- Where it gets stuck
- Interviews, client calls and shortlist meetings fill the partners’ week. The companies they meant to approach, and the former clients they promised to call back, wait for a quieter month.
- What the workflow does
- For each company on the target list the partner has approved, the workflow prepares a short note: what has changed there (a new CEO, a board departure, a private equity deal, a restructuring, from Companies House, RNS announcements and the press), who in the firm knows someone there if your relationship records are kept up to date, and a reason to get in touch this week. Once your database is connected, it also flags whether winning the company as a client would put candidates you are pursuing there off-limits for your open searches. The note is written for a call or a lunch invitation; if the partner would rather write first, a short email in their voice is drafted with it.
AI for executive search firms
Every partner is deep in live searches, and the business development calls keep slipping to next month.
We draft three things in Outlook or Gmail, using what is already in Invenias, FileFinder or a similar search database: a note on each company you would like as a client, with a reason to call; the progress report; and the career and motivation section of a candidate report. LinkedIn stays with your consultants.
AI for an executive search firm drafts the work around the search: notes on prospective clients, progress reports and the factual sections of candidate reports. The responsible consultant approves each draft before anyone outside the firm sees it, and candidate assessment, the shortlist and off-limits decisions stay with your consultants. The aim is to keep business development going during searches.
Today
- Business development this weekProspective clients listed, no call since the last mandateOn hold
- Progress report for a clientCandidate stages rebuilt from the database, emails and notesRebuilt before each call
- Report on a candidate put forwardInterview notes typed up, report written from scratchAfter the last call
With the workflow
- Prospect noteWhat changed at the company, who in the firm knows someone there, off-limits checkPartner approves
- Progress report draftStage of each candidate, feedback received, next interviewsTo review
- Candidate report, career and motivationCareer, reasons given for a move, package and notice, linked to the notesReady for the consultant
Three jobs in a search firm that still end up in a consultant’s evening
The first is covered by our published case; the progress report and the candidate report are not yet, and we would test them on your own formats first.
Business development stops while the searches run
The progress report out of the database is stale before the client call
- Where it gets stuck
- Before each progress call, weekly or fortnightly, a researcher chases the feedback that sits in emails and notes and never reached the database: who was approached, who declined and who meets the client next.
- What the workflow does
- A draft is prepared from the assignment record and the inbox: each candidate’s stage, the client and candidate feedback that never made it into the database, the interviews booked and the open questions, each linked to its source. The consultant edits it and sends it, or uses it to run the call.
Candidate reports wait for a free hour
- Where it gets stuck
- For each candidate put forward, the consultant turns a page of interview notes into a report in the firm’s format, usually after the last call of the day.
- What the workflow does
- The career, motivation, remuneration and notice section is drafted from the interview notes and the CV, with the line each point comes from. The assessment and the recommendation are left blank for the consultant to write.
Which flow should you start with?
Three questions, about a minute. The answer points to one of the moments above, or to a smaller step when a workflow would be too much.
Answer the three questions to see where to start.
This is an exercise: nothing is sent when you use this selector.
Do we have to change our search database?
No. The workflow reads the records your firm already keeps and leaves its draft in the consultant’s mailbox or on the assignment record, where they edit it and send it themselves.
- Something happens on an assignmentAn interview ends, a client asks for news or a business development list is approved.
- Approved sources are readThe assignment record, interview notes and the public sources you allow.
- A draft is preparedProspect note, progress report or report section, with its sources.
- A consultant decidesEdits, approves or rejects the draft. Corrections become written instructions for the next drafts, which the firm can read and change.
- Back into your toolsThe consultant sends from their mailbox, and the message is logged on the company and contact record if your licence allows it.
- Outlook
- Gmail
- Word
- Invenias
- FileFinder
- Thrive TRM
- Clockwork
- Ezekia
Three conditions before anything acts
Your existing tools
The workflow runs inside the tools you already pay for, with the access rights they already have, so the team keeps its usual screens.
A named person approves
Every draft waits for a named person. Nothing goes out in the firm’s name without that approval, and exceptions go back to a human.
Every step leaves a trace
Sources, drafts, corrections and approvals are recorded, so you can see why an output was prepared and improve the next one.
Looking for a specific product?
PitstopOptional: a workspace that keeps the instructions, sources and approvals behind these drafts, next to your search database rather than instead of it, so they stay with the firm when a partner is away.Discover Pitstop →Managed AI agent serviceWe build, run and maintain one defined workflow, with named approvals, a written boundary and a handoff record.See the managed service →
Published case: business development at a two-partner search firm
AI outreach case study: Asia-Connect. Documented outreach at Asia-Connect over three months. One client and one workflow; results depend on context and execution.
“In the last three months, the agent helped me to book more than 90 qualified meetings with executives I would never have had time to reach, and I approved every single message before it went out. It works while I am in meetings.”
Documented application: Asia-Connect outreach. This does not validate hiring decisions or every recruitment workflow. Read the case study
Questions search partners ask us
Which executive search firms is this for?
Owner-led retained search and leadership advisory firms, executive and board searches alike, where the partners run business development, progress reports and candidate reports alongside the searches themselves. If nobody can say who reviews the output, it is too early to automate.
How is this different from ChatGPT?
A workflow starts from an event in your tools, reads only the assignment records and sources you allowed, prepares the draft in your firm’s format, waits for a consultant’s approval and keeps a trace of each correction. Candidate notes do not pass through anyone’s personal ChatGPT account.
Can you connect Invenias, FileFinder or Thrive?
It depends on what your licence allows: an API connection where one is available, otherwise a scheduled export. With an export only, drafts land in the mailbox and the database is updated by hand. The assessment checks your licence and states in writing which applies before anything is built. LinkedIn Recruiter is not automated; the workflow only uses what your consultants note or export from it.
Where do candidate and client data go?
Candidate records are personal data under the UK and EU GDPR, and your firm stays responsible for them. Confidential assignments can be left out entirely, by assignment or by mailbox folder, so the workflow never reads them; you decide which before anything is connected. Before anything is built, you receive the written list of every system that will read your data, where it is hosted, which model provider processes the text and what that provider keeps, and a data processing agreement is signed. Each firm gets its own deployment, separate from other AI Jungle clients.
What should we start with?
We suggest business development: it works from company and relationship data rather than candidate files, and it is the only one of the three jobs covered by our published case. Use the selector on this page, then come to a 30-minute call with five target companies in mind.
Will it assess candidates or build the shortlist?
No. Assessment, the shortlist and references stay with your consultants, and nothing reaches a candidate or a client unless a consultant sends it. Systems that filter or evaluate candidates are also classed as high-risk under the EU AI Act, which matters as soon as you search for roles in the EU.
How much does it cost?
There are no prices on this page. If the test carries a fee, you have the amount in writing before you send anything, and you can stop there. If you go further, our paid scoping review, the Leverage Assessment, has its scope and price on the pricing page, and it can conclude that a smaller change is enough.
In 30 minutes, we pick five target companies for a first test.
After the call, you send the five names under a confidentiality agreement, with no candidate data involved. For the test, the notes use public sources only: they show the trigger and the reason to call for each company, not your relationships or conflicts, which need your database connected and are scoped in writing by the assessment. You get five notes, each with a short optional email, and you correct them before using any of them.