Our AI Journey: From Fascination to Practical Integration

Let me share how our AI adventure began at my firm. Almost two years ago, we were genuinely impressed by what AI could do. We'd ask questions about searches, clients, or candidates, and—wow—the information we could generate was not just substantial, it was fascinating to explore!

But here's what happened: very quickly, we found ourselves drowning in data. We continued this pattern for months, dipping into AI whenever we hit roadblocks in our search process or when clients or candidates posed questions we couldn't immediately answer. The technology became our team’s go-to for quick insights.

As fun and exciting as this exploration was, we soon realized we'd fallen into a massive rabbit hole. The time investment was significant, and while the output was intellectually stimulating, it wasn't always actionable. We were getting smarter, but our processes weren't necessarily moving forward faster.

So we pumped the brakes. We took a step back and asked ourselves the crucial question: How could we transform AI from an interesting distraction into a powerful tool that actually advanced our workflow?

The bottom line? We all genuinely enjoyed using AI. We were captivated by its capabilities and constantly found ourselves experimenting with new prompts and applications. But that enjoyment wasn't translating into tangible workflow improvements as we had initially hoped.

That was our "aha" moment—the realization that we needed to strategically integrate AI into our daily operations rather than treating it as a separate, occasionally useful resource. We needed to reimagine how this technology could enhance what we were already doing well. Here is a graphic of our journey in hindsight:

The Evolution: From Information Overload to Strategic Integration

So now over the past year, we've been on a mission to weave AI tools meaningfully into our workflow processes, especially in retained search. It's been quite the rollercoaster—discovering what works, adapting our approach, and continuously refining our methods.

Here's the thing about AI that nobody warns you about: it's like opening a fire hydrant when you just needed a drink of water! While the insights can be extraordinary, the sheer volume of output can be overwhelming. Our real challenge wasn't getting information—it was distilling that tsunami of data into actionable insights that actually improved how we work.

Rethinking Our Approach: AI as a Partner, Not Just a Tool

Initially, we treated AI like a magical enhancement tool—plugging it into our existing search strategies and essentially saying, "Make this better!" The result? A flood of fascinating but often impractical information that left us wondering, "Now what?"

We quickly learned that simply asking AI to "optimize" our process wasn't cutting it. It was like hiring a consultant who produces a 500-page report when what you needed was a one-page action plan. We needed to get smarter about our approach.

The Game-Changer: Breaking Down Our Workflow

To harness AI's power effectively, we had to take a step back and ask some fundamental questions:

• What exactly are the key steps in our workflow? (Not the theory, but the actual day-to-day process)
• What specific information do we need at each step? (The must-haves, not the nice-to-haves)
• How could AI enhance each distinct phase? (The targeted assist, not the complete overhaul)

By mapping out the concrete steps of a retained search, we could pinpoint exactly where AI could be a game-changer—whether crafting more insightful client profiles, developing sharper candidate evaluations, supercharging our sourcing strategies, or delivering more compelling information to clients.

The Breakthrough: Asking "How Do We..." Questions

Our eureka moment came when we shifted to asking very specific "How do we..." questions:

• How do we create a client profile that captures unspoken needs?
• How do we evaluate candidates beyond the traditional metrics?
• How do we find candidates who aren't actively looking but would be perfect?
• How do we present candidates to clients in a way that highlights their unique value?

This approach led us into the fascinating world of prompt engineering—the art of crafting precise questions that get AI to deliver exactly what you need. It was like learning to speak a new language where specificity is everything. By refining our questions, we started receiving AI-generated insights that were relevant, digestible, and perfectly aligned with our workflow needs.

The Human Element: Our Secret Sauce

Perhaps our most important discovery was this: AI can revolutionize how we execute our workflow, but the workflow itself remains fundamentally human-driven. The experience, contextual understanding, and nuanced judgment of our team members are simply irreplaceable when:

• Designing workflow processes that reflect the real-world complexity of client and candidate interactions
• Filtering through AI suggestions to extract the gems from the interesting-but-not-useful
• Ensuring AI insights complement rather than complicate how our team works together

Retained search in Texas and around the world, is, at its heart, a people business. While AI can turbocharge our processes and sharpen our decision-making, the human element remains our differentiator—both in making sense of AI insights and in weaving them seamlessly into our collaborative environment.

Our AI Integration Playbook: What Actually Works

1. Map Your Workflow First: Get crystal clear on your objectives and the specific steps in your process before introducing AI.
2. Find AI's Sweet Spots: Identify the precise points where AI can enhance each step without disrupting the human interactions that matter.
3. Master Targeted Questioning: Develop specific "How do we..." questions that extract meaningful, practical insights.
4. Distill, Don't Drown: Be ruthless about cutting AI-generated content down to the practical applications that actually drive efficiency.
5. Keep Humans in the Driver's Seat: Remember that AI supports decision-making, but the final calls should always leverage your team's expertise and judgment.

By methodically embedding AI into our processes, we've managed to accelerate our search execution, improve candidate-client matches, and enhance our decision-making—all without sacrificing the human touch that our clients value.

This structured approach ensures that AI serves as our force multiplier, helping us work smarter and faster while keeping our workflow processes not just effective, but deeply human-centered.

The adventure continues...

?