“I recently had three candidates with similar backgrounds,” recalls Mikael Norr. “ChatGPT described them in exactly the same way. So you can’t rely on AI - you need your own thoughts, opinions and views. We don't find it accurate enough.” When he compares an AI result with the output of an experienced consultant and researcher, “it takes a bit longer, but it's more accurate.” Mia Zhou is a Director of Amrop China. An AI can also hallucinate, fabricate and try to cover its mistakes. “It started to get things wrong, saying that things were correct when they were not,” recalls Jamal Khan. “So it learned to behave just like a human would if they were made to feel incompetent.” 

Narrow-mindedness and bias

Is AI driven executive search a real possibility? It’s tempting to assume that machines think logically. But AIs can suffer errors or unfair outcomes. Faults can include under-representing certain groups, the subjective judgment of human labelers, or algorithms that favor certain outcomes.

“The current reality (it will probably change), is that AI works better on a simple profile with languages, hard skills,” says Mikael Norr. “However, a CEO in a broad role involves nuance and softer skills, such as being inspiring. It's much more difficult to work with AI in those cases.” At senior levels, keyword filtering and automation can mislead, signals Jamal Khan. “The rules-based AI system often rejects qualified candidates if their CVs aren’t ‘optimized’ with the right terms. But experienced recruiters can infer skills from context. They know that a CFO automatically knows about payroll. I'm sure GenAI will get there, but I'm not sure it's there yet.”

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“Our work is all around the quality of the people. Trust,” says Job Voorhoeve, Amrop Netherlands. “And AI doesn't generate trust at the moment: it’s designed by humans and biased by default.” He calls for realism. "Any machine needs maintenance. So do people. So it's nothing new.” What about the AI who lied? Mikael Norr: “We cover that in our prompts. The ability to prompt properly is vital.” Then the learning can be shared globally. Working in teams helps challenge assumptions, reduce bias, and uncover better candidate matches.

“The human being is a volatile animal, moving up and down through life stages,” says Job Voorhoeve. "So in terms of predictive analytics for talent acquisition, looking at core data, you can probably see some information, and we use assessments for that. But the cultural dynamics and role context only surface after analysis by specialized executive search professionals. We have seen many people. Our instinct also tells us a great deal. But we also have a lot of experience in the traits needed to support key stakeholders: the CEO, management team, the board, owner or shareholder and other stakeholders. There are so many inconstant variables. Oana Ciornei agrees. “You change your views, incorporate new ideas during your life. You form your principles. You will have a lot of inconsistency as well.”

It is in this evolution that human richness lies, and which still escapes the artificial gaze.