A BENCH STRENGTH ADVISORS RESEARCH INITIATIVE
Hiring opens the door. What happens next?
Developing Cognitively Diverse Talent in the Age of AI
An interview-based study of how employers help neurodivergent talent grow, advance, and build meaningful careers — as AI changes the work people do.
Study in development · Proposed findings release: fall 2027
The inquiry
Recruitment is only part of the story. What follows depends on how people are managed, how learning is supported, and how opportunities to advance are created.
This study focuses on neurodivergent talent within the broader context of cognitive diversity. It asks how employers approach development and advancement in practice — what has helped, what has proved difficult, and what remains unresolved.
What helps people grow?
Management practices, learning, and support.
What makes advancement possible?
Career pathways, opportunities, and barriers.
How is AI changing the picture?
Implications for development, advancement, and leadership.
Who should participate — and what it involves
The study invites CEOs and chief human resources officers whose organizations have practical experience hiring and supporting neurodivergent employees. We welcome accounts of difficulties and unfinished work as well as successful approaches.
Participation is one confidential interview of approximately 45 minutes, arranged at your convenience, with topics shared in advance. Participation does not require sponsorship.
Participants receive the findings first: a briefing on the results before publication, and an invitation to the convening where they are discussed.
Email about participatingPlease do not include employee-identifiable or sensitive personal information in your initial email.
Research approach and leadership
Bench Strength's work examines how organizations assess and develop leadership potential. This study extends that inquiry to the development and advancement of neurodivergent talent.
The study aims to conduct 25–30 interviews with CEOs and chief human resources officers across a range of employers. Interviews are analyzed thematically — patterns across conversations, not rankings of companies.
A doctoral research team is being assembled to help design the interview protocol and conduct the analysis. An advisory panel of executives and scholars is being formed to advise on the study's questions and help reach the right interviewees.
The study examines employer leadership perspectives. It is not an employee survey or a statistically representative assessment of workplace experience.
Led by Jeffrey Cohn, Partner and Head of CEO Succession Practice at August Leadership; executive advisor, author, and host of the Imperfect Leaders podcast. Jeffrey advises boards and chief executives on succession and leadership development.
More about Bench StrengthIntended outputs and proposed schedule
The planned report will synthesize employer approaches to development and advancement, illustrate management and career-pathway practices, and explore implications as AI changes work. Participating leaders will be invited to discuss the findings at a convening.
Proposed schedule
- Panel formation — early 2027
- Interviews — spring 2027
- Report and convening — fall 2027
Confidentiality and independence
For participants. Findings will be reported without identifying participants or their organizations. Any identifiable example will require separate written permission. The research team will know who participated. Participants will receive an early briefing but will have no review or approval rights over the report.
For the research. Bench Strength Advisors organizes the study. The study director and research team are responsible for participant selection, analysis, and conclusions. Funders have no role in those decisions, no access to interview material, and no prepublication review or approval rights. Financial support will be disclosed in the report.
Background and purpose
This inquiry grows out of conversations. Through Imperfect Leaders, Jeffrey Cohn has explored leadership with executives, researchers, and founders; discussions of neurodivergence, family experience, and the conditions that help people contribute sharpened the question behind this study.
For Jeffrey, the question is also personal: he is the father of an autistic son, Luca.
“By the time Luca's generation reaches the workforce, the world of work is ready for them.”
Support the research
Support makes possible a synthesis of how participating employers approach development and advancement — including management practices, career pathways, and unresolved questions as AI changes work.
There are two routes: a founding patron may underwrite the full study, or companies may share sponsorship. Financial support does not confer a research role.
Request the funding invitationLast updated: November 2026 · Bench Strength Advisors