The Wild West of AI Recruiting: How Voice Agents Are Transforming Executive Search
The recruitment industry stands at a pivotal crossroads. As artificial intelligence reshapes nearly every business function, executive search firms face a fundamental question: how do you balance technological efficiency with the irreplaceable value of human connection?
Bill Kasko has spent two decades answering that question. As the President, CEO, and Founder of Frontline Source Group, a nationwide professional executive search and staffing agency headquartered in Dallas, Kasko has witnessed—and driven—the evolution of recruitment technology from its earliest iterations to today’s sophisticated AI voice agents.
“We are on version seven of an AI true recruiter who is interactive voice,” Kasko explains. “It’s like having a conversation with an individual to do full recruiting. It alleviates just the amount of legwork that’s taking place.”
From Burned Popcorn to Seamless Conversations
The journey to functional AI recruitment wasn’t smooth. Kasko draws an apt comparison to early microwave technology: “How many bags of popcorn did we burn with the microwave until we figured it out? And then after we did, the microwave makers figured out they probably need a button that says that.”
Version one of their AI recruiter, named Jamie, had significant challenges. “Jamie would ask the wrong question. It was the proverbial old record player getting caught and repeating and repeating,” Kasko recalls. The user experience was poor—candidates were frustrated, confused, and resistant to engaging with the technology.
Fast forward to today, and the reception has transformed dramatically. “They’re more appreciative of it. They understand it more. They’re not afraid of it as more,” Kasko notes. The key differentiator? Radical transparency.
The Transparency Imperative
One of the most significant lessons from Kasko’s AI development journey centers on honesty with candidates. When their current AI recruiter, Joy, initiates contact, she immediately identifies herself as an AI virtual agent and even acknowledges she might make mistakes.
“When we’ve gone back to listen, it’s interesting that the people are like, ‘that’s okay, I understand,'” Kasko observes. “They’re actually having, they’re holding a conversation.”
This approach stands in stark contrast to systems that attempt to mask their artificial nature. Kasko anticipates that regulatory frameworks will eventually require such disclosures: “I would expect at some point we’re going to have some government regulation come into this, right? Because we already know that the masking that’s behind it, the scams, the phone calls, we’re all concerned about that.”
The 24/7 Advantage
Beyond transparency, AI recruiters offer a practical benefit that human recruiters simply cannot match: availability. Frontline Source Group places professionals in fields like pharmacy and healthcare who often work unconventional hours.
“If you have an individual who is working—we place pharmacy people as an example, or in the medical field—they’re working unusual hours,” Kasko explains. “Some of them, they get home one, two in the morning. I can’t get a recruiter in an office to stay up to do interviews at two in the morning, but they can have a conversation with the virtual recruiter.”
The data backs up this flexibility. Kasko has been “amazed at the number of people that do phone calls at two, three, four in the morning, or someone who gets up early.”
The Mathematics of Modern Recruiting
The business case for AI in recruitment extends beyond convenience. The fundamental economics of talent acquisition have shifted dramatically over the past two decades.
“Recruiting 20 years ago, we would joke and say, you cast your fishing rod out there into the pool and you pull back 20 individuals,” Kasko recalls. “Well, today it’s crazy. It’s not like that. There isn’t a pool. And so we have to outreach sometimes to 150, 200 possibilities to get one to come back.”
Add to this the fragmentation of communication channels—email, text, voicemail, phone calls, social media—and recruiters face an overwhelming volume of touchpoints. AI provides a scalable solution to what Kasko calls the “Tootsie Pop problem”: how many licks does it take to get to the center? The virtual recruiter gets you there faster.
The End of the Paper Resume?
Perhaps the most provocative prediction emerging from conversations about AI in recruitment is the potential obsolescence of traditional resumes. Many resumes today are AI-generated, designed to game applicant tracking systems rather than accurately represent candidates.
“Instead of typing, instead of having a resume, uploading it, answering all of the typical questions,” Kasko suggests, an AI system could simply ask candidates to explain their experience conversationally. The AI would then extract relevant information and generate a more accurate representation of the candidate’s qualifications.
This shift is already partially underway. Kasko notes that video call transcription tools can capture an entire conversation and create a synopsis highlighting key skills and background information. “We then can take, copy and use that we put into our synopsis and dossier when we present that individual,” he explains.
The Discrimination Dilemma
Yet AI in recruitment is not without significant concerns. Kasko raises important questions about potential discrimination that could emerge from voice analysis and other AI-driven assessment tools.
“What if you had a disability and you have a hearing impediment that creates a speech impediment that comes along?” he asks. “And now your voice isn’t matching up to your skill on that.”
The regulatory landscape remains undefined. “It literally is the wild west right now,” Kasko acknowledges. While there have been cases alleging AI discrimination in hiring, “it’s not yet been defined as to what this is going to look like.”
Blind Hiring and the Human Element
One potential solution involves restructuring the interview process to reduce bias. Rather than having hiring managers conduct interviews directly, organizations could use third parties—human or AI—to assess candidates and present anonymized findings.
“Instead of saying he or she, you say they,” the approach would strip identifying information so hiring teams evaluate candidates on qualifications alone. “I have no idea what their names are. I have no idea who they are. I have no idea what they look like. I have no idea what they sound like. All I’m getting is some sort of calculation in terms of quality fit.”
However, Kasko is clear that human involvement remains essential. When clients ask whether their AI tools eliminate human interaction, his response is unequivocal: “Absolutely. I mean, our philosophy behind is that’s never going to go away.”
Looking Ahead
As organizations universally face rising costs to acquire talent, the pressure to adopt AI solutions will only intensify. HR departments, Kasko notes, are perpetually challenged to demonstrate ROI as non-revenue-generating functions. AI tools that lower cost-per-hire while maintaining quality will find eager adopters.
But the path forward requires thoughtful implementation. Transparency with candidates, clear ethical guidelines, and preservation of human judgment at critical decision points will separate successful AI recruitment from problematic applications.
“The more they can lower that cost to acquire, and the more that they can bring and utilize tools, that’s what everybody’s gonna look at,” Kasko concludes. The question isn’t whether AI will transform recruitment—it’s whether organizations can harness that transformation responsibly.
For now, we remain in the wild west. The rules are being written in real-time, and practitioners like Bill Kasko are helping to shape what ethical, effective AI recruitment looks like. The next two years promise to bring changes that none of us can fully predict—but the foundations laid today will determine whether AI serves as a force for efficiency and equity or becomes another source of systemic bias in hiring.
Subscribe to The Chris Hood Show on your favorite podcast platform, or tune in and watch on YouTube.