AI now reaches into almost every part of our world, redefining diverse industries by automating repetitive tasks, transforming customer service, capturing market insights and informing data-driven efficiency. Despite the potential that AI brings, professional services industries, like executive search, still rise and fall on human trust.
“While there is significant value to be realised in AI, we are yet to appreciate how substantially this technology will impact clients and shape executive search,” says James Simpson, a Partner for Gerard Daniels.
“What we do know, is that trust is the foundation for any successful relationship, and it can’t be built through spreadsheets, CRMs or slick pitches,” says James. “You build trust when clients feel supported to make decisions that are genuinely hard. Trust also grows in the pauses and honest moments where clients are told what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.”
Here James considers what the shift towards AI means for executive search and the importance it continues to place on trusted human advisors.
The role of AI in building trust – the new trust equation
In 2000, a trio of renowned management consultants developed The Trust Equation – a foundational concept that defines trustworthiness in professional relationships as the sum of an individual’s credibility, reliability and intimacy divided by their self-orientation (or focus on self).
“This equation still holds true today, but some of the ingredients have changed, with AI becoming the great amplifier of credibility and reliability,” says James.
“In executive search AI allows us to connect hiring organisations with reliable intelligence on talent, market dynamics and leadership trends, and to support clients in a way that is sharper, more agile and informed. AI is also increasingly used to map leadership ecosystems across industries, revealing emerging patterns and relationships that would otherwise take much longer to find,” James continues. “In a single meeting clients can access more insights and benchmarks than an entire engagement once offered.”
AI and trusted advisors converge: What clients really need from executive search
Confidence in judgment
Data may earn you a seat at the table, but data alone does not equate to trust. “AI helps you to find every CFO in renewables who has worked with EY in the past decade,” says James. “What it can’t do is tell you is who will follow through in a crisis, or who can front a regulator on Monday and a private equity sponsor on Friday.”
In sectors like energy and infrastructure (where boards are juggling the complexity of decarbonisation, regulation, and massive capital cycles), clients don’t just want names. They want expert judgment and confidence knowing they are backing the right leader to navigate the storm ahead. “Data alone can’t deliver on this,” says James. “That’s why the trusted advisor of this decade doesn’t just run a search. They are a decision coach, interpreting diverse data, challenging bias and turning information overload into clarity.”
AI as a force multiplier, not a replacement
Technology does not diminish the need for trusted advisors. It can, however, help advisors to predict critical factors that improve the outcome of executive search. “This shift is evident in our network, with clients engaging earlier, not for shortlists but for strategic foresight and scenario modelling,” says James.
For example, AI can help clients to determine which executives are two years away from being CEO-ready; which CFOs will thrive in complex regulatory environments; and how board composition will influence future organisational performance. AI brings evidence to these conversations, while breadth and depth of human experience bring critical context and meaning. “This tells us that the next phase of executive search will focus less on who we can find and more on what we can predict, as the real value of technology compounds where AI and trusted human advisors intersect,” says James.
Delivering insight without over-automation or diminished self-awareness
Many people fear losing their jobs to AI, but according to James there is even greater danger in hiding behind it. “The inherent risk of AI lies in complacency, when these tools quietly tilt us toward process over presence,” he says. “In The Trusted Advisor, David Maister warned that self-orientation (putting your own agenda before that of clients), kills trust. In the era of AI, that risk sneaks in through the back door when we value efficiency more than empathy, or forget that great advice is personal, not procedural.”
Can data-enabled empathy exist?
Where credibility and reliability can be supercharged by data, intimacy – the real, human side of trust – cannot.
“Empathy is a critical quality that endures and delivers value across engagement cycles. While AI can fake empathy, clients feel the difference and know whether you genuinely care about their people, their problems and their risk,” says James. “That’s why the very best advisors aren’t neutral observers, they are invested, listen hard, speak plainly and step up to deliver the truth nobody else will.”
“Future success rests on marrying data with discernment, using technology to accelerate insight, not replace it. To achieve this, advisors must combine machine precision with human intuition to turn data into confidence; be confident in calling it out when data points one way, but human experience points another; and have the courage to be honest when it matters most,” says James. “ After all, technology cannot replace the quiet respect that grows when the Chair recognises that you were straight with them, even when it wasn’t easy.”
To learn how our trusted advisors can enhance the outcome of your next executive search, connect with James or reach out to your local Gerard Daniels team.
