To Change or not to Change: A Qualitative Analysis of the Executive Search Industry’s Strategic Responses to Artificial Intelligence

Sammanfattning: The usage of Artificial Intelligence is gaining popularity in many industries nowadays, triggering professionals to communicate about these disruptive changes in their industries. One industry has been looked at more profoundly: the executive search industry. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain more insight into the exploration of communicated strategies by professionals due to AI-related strategic change. As the basis of change communication is subjective self-perception, two consultancy tools were implemented to understand how participants see themselves compared to others: Gartner’s magic quadrant and Gartner’s hype cycle. The critical realism research tradition has enabled some communication strategies to be considered as right and others as wrong. This has divided the sample into leaders (first movers), challengers (awaiting the retirement of older employees), visionaries (preparing internally), and niche players (experiencing fear and resistance against AI). The results showcase that the niche players will be the first ones to experience unavoidable organisational change coming from something they believed not to become true. To ensure a smoothly communicated change, it is crucial organisations implement digitally literate change agents, work in small and flexible organisations, execute constant education sessions for all employees, implement a flat hierarchy to apply a participatory approach in the organisation, and smoothen the change process.