An incoming COO inherits a promise to a major customer and an AI briefing rule that hides “routine” service issues. The promise still matters. The rule may conceal the very problem the new leader needs to see.

An AI-assisted executive handover should transfer verified commitments and decision context, then separately review personal preferences and access. A useful handover lets the incoming leader answer: what needs my attention, why, and what authority do I have?

This checklist addresses the transition after a leader is appointed. The succession-planning guide covers the earlier readiness decision. The workflow below is general implementation guidance, not a verified Jovis product walkthrough.

Build a first-month commitment brief

Ask the outgoing leader and chief of staff to identify commitments that could change a business decision during the first month. Use approved decision records, customer agreements, operating reviews, and relationship notes. Do not copy an entire inbox into a handover folder.

For each commitment, record:

  • Obligation: what was promised, to whom, and by when.
  • Evidence: the authoritative record, its date, and any conflicting account.
  • Ownership: who performs the work and who can approve a change.
  • Next decision: what the incoming leader must decide, with a deadline.
  • Introduction: which relationship needs a personal handover and who will arrange it.

IMD’s CEO-transition communication guidance recommends mapping stakeholders and prioritizing early engagement. Apply that principle to commitments: a contact list alone does not explain why a conversation matters now.

Review remembered instructions separately

Classify every instruction used to prepare the leader’s brief:

  1. Business rule: retain only with a current policy owner and supporting authority.
  2. Personal preference: ask the incoming leader to confirm, replace, or retire it.
  3. Temporary exception: check its expiry and the decision that authorized it.
  4. Unverified inference: mark it unresolved; do not activate it as an instruction.

“Exclude minor delivery delays” might be a personal preference. “Escalate delays affecting this customer’s launch” might reflect a contractual commitment. Preserve the evidence behind both before deciding how the new brief should behave.

This is a practical implication of the AI Chief of Staff vision: shared memory needs an owner and a review process when the person in charge changes.

Reauthorize access and approval

Have the relevant owners approve the incoming executive’s source access, delegates, escalation routes, and action permissions. Follow the organization’s offboarding process for the outgoing leader; transfer of a role should not mean copying credentials.

Recheck AI-agent access controls against the new responsibilities. NIST’s voluntary AI RMF 1.0, GOVERN 2.1, calls for documented AI risk-management roles and responsibilities. The handover review proposed here applies that principle to a leadership change.

Rehearse one consequential case

Illustrative example: a customer was promised a recovery review before renewal. The outgoing COO’s brief suppressed small service delays. Ask the proposed workflow to prepare the renewal brief from approved records, citing the promise and showing unresolved evidence.

Check whether it surfaces the review deadline, identifies the relationship owner, and flags the inherited suppression rule for confirmation. Require a named person to approve any customer message or changed commitment.

Before accepting the handover, the incoming leader should be able to trace one commitment to its evidence, owner, next decision, and approved access. Any missing link becomes an assigned follow-up.

Use the executive decision-log template to record what the incoming leader retains, changes, or leaves unresolved.