ABC Consultants: Re-Humanizing Service Value—Talent Versus AI

The managing director of recruitment consulting company ABC Consultants was worried that AI was eroding traditional service and human value. ABC Consultants was a human-first business, but it had to deliver revenue growth in a slowing market. The managing director was evaluating "moving up the value chain" to a specialized, premium C-suite-only service versus offering a broader hiring service. He risked existing client relationships if he offered a premium service at higher fees. But clients might also drift away if he competed on cost and efficiency against AI. The client portfolio would, in turn, determine future employee competencies. AI was quickly eroding jobs and replacing people; the managing director's decision might now destabilize the steady-state business. How should Agrawal renew value and drive growth as AI shrank the market: through a premium specialized service, or a generic service that AI was replacing every day?