When I started IK Search, I thought the big variables would be the usual ones: building a client base, finding the right rhythm as a small team, learning what we wanted to say “yes” to (and what we wanted to politely decline), earning trust one search at a time.
What I didn’t fully appreciate was the timing. We founded the firm almost exactly as AI went from an interesting topic to something you couldn’t avoid. Overnight, every conversation in business seemed to include the same words: automation, scale, efficiency, productivity. Executive search was no exception.
To be clear, I’m not an AI skeptic. I use the tools in my personal life all the time. I love how quickly I can learn something new, draft something rough, translate a message, find an answer, organise information. It’s genuinely impressive. I’m not nostalgic for the past.
I am, however, skeptical about what happens when that mindset gets imported wholesale into a profession that runs on trust, nuance, and judgment.
Search isn’t a problem of information. Most of the time, the issue isn’t “can we find people?” It’s “do we understand what this role really needs?” and “is this person right for this moment, in this culture, with this board, under this pressure?” Those answers don’t live in a spreadsheet. They live in conversation. In tone. In what someone avoids saying. In the way a candidate talks about their last team, or how a CEO frames a hard decision.
Over the past year, I’ve watched many larger firms lean into AI experimentation. Some of it is sensible. Some of it feels like they’re racing each other to look modern. Either way, it creates a clear point of difference for boutiques like ours.
At IK Search, we’ve decided to lean the other way. More human. More personal. More time spent in the real world with real people.
That sounds like a philosophy. It’s also very practical.
It means we get on a plane to meet candidates, even when it’s inconvenient, even when the diary is tight, even when a video call would be “good enough.” It usually isn’t. Not for senior leadership.
It means we never rush the conversations that matter. If we take someone to lunch, we don’t squeeze it into 45 minutes between meetings. If we’re having dinner, we’re present. We listen. We let people settle into being themselves. You learn more in the last twenty minutes of a long meal than you do in the first ten minutes of a formal interview.
It means we build a holistic picture of candidates. Not just their career story, but how they make decisions, how they operate under pressure, what they value, what they’re optimising for, what kind of environments bring out their best work. It also means doing proper referencing and triangulating what we hear, rather than treating a résumé as reality.
And it means being thoughtful with clients about the brief itself. Sometimes the most valuable thing we do is slow the process down at the start, ask the awkward questions early, and make sure everyone is aligned before the market is engaged.
None of this is anti-technology. It’s pro-judgment.
A year in, I’m more convinced than ever that the future of boutique search isn’t about competing with larger firms on tools. It’s about competing on attention, discretion, and relationships. AI can accelerate a lot of things. It can’t replace trust. And at the end of the day, trust is what makes the hire work.
