I'm not writing this as an observer. AI is part of how I run placed. every day, and it's changed what I can deliver for clients and candidates in ways I couldn't have anticipated two years ago.
RAIM: where it started for me
Most of what I know about AI in recruitment, I learned through RAIM (the Recruiter AI Movement). When AI started reshaping this industry, RAIM was already there, explaining what was actually happening, what it meant for recruiters, and how to use it properly. It's where I learned Claude. It's where I went from curious to capable.
The premise is simple. The industry is splitting into two groups: those who are AI-powered and pulling ahead, and those who aren't.
What sets RAIM apart from a course or a platform is the community. It's recruiters who are building, sharing, and pushing each other. Not theorising about AI, but putting real systems into their workflows and reporting back on what works. The Recruiter AIOS gives you skills you can use from day one. Candidate outreach. Prospect research. Shortlist delivery. BD sequences. All of it built around how recruiters actually work.
It's free. If you're a recruiter and you haven't joined yet, go now.
How I use Claude
The tool I use every day at placed. is Claude, built by Anthropic. RAIM is what taught me to use it properly.
Claude isn't a search engine. It's a thinking partner. It drafts my market intelligence reports. It writes candidate briefing documents. It builds company research before BD calls. It produces outreach in my voice because I've trained it on my tone and standards.
What it doesn't do is replace my judgement. It doesn't make calls. It can't read a room. It can't tell me whether a candidate who looks good on paper will actually thrive somewhere. That part is still mine.
The way I think about it: Claude handles the hours of cognitive overhead so I can spend that time doing what only I can do, which is building relationships and making the right placements. For a boutique consultancy, that's a structural advantage.
What AI is actually doing in recruitment
CV screening. Candidate sourcing. Scheduling. First-stage communications. All increasingly automated, and in the right contexts, properly useful. AI can surface passive candidates that advertising will never reach, and process volumes that no single recruiter could handle on their own.
But it has real limits. The things that decide whether a senior hire succeeds (cultural fit, leadership presence, motivation) aren't things an algorithm can assess reliably. Some of the best placements I've made were candidates an AI screener would have filtered out. Non-linear backgrounds. Unconventional CVs. Value that only became visible in conversation.
The businesses getting this wrong are applying volume-hiring logic to leadership hiring. The efficiency gain at screening becomes a liability when you've quietly filtered out the best people before a human has spoken to them.
My view
The recruiters winning right now aren't the ones who've automated the most. They're the ones who know which tasks to hand to AI and which ones to own completely. And they've raised the bar on the parts only they can do.
That's what I'm building at placed. If you'd like to talk about how this is playing out in your sector, I'm always happy to have the conversation.
Naomi Slakmon is the founder of placed., a specialist executive search consultancy operating across real estate, developer and construction sectors in MENA and London.