Every recruitment owner I meet is being asked the same question. What are you doing about AI?
Fair question. Wrong reason for asking it, if you are thinking about your valuation.
Nobody pays more for your business because you have bought the software. Everyone has bought the software. Nick made the point at TALiNT this autumn and it is worth repeating. AI only counts where it moves the numbers a buyer actually cares about.
Four numbers
Net fee income, also known as gross profit. What the business really makes, not what passes through the books. Net fee income percentage. How much of that gross profit you keep. The mix of contract and permanent, because one recurs and one has to be won again from nothing. And the direction of your market, because nobody pays a premium to buy into one that is shrinking.
If a tool helps a consultant fill a contract role faster, it shows up in the first and third. If it cuts the admin that eats your margin, it shows up in the second. If it just sits in the tech stack looking clever, it shows up nowhere.
So start with the problem
Pick the job that costs you most time or most money. Fix that. Measure it. Then do the next one. That is not exciting. It is what makes a business worth more.
And keep the people at the front. Recruitment runs on judgement, trust and timing. Technology should give your best people more hours to use them, not replace them.
The businesses that win will not be the ones with the most AI. They will be the ones whose numbers got better because of it.
Thinking about what comes next?
Every conversation starts with Nick Gordon, our founder. It is confidential, it commits you to nothing, and the best ones happen while the business is still performing.