A recent article in the Economist business section discussed that companies are being swamped by candidates using AI tools like ChatGPT to quickly and with barely any effort submit job applications en masse. As the article states “The number of job applications an average candidate sends has risen by 239% since ChatGPT’s release in 2022”, resulting in in-house recruiters facing a flood of candidates.

 

What ramifications will this phenomenon have on the executive search industry? Unlike contingent recruitment agencies, retained executive search firms will be far less affected, at least in the short term, due to the necessity to qualify potential candidates in direct face-to-face engagements and provide clients with a true assessment of each candidate’s merits.

 

Remember, executive search firms will be approaching highly qualified senior executive profiles that are generally not actively seeking a new role. Furthermore, the search firm will be engaging with a smaller talent population and will be attempting to convert a reluctant professional to enter a discussion on a new opportunity with the search consultant’s client. It is extremely doubtful that many of the highly sort after executives would ever consider in engaging for instance, with a chatbot to discuss the possibility of changing their employer.

 

The true value executive search offers its clients are long/shortlists of high calibre candidates whose skills, functional expertise and motivation have been validated. The search consultant, if they have done their job properly, will have evaluated the candidates that best fit with the company culture and values that only human interaction can accomplish. As a result, they are engaged in all aspects of the process, from defining the search to candidate integration. This can be complimented with psychometric testing, formal and informal background and referencing checking.

 

There is still much uncertainty on whether AI will continue to favour candidates over recruiters or if the next advances tip the scales back towards the recruiter. What is certain, in our opinion, is that end-end executive search process, will continue to deliver the best candidates that are critical in ensuring that the client makes the right hiring decision.