AI is transforming how companies find their next CEO, but not how they close the deal

AI is accelerating roughly half the work involved in filling a chief executive or C-suite vacancy, according to recruiters at several major search firms. The technology can map talent markets, surface candidates from unexpected industries, and mine years of interview notes in hours rather than weeks. But the parts of executive hiring that depend on trust, persuasion, and reading a room remain as slow and human as ever.

Marty Parker, CEO of Waterstone Human Capital, said the identification stage of candidate searches is becoming commoditised. His firm saw the shift first-hand during an ongoing search for an executive to run a jewellery company’s high-tech manufacturing operation. The company’s proprietary AI tool suggested looking at the dental technology industry, where similar precision machinery produces veneers, crowns, and other intricate products.

“Who would consider dental manufacturing with jewellers?” Parker said. “You just wouldn’t”

Search firms are also using AI to retrieve forgotten impressions from old notes. Matthew Siegel, a principal at Korn Ferry, said a consultant might recall being impressed by someone at a particular company but forget the name or what stood out. AI can retrieve the likely match and the earlier observations, turning years of accumulated institutional knowledge into a searchable asset rather than a fading memory.

The productivity gains are substantial. Nathan Clauss, CEO and managing partner of tech-focused search firm Talent SDK, said AI has allowed his sourcing team to accomplish two to three times as much in a day as they could several years ago. The tools integrate with internal messaging and applicant-tracking systems, organise information across platforms, and eliminate manual steps like reading candidate emails to note why someone declined a role.

“I haven’t fired any of my sourcers,” Clauss said. “They’ve just gotten way more productive.”

Waterstone’s AI was trained on 23 years of data about organisational culture and executive hiring, and can suggest interview questions, presentations, and exercises designed to reveal how finalists think. The technology does not evaluate their performance, though. Parker said it provides the experience while his team applies the judgment.

But for all the time AI saves on research and administration, recruiters said it has not altered the stages that require interpretation and persuasion. Jeff Markham, a partner at Parker Remick, said that as more executives claim AI expertise on their profiles, his team still has to verify who actually “gets their hands on the keyboard” by contacting references and backchannel industry sources.

Umesh Ramakrishnan, chief strategy officer at Kingsley Gate, said assessing a C-suite candidate can require observing the person outside a formal interview. A recruiter may notice nonverbal behaviour that would never surface in a prepared response. AI, he said, “takes care of everything else,” but only a human being can sit with a CEO candidate at dinner and watch for the things that matter most.

The courtship stage remains untouched as well. Mike Doud, executive vice president for North America at The Barton Partnership, said winning over a candidate still requires understanding the company, the opportunity, and what might motivate someone to leave their current post. Recruiters need a nuanced understanding of both sides, the client’s culture and politics and the candidate’s career arc, to determine whether the match will hold.

An executive move is “a life-changing event,” Doud said, “not simply another job.” No model can close that sale.

The pattern mirrors what is happening across the broader executive search industry, where firms are racing to build or acquire AI-powered sourcing tools while doubling down on the relationship-driven work that technology cannot replicate. The firms that survive will likely be those that use AI to compress the research phase and redeploy the time saved into the human-intensive stages where deals are actually won or lost.