diff --git a/.ci/setup.sh b/.ci/setup.sh
index 7fe54db9c2fc..3fd3356e34d7 100755
--- a/.ci/setup.sh
+++ b/.ci/setup.sh
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ if [[ $OS_NAME == "macos" ]]; then
     if  [[ $COMPILER == "clang" ]]; then
         brew install libomp
         if [[ $AZURE == "true" ]]; then
-            sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode_11.7.app/Contents/Developer || exit 1
+            sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode_13.1.0.app/Contents/Developer || exit 1
         fi
     else  # gcc
         # Check https://github.com/actions/runner-images/tree/main/images/macos for available
diff --git a/.ci/test.sh b/.ci/test.sh
index 4f3de6a6f1ea..d950f01e989f 100755
--- a/.ci/test.sh
+++ b/.ci/test.sh
@@ -29,6 +29,19 @@ if [[ $IN_UBUNTU_BASE_CONTAINER == "true" ]]; then
     export LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"
 fi
 
+# Setting MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET prevents CMake from building against too-new
+# macOS features, and helps tools like Python build tools determine the appropriate
+# wheel compatibility tags.
+#
+# ref:
+#   * https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/envvar/MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET.html
+#   * https://github.com/scikit-build/scikit-build-core/blob/acb7d0346e4a05bcb47a4ea3939c705ab71e3145/src/scikit_build_core/builder/macos.py#L36
+if [[ $ARCH == "x86_64" ]]; then
+    export MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.15
+else
+    export MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=12.0
+fi
+
 if [[ "${TASK}" == "r-package" ]] || [[ "${TASK}" == "r-rchk" ]]; then
     bash ${BUILD_DIRECTORY}/.ci/test_r_package.sh || exit 1
     exit 0
@@ -168,17 +181,6 @@ elif [[ $TASK == "bdist" ]]; then
     if [[ $OS_NAME == "macos" ]]; then
         cd $BUILD_DIRECTORY && sh ./build-python.sh bdist_wheel || exit 1
         sh $BUILD_DIRECTORY/.ci/check_python_dists.sh $BUILD_DIRECTORY/dist || exit 1
-        mv \
-            ./dist/*.whl \
-            ./dist/tmp.whl || exit 1
-        if [[ $ARCH == "x86_64" ]]; then
-            PLATFORM="macosx_10_15_x86_64.macosx_11_6_x86_64.macosx_12_5_x86_64"
-        else
-            PLATFORM="macosx_14_0_arm64"
-        fi
-        mv \
-            ./dist/tmp.whl \
-            dist/lightgbm-$LGB_VER-py3-none-$PLATFORM.whl || exit 1
         if [[ $PRODUCES_ARTIFACTS == "true" ]]; then
             cp dist/lightgbm-$LGB_VER-py3-none-macosx*.whl $BUILD_ARTIFACTSTAGINGDIRECTORY || exit 1
         fi
diff --git a/.vsts-ci.yml b/.vsts-ci.yml
index 9b440cb9fac1..2b1cdaa4058c 100644
--- a/.vsts-ci.yml
+++ b/.vsts-ci.yml
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ jobs:
     OS_NAME: 'macos'
     PRODUCES_ARTIFACTS: 'true'
   pool:
-    vmImage: 'macOS-11'
+    vmImage: 'macOS-12'
   strategy:
     matrix:
       regular: