Bespoke Partners, the leading executive search firm for private equity portfolio companies, today announced the release of its new 2Q 2026 Best Practices Guide, Recruiting AI-Adept Leaders, a first-of-its-kind resource for assessing executive talent for AI adeptness across any business function.
As AI shifts from experimentation to operating imperative, boards, sponsors, and management teams are rethinking what leadership readiness looks like. Bespoke’s new guide argues that AI literacy is no longer limited to product and technology leaders. It now shapes hiring decisions for CEOs, CFOs, Go-to-Market executives, and HR and People officers as well.
Bespoke Partners has placed more than 71 executives with AI mandates across software and SaaS companies, giving the firm a front-row view into how AI is reshaping leadership requirements and value creation priorities in every functional area.
“AI is no longer one executive’s job, and it cannot be evaluated with a single generic question,” said Adam Boone, Chief Commercial Officer of Bespoke Partners. “The companies creating durable advantage are the ones building AI capability across the leadership team and assessing leaders based on real operating judgment, not AI theater.”
The new AI assessment guide provides a practical framework for identifying leaders who can translate AI from concept into measurable business value. Rather than relying on credentials, buzzwords, or narrow technical screening, Bespoke outlines how to assess executives based on business value orientation, operating model judgment, execution maturity, cross-functional influence, and measurement discipline.
The report details how AI value creation typically falls into two categories: internal efficiency and market-facing product transformation. It also shows how those priorities affect executive scorecards differently by function.
For example, CEOs must make enterprise-level capital allocation and ownership decisions based on AI’s impact on operations and offerings to market. Product and technology leaders must harness AI to evolve product offerings and scale development. CFOs must apply governance and ROI discipline to operational efficiencies achieved by AI while tapping its ability to enhance analysis and forecasting. Go-to-Market leaders such as CRO and CMOs must employ AI to ramp commercial outcomes and growth in measurable ways. CHROs must lead workforce redesign and adoption in line with AI’s impact on productivity and evolving skillsets.
The guide also includes sponsor checklists and interview prompts designed to help portfolio companies assess executives when formal AI track records are still emerging.
