AI leadership is the most in-demand and most misunderstood talent category in the market. We place the executives, engineers, and operators who build AI systems that work — not the ones who talk about them.
The AI talent market is flooded with generalists, prompt engineers, and executives who've rebranded themselves overnight. The difference between a VP of AI who can actually build and one who can only present is invisible to most search firms. It isn't invisible to us.
We place leaders who have built production AI systems — not demos. We understand the stack, the tradeoffs, and what it actually takes to take a model from research to revenue. That depth changes every search conversation we run.
Every search is retained and relationship-driven. We don't source from LinkedIn searches. We source from a network built over years of working alongside engineers, operators, and executives who are doing the actual work.
We run retained searches only. That means we're fully invested in your outcome from day one — not hedging across contingency arrangements hoping one closes.
AI search is different because the evaluation criteria are different. A candidate who can articulate a vision for AI transformation is not the same as one who can build it. We know the difference — and we'll tell you directly when a candidate can't back up the pitch.
The AI Practice isn't just a search firm that understands machine learning. Wells AI is our proprietary enterprise AI platform — the nervous system of the entire Wells Onyx constellation. We build AI that works. That gives us a level of credibility in every search conversation that no generalist firm can replicate.