Our guest blogger is Andrew Thoseby of 1st Executive Pty Ltd in Melbourne, Australia. 1st Executive is a boutique executive search, executive recruitment, interim executive and advisory firm providing custom designed people solutions for clients across a broad spectrum of industries on a local, regional, national and international basis. The firm’s recruiting activities are focused on executive, professional, technical and managerial placement for its clients. 1st Executive includes a growing interim management service in its business mix and has successfully placed interim CEOs, CFOs, sales and operational executives. Andrew is currently a member of the NPAworldwide Board of Directors.
Throughout history, new tools have often been seen as threats. The typewriter was meant to end handwriting, and the calculator to eliminate the need for arithmetic. Today, artificial intelligence—whether generative or the newer agentic AI—is said by some to herald the decline of recruitment and executive search. The reality is more measured: AI is not replacing the consultant; it is sharpening the tools they use.
The real value of AI lies in its ability to augment judgment, not supplant it. The “job description” you see published is, in truth, an advertisement—designed to attract interest, not to convey the full scope of a role. What matters is the richer, internal brief: the technical description, the person specification, client comments, and the consultant’s dialogue with the hiring manager. Against this deeper and more nuanced picture, AI can evaluate a candidate’s skills and experience with consistency and without bias.
This brings two clear benefits. First, it delivers a fairer, more accurate long list in less time. Second, it enables consultants to focus their attention on the human aspects that matter most—soft skills, cultural fit, values, and personality—all of which can only be understood in conversation. Far from dehumanising the process, AI allows more time for precisely those interactions that make the sharp end of recruitment and executive search a craft. The illogical human capacity of judgement, feel and intuition remains with the human, the consultant.
And yet, parts of the mainstream media in Australia and overseas have been quick to sensationalise. They criticise AI for “missing personality” when it was never designed to look for it. I even heard one journalist trying to relate SEO to ChatGPT which demonstrates the learning curve the journalists are on too. The lesson here is simple: AI is not the judge of character; it is the assistant in evaluating skills.
Our advice to job seekers is equally simple: be accurate, precise, and verifiable in the claims you make about your skills and experience. These are easily checked—and now, more than ever, they will be.