SeekOut Appoints Sean Thompson as CEO to Accelerate Agentic AI Recruiting Strategy

SeekOut has named Sean Thompson as Chief Executive Officer, effective May 4, 2026, marking a leadership transition aimed at scaling the company’s position in the emerging agentic AI recruiting space.

Co-founder Anoop Gupta, who has led the company since its inception in 2017, will move into the role of Executive Chairman of the Board, supporting the next phase of growth.

Thompson brings extensive enterprise software experience, having most recently served as CEO of NAVEX. His background also includes senior leadership roles at SAP Ariba and Microsoft, as well as co-founding AI and NLP firm Nuiku.

The leadership change comes at a time when demand for AI-skilled talent is surging globally. SeekOut is positioning itself at the forefront of this shift, moving beyond traditional AI-assisted hiring toward agentic AI systems that automate and optimize the full recruitment lifecycle.

The company’s platform includes offerings such as SeekOut Spot, which combines agentic AI with human recruiters to deliver interview-ready candidates in under two weeks, and SeekOut Recruit, which provides AI-driven sourcing and engagement tools across a database of more than one billion candidate profiles.

“Sean is the right leader to scale what we’ve built,” Gupta said, emphasizing Thompson’s enterprise expertise and alignment with the company’s values.

Thompson highlighted the broader industry transformation underway, noting that talent acquisition is being reshaped by agentic AI capabilities that enable faster, more efficient hiring processes. “SeekOut is uniquely positioned to lead this shift,” he said.

Aravind Bala will continue to lead product and engineering, working closely with Thompson to drive innovation and platform development.

Backed by investors including Madrona, the company is entering a critical growth phase as enterprises increasingly adopt AI-driven hiring solutions to compete for specialized talent.

The appointment underscores a broader trend in HR technology, where agentic AI is emerging as a key differentiator in automating complex workflows and redefining how organisations identify, evaluate, and engage talent at scale.