Finding AI-Adept CEOs: What Sponsors Need to Know

“If you are thinking about changing your CEO, act on it sooner rather than later.” The SaaS landscape is shifting faster than most private equity -backed software companies can adapt. AI is reshaping every product roadmap, every go-to-market (https://www.bespokepartners.com/softw...) motion, and every leadership expectation. The CEO who worked five years ago may not be the CEO who creates value today. In this Tailored Talent panel discussion, Bespoke Partners CEO Eric Walczykowski brings together the firm's CEO, Board and P&L practice leaders for a candid conversation on what is changing in the executive market and how the best sponsors are responding. Katherine Baker, Partner and CEO Practice Lead, Jenny Gray, Partner and CEO Practice Expert, and Alex Bossetta, Partner and CEO Practice Expert, cover the full landscape: the rise of the product-leaning CEO, how AI fluency is being assessed when there are no 30-year resumes to lean on, why there are roughly 100 executives in the world who have run a software company above 500 million in revenue, and what sponsors need to do differently to land the right leader in a market where the best candidates are fielding 20 to 30 calls in the first two weeks after a deal is announced. This is the conversation happening inside the most active CEO search (https://www.bespokepartners.com/ceo-s...) practice in private equity-backed software. Bespoke Partners has placed more CEOs (https://www.bespokepartners.com/ceo-s...) in PE-backed software than any other firm in the world. What the team shares here reflects what they are seeing on the ground every day. Get deeper insights by downloading your version of our newest release of the Private Equity Talent Report, Talent Market Update: https://www.bespokepartners.com/priva... (https://www.bespokepartners.com/priva...)