Is this the end of traditional leadership at X as we know it?

When Linda Yaccarino stepped down as CEO of X (formerly Twitter) last month, she left behind more than just a high-profile executive position. The once-coveted chair still remains vacant with Musk showing no signs of slowing down his push for X's transformation, as the platform continues to function and roll out new advertising formats, AI features, and product updates without traditional corporate leadership at the helm.

Her departure marked the potential end of traditional leadership at the social media platform. The 61-year-old media veteran announced her resignation just one day after the platform's AI chatbot Grok made headlines for posting antisemitic content and identifying itself as "MechaHitler." The timing might have been the final nail in the coffin.

When Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, the platform was losing advertisers at an alarming rate. His chaotic first year of ownership, marked by firing 80% of the workforce, pulling down content moderation systems, and making impulsive policy decisions, sent brands fleeing. Advertising revenue, which had reached $4.73 billion in 2022, is projected to plummet to just $2.7 billion by 2027.

Enter Linda Yaccarino in 2023, armed with three decades of advertising expertise from NBCUniversal and Turner Broadcasting. Her mission was clear: rebuild the bridges that Musk had burned with the advertising world.

"Yaccarino was brought in at a time when Musk's takeover had unnerved major advertisers, and her deep ties to the advertising world were critical to rebuilding trust," explains Abhishek Upadhya, SVP of Digital Innovation & Strategy at Hiveminds. Her extensive network and reputation in the advertising industry made her the ideal candidate to restore confidence among brand marketers who had watched their ads appear next to hate speech and misinformation.

The challenge was enormous. Reports suggest that advertisers reportedly spent almost $744 million during the first six months of 2024, dropping the number from  $982 million advertisers on the platform in the first half of 2023. Research by Similarweb found that the traffic on the platform declined by 20% in monthly active users since Musk’s takeover.

Yaccarino's advertiser-focused approach initially showed promise. She led delegations to industry events like the Cannes Lions advertising festival, reached out to celebrities and media figures for exclusive content partnerships, and worked to convince brands that X could once again be a safe space for their marketing dollars. According to Financial Times, she claimed that 96% of X's ad clients prior to Musk's acquisition had returned to the platform, though at significantly reduced spending levels.

However, her efforts were repeatedly undermined by Musk's unpredictable behaviour. The breaking point came in November 2023 when Musk posted an antisemitic tweet and later told advertisers who threatened to boycott the platform to "go f--- yourself" at a New York Times conference. The comment was reportedly directed at Disney CEO Bob Iger, with Musk adding a personal taunt while Yaccarino watched her careful relationship-building efforts crumble in real time.

She, however, did stand firm and sent out a memo, stating that the report on the platform being anti-semitic is ‘misleading’ and a 'deceptive attack' to 'undermine their work'. She claimed that advertisers had 'temporarily paused investments'.

The future without a traditional CEO

Yaccarino's departure didn't happen in isolation. Multiple factors led to her resignation. 

The most significant catalyst was xAI's $45 billion all-stock acquisition of X in March 2025, which altered the platform's strategic direction. According to reports, this merger effectively demoted Yaccarino within the new organisational structure, making clear that Musk's priorities had shifted decisively toward artificial intelligence rather than traditional social media advertising.

"Now, with ad dollars slowly returning, subscription revenue growing, and X's fortunes increasingly tied to the high valuations of its AI arm, xAI-Grok, that bridge to the advertising world may no longer be seen as mission-critical," Upadhya observes.

The question now facing X is whether it needs a traditional CEO at all. Industry experts are divided on what leadership model will emerge, but there's growing consensus that whatever comes next will look radically different from conventional corporate leadership.

Ram Jalan, a digital transformation and AI innovation expert, believes this shift represents more than just a change in personnel. "Twitter's growing integration with Musk's xAI may make the traditional CEO role unnecessary. Musk's centralised and unpredictable style could lead him to appoint a General Manager or CBO/CRO to run operations, manage advertiser relations, and deal with regulators—while he shapes the platform's AI future," he explains.

Jalan suggests an even more radical possibility in this scenario.

"He may even go further, installing an 'AI CEO' to make strategic and operational calls. This would set a bold precedent in tech, testing whether AI leadership can work for a global platform of X's scale."

Musk’s aerospace firm, SpaceX, recently invested $2 billion in his AI startup, xAI. This came after its merger with X, wherein the combined value was at $113 billion, according to reports.

Who could fit the role? 

Should Musk decide to appoint a human successor, the requirements would demand a combination of skills that few executives possess.

Bhakti Verma, AVP of PR & Corporate Communications at Magnon Group, shares, “The platform may be shifting away from a traditional CEO role towards one that is deeply integrated with AI. Should a new leader arrive, they would need solid advertiser relationships as well as proven leadership credibility, and someone experienced in brand safety, crisis response, with good familiarity with AI‑driven platforms.”

According to Jalan, "Musk will seek a rare hybrid leader—someone skilled in advertising, content moderation, brand safety, AI, and digital transformation. This person must share his AI-first vision while adopting a 'buyer's mindset' to rebuild trust with advertisers, as discounts and ad credits only go so far."

The candidates for such a role might come from within X's existing leadership team. According to reports, potential internal candidates include John Nitti, X's global head of revenue operations and advertising innovation; Angela Zepeda, head of global marketing; or Monique Pintarelli, head of Americas. These executives joined during Yaccarino's tenure and have media or advertising experience that could prove valuable in maintaining some continuity with the advertising community.

However, any new leader would face the challenge that doomed Yaccarino's tenure. "The main challenge will be securing the authority to operate without constant interference from the top. Without this, impulsive statements and policy shifts will erode stability and trust," explains Jalan.

The responsibilities for the new leader would be to strengthen brand safety controls, address hate speech and content moderation gaps, publish transparency reports, launch competitive, data-driven ad formats, and rebuild industry relationships. 

Additionally, the new leader would need to navigate its transformation from a traditional social media platform to what Musk envisions as an "everything app" incorporating payments, AI services, messaging, and other features beyond social media. 

Bhakti Verma emphasises that any new leader would need to rebuild trust by tightening content moderation, transparent systems around Grok, proactively safeguarding brand environments, and demonstrating the value of new AI-powered tools.

The challenge extends beyond technical skills to the delicate balance of managing competing priorities while operating under Musk's unpredictable leadership style.

The Grok incident that preceded her resignation highlighted these ongoing challenges. After Musk expressed frustration with the AI's tendency to correct false right-wing claims, he announced an overhaul of the system. The result was the chatbot posting antisemitic content and identifying itself as "MechaHitler" before the company quickly addressed the issue. 

How advertisers see the future

Any new leader at X would face a confluence of challenges that have only intensified since Yaccarino's departure. From the advertiser's perspective, Yaccarino's departure and the uncertainty surrounding her successor send deeply troubling signals about the platform's commitment to brand safety and business stability.

The platform's relationship with advertisers has become increasingly fraught, complicated by content moderation issues, bot traffic concerns, and Musk's unpredictable public statements.

Rajiv Dingra, Founder & CEO of ReBid, comments, "The biggest challenge? Convincing advertisers that X is a brand-safe environment in a time of growing content unpredictability and moderation concerns. The absence of a clear succession plan only amplifies uncertainty for media buyers and marketers, reinforcing the perception of instability."

Recent data from RivalIQ shows the median engagement rate on X decreased from 0.029% in 2024 to 0.015% in 2025. 

The final straw may have been the mounting brand safety concerns that seemed impossible to resolve. According to Upadhya, "Fortune recently reported that 75% of X's traffic comes from bots - far higher than the internet average - and this may have been the last straw for a leader tasked with brand safety." For someone whose primary responsibility was ensuring advertiser confidence, this revelation represented a fundamental failure of the platform's core infrastructure.

This decline in genuine user engagement, combined with the high percentage of bot traffic, creates significant challenges for brands trying to reach authentic audiences.

"X also needs a clear brand identity in the AI era—it is not yet fully a social network or a tech utility. Advertisers will demand strong governance and transparency, especially after Grok's controversial outputs," Jalan explains. "Many major brands have reduced spending, and few will return without visible, sustained improvements in moderation standards worldwide."

The advertising industry's response to recent controversies has been muted compared to previous incidents. According to a NBC News report, when contacted about their advertising plans following Grok's antisemitic posts, most of the 31 major companies either didn't respond or declined to comment. This silence stands in stark contrast to 2023, when companies like Apple, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery publicly paused their spending after Musk's antisemitic post.

MediaRadar estimates that ad spend on the platform has plummeted by nearly 35% over three years. 

Upadhya explains how this uncertainty directly impacts advertiser decision-making, stating that it will unsettle media buyers, who still need assurances on real audiences, consistent policy, and brand-safe innovation before committing to X.

The challenge extends beyond immediate concerns to fundamental questions about the platform's future direction. As Dingra explains, "For X to be repositioned as an effective marketing channel, its leadership will need to embrace a dual narrative — one that celebrates innovation and free expression, while simultaneously offering the safety nets and control that brands demand. Without that balance, attracting and retaining advertising dollars in a hyper-accountable ecosystem will remain an uphill battle."

For any future leader, the path to rebuilding advertiser confidence would require unprecedented transparency and consistency. 

However, the fundamental question remains whether such confidence can be rebuilt under Musk's leadership style. Experts note that for Musk, this could be a “hard reset” moment.

But, for that, Musk might have to play nice with advertisers. The situation has become so challenging that X has reportedly resorted to legal threats against major advertisers. According to Wall Street Journal, the platform has threatened lawsuits against companies like Verizon if they don't buy advertising on the site, creating an even more adversarial relationship with the very brands it needs to court.

The path forward remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: Linda Yaccarino's departure marks the end of X's attempt to function as a traditional social media company focused primarily on advertising revenue. Whether the platform's future lies in AI-driven services, subscription models, or an entirely new business paradigm, it will likely unfold under a very different kind of leadership structure.

As Upadhya concludes, "I feel that X's new CEO will have a huge task ahead managing the multiple fronts of being an AI-first company, a digital Public Square to exchange news, knowledge, and memes, and solve the numerous Bot and Brand-safety problems that have plagued the site since the last few years - the problem which has further accelerated by AI Bots."