Everyone’s bracing for recruitment to contract.
AI’s coming for the sourcing. The screening. The delivery…
So fewer recruiters needed, smaller industry, end of the good times.
That’s the story doing the rounds.
However!
I was reading a sharp piece by Elena Verna this week. It was about software, but it could just as easily have been about recruitment.
Years ago, an economist called Jevons noticed something odd. Steam engines got more efficient, so everyone assumed Britain would burn less coal. In fact, coal use tripled.
It keeps happening.
Cars got more fuel-efficient, so we drove further.
Lights got cheaper to run, so we put them on everything. Even kid’s shoes!
When something gets cheaper, we don’t use less of it.
We use more.
What if we look at recruiting through that lens.
For years, a whole slice of the market couldn’t justify our fees.
– The small business with one role.
– The niche too tiny to bother with.
– The founder who needed help but choked on the invoice.
The business wasn’t there.
As AI strips the cost and the hours out of the grind, that changes. Recruiting becomes viable for clients who were never on the table.
New niches. New roles = More hiring, not less.
The pie doesn’t shrink. It grows. And it grows in places we ignored before.
History tells us cheaper doesn’t mean fewer, it means more.
So, before you brace for the squeeze, perhaps ask a different question.
Where am I not getting business from now that may open in the future?
Yes, many job categories will become obsolete, it’s happening, but others will be created.
Think about “AI Agent Managers” for starters. 🙂
We’re already seeing the dooms day predictions of Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI and his peers being downgraded, so all things considered, this seems to me to be good news.
Food for thought, at least…
Have a top week.
BK
PS I have something exciting to announce in the coming weeks re AI. Stay tuned!
