X’s Future May Not Include a CEO at All

After two tumultuous years at the helm of X, CEO Linda Yaccarino announced her departure from the company last Wednesday. Who will replace her—as X is absorbed into Elon Musk’s AI venture xAI—remains uncertain.

What most agree on: the next leader will look very different.

“I don’t recall anyone who told the ad community to ‘go fuck yourselves‘ and then said, ‘you know what? We really need a strong ad-sales-based CEO,’” said Matt Prohaska, CEO and principal at media advisory firm Prohaska Consulting.

Advertising on X before Musk’s takeover generated upwards of 90% of the company’s revenue. Since Yaccarino was appointed CEO in May of 2023, following swaths of big brands abandoning the app over brand safety concerns exacerbated by Musk’s lax approach to content moderation, some brands returned with reduced spend, while others faced litigation.

But while X’s battle with the ad industry flares, advertising is becoming less central to its business model in the wake of the company’s $45 billion all-stock acquisition by Musk’s AI firm xAI in March. X’s advertising-dependent model could soon be supplanted by a primarily subscription-based AI service, with X’s rich data used to train LLMs. 

In this emerging paradigm, any successor to Yaccarino would need to offer technological know-how. 

“X’s priorities have shifted since Yaccarino became CEO in 2023,” said Jasmine Enberg, vp and principal analyst, social media at Emarketer. “While X still needs advertisers to pay the bills, the company is now focused on AI. Yaccarino’s departure paves the way for X to lean harder into this new direction, and X will likely look for someone who is more suited to the AI era.”

xAI’s takeover of X, taken with the tectonic shifts happening under X, may nullify the need for a traditional CEO altogether. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Yaccarino was effectively demoted in X’s merger with xAI.

Musk could tap an operational leader to keep the engine of X, the social platform, running smoothly while he manages xAI, the AI powerhouse. 

X could “get by just with having a GM, or a traditional CRO,” said Prohaska. “I don’t see Musk needing or wanting a ‘name’ externally this time around.”

This kind of leader could be pulled from X’s existing talent pool, in theory. John Nitti, X’s global head of revenue operations and advertising innovation, would be an obvious contender for a CRO role, according to Andrew Buckman, chief growth officer at media company Azerion. 

“What the platform may actually need is a COO-style leader: someone to drive day-to-day execution, strengthen advertiser relationships, and run the platform with discipline—while Musk retains strategic oversight of the AI-driven future,” he said. “It is a familiar Musk playbook: centralize vision, decentralize delivery.”

Potential candidates might include current X leaders like Nitti, global head of marketing Angela Zepeda, or head of Americas Monique Pintarelli, according to a Wall Street Journal report from last week.

If he’s looking beyond X’s four walls, Musk will need a leader who can marry media, content, and monetization expertise with tech savvy, said Javier Rodriguez Horta, global marketing strategy practice lead at marketing consulting firm CvE. VidMob CEO Alex Collmer and Meta alum Carolyn Everson stand out as strong options, he said.

On the more speculative side of the spectrum, Ana Milicevic, cofounder and principal at marketing consultancy Sparrow Advisers, posited: “Perhaps the best CEO for X isn’t a person but an algorithm.” 

Still, many are skeptical that X’s business will remain focused on advertising: “Elon could tap one of those capable [internal] execs if they’re interested in leading the dwindling ad practice,” Prohaska told ADWEEK.