AI Moves Deeper Into Executive Search Workflows as Innova Heads to Chicago

October 6, 2026 – Artificial intelligence is moving quickly from experimentation into the day-to-day work of executive search firms, but adoption remains uneven across the industry. As search leaders evaluate a growing number of tools, many are looking for practical examples of where AI can improve research, business development, search delivery, and operations without compromising judgment or quality.

The challenge for firms is no longer simply deciding whether to use AI, but determining which applications can deliver consistent value across an organization. That means moving beyond isolated experiments and identifying repeatable workflows, reliable data practices, appropriate human oversight, and technologies that teams will actually use.

Innova is continuing that conversation with its Executive Search AI Mastermind Summit, taking place November 3-4, 2026, in Chicago. The two-day event will bring executive search leaders together for hands-on AI sessions focused on real workflows, practical tools, peer learning, and building a 90-day action plan firms can take back to their organizations.

Ken Vancini, founder and CEO of Innova Connect, spends a lot of time each month with executive search leaders, and he keeps hearing the same questions: What are other firms doing with AI? What’s working? What’s hype? Are we falling behind? “Leaders wanted to learn from firms putting AI to work inside executive search,” he said. “That led to our first Executive Search AI Mastermind Summit in Philadelphia, which sold out quickly. Today, more than 90 firms are part of the Innova community, and their experiences help shape what we’ll tackle in Chicago.”

Too many firms are stuck in pilot purgatory: demo after demo, without a clear path to everyday use, according to Mr. Vancini. “We compare experience and not opinions,” he explained. “Did the output hold up? Did the team use it again? In Philadelphia, peer discussions earned a 4.8 out of five rating, and attendees asked for more hands-on time. Chicago will bring together some of the brightest minds in executive search technology to lead working sessions. They’re there to teach and work alongside attendees, not give sales pitches.”

Moving From Experiments to Workflows

Mr. Vancini shared that the gap is between one person getting a good result and a team being able to repeat it. A clever prompt on someone’s laptop isn’t a firm workflow. “Leaders need to define the task, the information AI can use, who checks the result, and where it fits in the process,” he said. “MCP—model context protocol—has made this especially relevant because it can connect AI tools to firm data and applications. Those connections create opportunities, but firms still need reliable data, sensible permissions, training, and human judgment.”

“Our event in Philadelphia reinforced how much leaders learn by comparing real work, including what hasn’t worked,” Mr. Vancini continued. “Attendees wanted more time on agents and hands-on workflows. Across the summit and our ongoing roundtables, we’re seeing promising applications in business development, market research, search delivery, and operations. The range of technology is enormous: in this month’s Mastermind Zoom calls alone, we discussed 36 different pieces of AI technology. The challenge for leaders is figuring out which of those can improve work inside their firms.”

Deciding Which Tools to Utilize

So how should leaders decide which tools are worth adopting? “Start with a recurring bottleneck, then ask the vendor to show how its tool handles that specific work,” Mr. Vancini said. “Does it save meaningful time or improve the result? Does it fit the systems your people use? Will they keep using it after the novelty wears off?

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Joe Ewing, co-founder and chief technology officer at Privlex, asked a great question in one of Innova’s roundtables: “If I switched it off, would you pay for it yourself?” And when a tool connects to your CRM, email, or files through MCP or another integration, permissions and human review have to be part of the evaluation.

“I want attendees to leave knowing where AI can help their firm now, what a useful workflow looks like, who will own it, and how to roll it out across the organization,” Mr. Vancini said. “They’ll work in cohorts around the different LLMs from OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot, comparing how each handle real executive search work. We’ll also spend time on agents, MCP, and the technologies firms are using those models. Over the next 12 months, I’d like to see firms move from scattered experiments to a few shared ways of working that their teams use consistently and improve over time.”

What Attendees Are Saying

“I felt the conference was hugely valuable, insightful, and a great way to make connections with other search professionals that are in similar roles as I am but not direct competitors,” said Angela Goehl, EVP and general counsel at JDG Associates.

“I made a lot of wonderful new connections that I will surely stay in touch with,” said Jeannine Lawrence, director of operations at Stevenson Search Partners. “It was both extremely informative but also fun – which can be a tough balance to strike and Ken nailed it.”

“Learning about AI from those building it for our industry alongside others from our industry with ample opportunity to discuss and collaborate,” Suzanne Hebert, chief operations officer at Acertitude, shared.

To learn more about Innova’s Executive Search AI Mastermind Summit, please click here!

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media