Instances of artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning are being used around the world today to make data-based decisions that are helping companies make important choices that essentially drive profit, altering business results. This is the perfect time to think about how artificial intelligence (AI) will impact your business as well as what you can do to ensure you maintain your recruitment team’s high standards and values in this revolutionary digital age.

Today, you can bet a good number of enterprises are using AI in some capacity. Some of the most common use cases for AI implementation are detecting security breaches, resolving user technology issues, automating administrative tasks and gauging internal compliance. In general, AI is allowing brands to serve their customers better in more customised ways.

“The current thinking is that AI is only good at tasks which are repetitive and do not require any intervention—such as driving a car, searching databases, or predicting weather for the next 24 hours. Executive search presents different circumstances, where each individual is unique and every assignment distinct. If you are hiring a larger volume of candidates for the same position, AI might be able to help you to score the right candidates. However, this is almost certainly not applicable to executive search.”

“There are opportunities for the executive search industry to apply AI to processes undertaken daily by search professionals. Although it is unlikely for AI to take a leading role in the search for top talent, it can help with processing large volumes of public data automatically, to facilitate the initial search process. Allowing machines to mimic the cognitive workings of the human mind, tasks such as defining a long-list of suitable candidates for a particular assignment could become a simple automated process.”

“AI can help search firms gain better insights into candidate profiles suited for particular industries or roles. It can help define what the profile of a top performer looks like across a portfolio and more deeply assesses against those traits to mitigate risks and place successful leaders into the right executive roles.

The most immediate benefits of AI are in productivity enhancements. It has been suggested that machines with artificial intelligence could conduct first level interviews. Algorithms scouring the internet for likely candidates and chatbots asking initial questions to determine candidates’ suitability are just two ways in which the wider recruiting industry can use AI for process automation.”

“Here at Redline Executive, developing personal relationships is so integral to our role as search professionals which is unlikely to ever be replaced by machines. The element of human interaction will always be required for us to truly understand an executive candidate. AI in the executive search industry will almost definitely become an analytical tool rather than a decision-making one, performing daily, labour-intensive administrative tasks. This empowers search professionals to focus on building personal relationships, which are vital to delivering outstanding search results.”

The most important part of recruiting is building excitement about the opportunity, presenting the vision and possibilities of what coming together could mean for the client and candidate. With the assistance of trusted search professionals, clients can be presented with better choices and better insights—setting businesses on a path to unleash their true potential. This is an element of the search profession that AI will not be able to replicate. Technology is the co-pilot, not the auto pilot, of a search firm’s day-to-day workload. Existing and emerging technologies are valuable enablers in the executive search toolkit—but will remain as a complement to the search professional. 

Redline Executive are the industry-aligned key partner for C and D suite permanent and interim hiring assignments for the European Technology market. To find out more about our Executive Search Process you can download our Executive Search Brochure here.

Redline Executive offer an extensive portfolio of executive search services and provide thorough insight and support to your strategic recruitment planning. To have a confidential discussion, please call Andrew Raymond, Redline Executive Director on +44 (0)1582 450054 or email ARaymond@RedlineExecutive.com.