01
First, define the work you want to delegate
An open role does not create one uniform recruiting task. Someone must understand the job, find people, decide whom to approach, answer questions, keep the conversation moving, assess candidates, and make a hiring decision. A recruitment agency and an AI headhunter can take on different parts of that chain.
The useful comparison is therefore not whether software can replace a recruiter. It is whether your team needs an outside human specialist to advise and assess, or a way to keep sourcing and pre-meeting conversations moving while your team retains hiring judgment.
02
What a specialist agency can bring
Agency models vary. In a retained executive search, a consultant typically researches the client and market, shapes the mandate, identifies and approaches prospects, evaluates candidates, and advises through selection. The Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants describes this as a consulting assignment, usually paid through an agreed retainer schedule. Contingent recruitment agreements can work differently; ask each firm what its contract actually includes.
That human advisory role can be valuable for a confidential leadership appointment, a narrow market, difficult stakeholder alignment, or a search that requires formal assessment and references. An experienced consultant may challenge the brief and bring an independent market view. Those services go beyond producing a list of names.
Because the consultant represents the opportunity to prospects, your team needs to brief them well. Agree on who owns the candidate relationship, what evidence will accompany a shortlist, and when your hiring team meets each person. An engagement should also specify scope, timing, fees, deliverables, conflicts, and data handling.
03
What Speiros is designed to handle
Speiros is designed around the work before a human meeting. The intended mission starts with the context of your company, the position, and your hiring process. The agent is built to search LinkedIn for relevant people, compare profiles with the brief, select whom to approach, contact them, answer questions using that context, and follow up. You choose how closely to supervise the work. The intended handoff is a conversation with someone ready to meet your team.
Your team still has to assess the person, build the relationship, and decide whether to hire. A relevant profile or an engaged reply is not an interview, a reference check, or proof that a candidate can do the job. Speiros aims to make those human steps start with better context, not to declare a hiring outcome.
Speiros publishes pricing by concurrent open role rather than an agency engagement. Check the pricing page for the current plans and the definition of an open role. A comparison should include your team's time and the scope of any agency agreement, not just the headline price of either option.
04
Where each model fits
A specialist agency may be the stronger choice when the assignment depends on a trusted human intermediary: confidential outreach, market counsel, executive assessment, or established relationships in a small field. Ask who will personally do the research and assessment, and which services are included before signing.
An AI headhunter may fit when your team understands the role, can conduct interviews and make decisions, but lacks time for consistent search, selection, outreach, answers, and follow-up. The agent needs a useful brief; it cannot accurately explain a company detail or hiring process it has never been given.
Some teams will use both approaches for different roles. The distinction is practical: which role needs specialist human advice, and which role needs sustained pre-meeting work under your supervision? Neither approach can promise that a particular candidate will respond or accept an offer.
- Need confidential executive search, market advice, or formal assessment? Scope a specialist agency engagement.
- Need steady sourcing and candidate conversation with hiring judgment kept in-house? Examine the Speiros workflow.
- Need both across different positions? Choose per role rather than forcing one process on every hire.
05
Include the LinkedIn account in the decision
Speiros uses the customer's LinkedIn account for its LinkedIn workflow. An agency may instead use its own channels and accounts, depending on the engagement. That difference deserves a direct conversation before choosing a tool.
LinkedIn says third-party software that scrapes or automates activity on its website is not allowed and that an account may be restricted for automated activity. No provider can responsibly promise that your account cannot be restricted. Ask how a product connects to the account, what activity it performs, and what controls are available; consider that risk alongside the work you want to delegate.
Then make the handoff explicit. Who will speak with the candidate when genuine human judgment becomes necessary, and what context will that person receive? That answer matters more than the number of profiles at the top of a funnel.