travis May (editor’s note: May was the subject of a recent edition of The Download), CEO Chris Taylor, and CTO Eddie Siegel.
This trio had identified a widening gap between the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and companies’ ability to implement it. As large incumbent firms rushed to explore AI, many had the data, distribution and subject-matter expertise to benefit from it—but lacked the in-house engineering talent they’d need to build and deploy systems effectively.
Fractional was created to fill that gap.
The company describes itself as an applied AI services firm, focused on building practical solutions rather than selling a platform or providing purely high-level strategy (though it does occasionally offer strategic guidance if it will eventually lead to development work, Bryant said).
Fractional’s teams work inside client environments to automate internal workflows or embed AI capabilities directly into products, with clients retaining ownership of the intellectual property. The company builds with whatever tools, models, or technologies it thinks are best for the job rather than relying on a specific product or tech stack across the board. A key differentiator, Bryant said, is the depth of expertise and entrepreneurial mindset the firm’s engineers bring to client problem-solving.
“Our entire engineering team is built of former founders, former CTOs, people with 10-plus years of experience; they are very scrappy, can do it all,” Bryant said, “We are coming with a small and mighty team to build products and be entrepreneurial in a way that other established firms can’t compete with yet.”
Fractional AI is based out of San Francisco, with offices in Dubai and New York.
Branching Out: Fractional AI Health
With the new branch based in the Triangle, Fractional AI aims to capitalize on the region’s deep bench of technical talent and concentration of enterprise healthcare clients. Much of the company’s current pipeline is in healthcare, and demand in this space has outpaced its existing capacity, Bryant said.
Establishing a Triangle presence allows Fractional to expand its team and better serve a growing volume of projects in the sector. Fractional AI Health will operate with the resources and stability of its parent company, but will intentionally treat itself like a startup.
“This is a playbook Travis and I had [when we worked together] at DataVant, where you almost decentralize part of the business and treat it like a startup,” Bryant said, “That allows it to grow quicker.”
There is a growing appetite for AI adoption in healthcare right now, but healthcare can be insulated. By combining technologists and healthcare implementation experts (of which the Triangle has a plethora), Fractional AI Health aims to move the needle forward in the sector.
“What we are trying to do here is [take] folks who are incredible technologists from across industries and pair [them] with healthcare implementation expertise,” Bryant said, “That is kind of the sweet spot for this division.”
QUICK BITS
Startup: Fractional AI Health (division of Fractional AI)
Co-Founders: Travis May, Chris Taylor (CEO), Eddie Siegel (CTO)
Founded: 2026
Team size: 2
Location: Triangle
Website: fractional.ai
Funding: N/A (Fractional AI’s resources)
Fractional aims to start in the “back office, non-clinical AI use cases.” These are areas in which inefficiencies drive up costs and burden staff behind the scenes.
Examples of early projects may be back-office automation, call center optimization and improved triage workflows, aimed at reducing administrative load while still improving the experience for both patients and clinicians. Across these areas, Fractional AI Health will also strive to avoid ‘technology for the sake of technology.’
As the Triangle team grows its healthcare-specific talent base, Fractional plans to expand into more complex clinical applications, approaching that work deliberately given the higher stakes and responsibility involved in deploying AI in clinical settings.
“Similar to the broader Fractional AI reputation, we want to be known for creating value for clients and doing it responsibly,” Bryant said.
