2026 March- ESIX London Roundtable

AI is being used in corporate exec recruiting more and more - but not across the board.

We were recently joined by a group of senior in‑house executive recruiting leaders for our ESIX: Executive Search Information Exchange London Roundtable. After an amazing share from the wonderful Sarah Sanderson of Expedia about how her function has evolved over the years, and how agility and change is the order of the day, we then talked about what was on the minds of the rest of the folks in the room.

While the discussion ranged across operating models and org design, one theme came through clearly: uncertainty and change are the constant right now.
Participants shared what’s most top of mind, including navigating AI adoption without clear guardrails, succession planning for fast‑evolving leadership roles, and managing increasing expectations with lean teams and imperfect systems. Several leaders are working through new CEOs, restructures, or shifting mandates, making change management a recurring topic throughout the day.
We also spent time talking about how AI is moving from experimentation to more practical use—speeding up research, supporting search processes, and helping teams work more efficiently, while still raising important questions around governance, judgment, and where technology genuinely adds value in executive hiring. it was clear it was mostly at the 'back end' of the process, and rarely used directly with clients or candidates, except perhaps for communications. However, some folks are experimenting with things like AI-based scheduling tools, which is a departure even from a few months ago. Exec scheduling is a very complex challenge, however, and it will be interesting to see how this works out.

As most of our members are very large global organizations, geopolitics came into the conversation to some degree, and agility is naturally the order of the day. Along with using AI, we also discussed how to find senior leaders who would help our organizations as they adopt AI at all levels, which itself is not an easy task with the current rate of change.

As always, the real value came from the openness of the participants and the chance to compare notes with peers facing very similar challenges. A thoughtful, honest conversation with no easy answers—but plenty of shared learning.