A consigliere future for recruiters?

As I outlined in last week’s blog, the evidence for job seekers preferring a human recruiter over an AI alternative is embarrassingly thin on the ground right now.

Considering the three-year anniversary of ChatGPT’s release is still five weeks away, it’s fair to assume this advantage will only widen as the LLM models used by each employer improve their efficacy through repeated use and access to the performance records of candidates assessed and hired.

It would be easy to dismiss these results as only applicable in high-volume, low-skill roles, where job seekers are essentially at a supply-side disadvantage, hence willingly engage with AI-bots because they have little to no choice.

Realistically, don’t all job seekers, regardless of whether they are a $45k entry-level worker or a $400k GM, want a process that’s responsive, timely, fair, and helpful?

You would be a brave person to bet against that.

The crucial difference—the one where the best human recruiters will excel—lies in the outcome.

The higher the skill level, the higher the remuneration, and the greater the likelihood of large egos being involved, the more at stake there is.

As any fan of The Godfather movies or The Sopranos television series will know, the role of the consigliere is an important one. Tom Hagen (played by Robert Duvall in The Godfather movies) and Silvio Dante (played by Steven Van Zandt in The Sopranos, pictured right) were both memorable characters who advised their bosses (Vito Corleone and Tony Soprano) and resolved disputes on their behalf.

To do their job effectively, the consigliere needs to be across a lot of detail but able to see the big picture, understand both the strengths and weaknesses of their boss and, most importantly, be able to calmly help resolve a crisis, or prevent one, when there is much, reputationally or financially, at stake.

As AI rapidly permeates occupations, roles, companies and sectors over the next few years, the stakes for both job seekers and employers will rise. There will be far less from the past that’s relevant to deciding about the future. The role of an objective and independent trusted advisor will be critical in helping both employers and job seekers make good decisions.

Although this has indeed always been the case for the best recruiters, a good living has still been made by a majority of the recruitment industry who haven’t possessed the skills of a consigliere.

I don’t think that’s likely to continue for much longer.

The premium placed on influencing and negotiating skills be rapidly rise because it will be these skills that will make the biggest difference.

As I wrote last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered Andrew Tulloch, an AI researcher and co-founder of Thinking Machines Lab, a compensation package worth up to USD $1.5 billion over at least six years. An offer that Tulloch declined.

As a recent memoir by a former Facebook executive vividly outlined, Zuckerberg is naïve, egotistical, and lacking a moral compass. It seems unlikely that Zuckerberg used an executive recruiter to facilitate the hiring of Tulloch.

Of course, it’s impossible to know whether Zuckerberg would have landed his man had an executive recruiter played the role of consigliere to the Meta CEO, but what we do know is that Tulloch was a candidate he desperately wanted to hire —and he failed to do so.

As the egos of executive leaders show no sign of abating and the value of premium human skills continues to escalate, a consigliere future might be more than the stuff of TV shows and movies for the best recruiters.

Related blogs

Job seekers vote in “Human recruiter v AI” contest (and it’s not even close)

Recruiters get ready – the unsettling impact of GenAI on careers is just beginning

The stakes for AI-improved recruitment just got raised (by A LOT)
Recruiters remain terrible at assessing skills (from reading a resume)