AI for executive search firms with a reputation to protect.
Practical implementation, invisible in client-facing output, designed around the way your researchers and consultants already operate. Bristol-based, working with retained search firms across the UK.
Time savings are meaningful. Hours per brief, days per engagement, weeks per analytics cycle. The examples below show where.
Executive search runs on trust, discretion and a reputation for judgement that takes years to build. Anything that reaches a client or a candidate has to read as the work of the firm — not the output of a tool.
That sets a higher bar for AI than most consultants are working to. It means AI belongs in the parts of the work where it can be built, tested and reviewed before the firm puts its name to anything: research, synthesis, drafting, sector intelligence, internal knowledge. It does not belong in the moments where judgement is the product — the candidate conversation, the shortlist call, the read of a board.
Most of what I do is making AI useful in the first half of that distinction without it leaking into the second.
Your consultants are almost certainly already using AI. The question is whether it arrives at your firm deliberately, or arrives unevenly, invisibly, and below the standard you'd sign off on.
The work I do most often
In the order of a typical search.
Time-saving figures are indicative, drawn from comparable workflows; we calibrate against your firm specifically during discovery.
Pascal
Gillan
I'm based in Bristol. I started my career as a researcher at Oryx and Novo — over three years sourcing candidates, pitching roles, and working with consultants to refine longlists. The work behind the work. The parts of the search process AI is now genuinely useful for.
Then fifteen years in technology — senior product and engineering roles at American Express, Zoopla, Deliveroo and Intent HQ (AI Business of the Year at the 2025 National AI Awards) — and the last four working closely with large language models. Prompt engineering at scale, production tooling, and helping teams move from AI experiments to AI that actually gets used.
Maneform exists because executive search is one of the few places where the structured, judgement-led nature of the work makes AI genuinely useful — and where the stakes around discretion and quality mean it has to be done carefully. I work with retained search firms in Bristol and across the UK to build that carefully.
The detail on what you get, how engagements run, and the questions I get asked most.
How I workThe next step is a conversation
Forty-five minutes, on a video call, no slides. With whoever runs your research function — and you, if you're not the same person.
We walk through how your team currently produces candidate reports, sector briefings, proposals and approach research, and identify the two or three workflows where AI saves the most time without compromising client-facing quality.
Within two working days you'll have a written summary: the workflows we identified, two or three recommended next steps, and indicative pricing for each. If nothing from the conversation warrants a proposal, I'll say so.
What do you want to solve?
Or just email
If you'd rather skip the form, write directly. Tell me about the firm, the problem, and what "good" looks like.
Once an engagement is underway, I'm on your Slack or Teams during UK working hours. Quick questions get quick answers; nothing waits for a scheduled call.