The recruitment technology market has been transformed by generative AI. LinkedIn is deploying AI-powered matching at scale. Applicant tracking systems are auto-screening CVs. And numerous start-ups promise to “automate” executive search. In the context of specialist executive packaging recruitment, the reality is more nuanced.
What AI Does Well
AI tools are genuinely effective at certain tasks that currently consume significant consultant time: initial CV parsing and keyword matching against job specifications, generating first-draft job descriptions, and scheduling coordination. These efficiency gains are real and we use them.
What AI Cannot Do
The limiting factor in executive packaging search is almost never the inability to find CVs. It is the ability to assess the quality of leadership, the authenticity of cultural fit, and the credibility of a candidate’s packaging sector expertise — none of which can be reliably assessed from a CV or LinkedIn profile.
When we place a Plant Director in a corrugated facility, we are making a judgement that requires understanding the specific operational context of that plant, the management culture of that business, and the nuanced difference between a candidate who “has corrugated experience” and one who can genuinely lead a lean transformation in that environment. No AI system currently available can replicate that judgement.
Our Position
We use AI where it creates genuine efficiency. We do not use it where it would degrade quality. The competitive advantage in executive search has never been access to CVs — it has always been human judgement, sector expertise, and relationship capital. Those remain irreducibly human.