General AI, job platforms, CRM
and AI assistants for headhunters:
what is each for?

01

What can general AI like Doubao, DeepSeek and ChatGPT do for headhunters?

Doubao, DeepSeek and ChatGPT are all general-purpose AI assistants, and they are at their best one question at a time: give one a piece of material or a question, and it quickly comes back with a decent answer. For headhunters, they are handiest for work that involves writing and reading.

• Rewriting a role description: turn the few lines of job description (JD) a client gives you into a version candidates will want to keep reading.
• Drafting a first message: write a few openings based on the candidate’s background. You pick one, then put it in your own words.
• Getting to grips with a new sector: when you take on an unfamiliar industry, have it explain the basic concepts and the usual division of roles first.
• Writing up conversations: turn the key points from talks with candidates and hiring managers into clearly structured notes.
• Preparing follow-up questions for interviews: list the areas worth probing more deeply, based on what the JD asks for.

Keep in mind what it is: a general tool. It doesn’t know your clients, who is in your database or which companies you’ve already researched, unless you paste the material in every time. When you ask about specific people and companies, it’s best to check the sources of the names and facts it gives you yourself. This has nothing to do with which one you use. General tools simply weren’t designed around any one industry’s information.

Before pasting a candidate’s CV into any tool, think about which personal details you actually need, and remove the rest.

02

What are recruiting platforms like Liepin, LinkedIn, Maimai and BOSS Zhipin each good for?

Recruiting platforms are where you find people, and where people find you. Each draws a different crowd and has its own way of getting in touch, so headhunters often use several at once, then choose where to focus by the role’s field and seniority. Here are the best-known ones:

• Liepin

  Focused mainly on mid- to senior-level roles, and used by many search consultants. Good for searching CVs, posting roles and reaching mid- to senior-level candidates who are open to opportunities.

• LinkedIn

  A professional networking platform, widely used at foreign companies and multinationals and by people with overseas experience. Good for viewing public career histories and finding candidates with international backgrounds.

• Maimai

  A professional networking platform in China, popular with people in internet and tech. Good for keeping up with the people and companies in an industry, and for finding the people you want to reach.

• BOSS Zhipin

  Employers and job seekers chat directly online, so things move fast, and it covers a wide range of roles. Good for roles where you want to start talking quickly with people who are actively looking.

The more platforms you use, the more often the same person turns up: a CV on Liepin, a profile on LinkedIn, yet another title on Maimai. Each was updated at a different time and written up in a different way. Before putting them together, make sure they belong to the same person, and work out which one is the latest.

When you find and contact people on a platform, follow its rules. If someone doesn’t want to talk, don’t push.

03

What does a recruitment CRM or ATS manage, and is it the same as a recruitment system?

CRM stands for customer relationship management. For headhunters, it covers client companies, contacts and a record of every follow-up. ATS stands for applicant tracking system, and covers roles, candidates and the submission process: who was put forward to which company, which round they’ve reached and how it turned out. Many systems built for headhunters combine the two.

When people say “recruitment system”, they often mean the recruitment management system that in-house HR uses, which handles job approvals, CV screening, interview scheduling and onboarding. The version headhunters use adds a layer for clients. Because you serve several companies at once, you need to keep track of whose role is whose and how far along each one is.

These systems are good at managing work already under way: who on the team does what, a trail of progress, and records that stay when people leave. Their value depends on what goes in, so record things promptly, note sources clearly, and don’t create two files for the same person.

04

What gap does an AI assistant for headhunters fill, and how can HunterBuddy help?

Of the three kinds of tool above, one handles writing and reading, one finding and contacting people, and one record-keeping. In between lies a stretch that often falls to the headhunter alone: the research before and during a search. Which companies are expanding, who sits where in the target team, whether these few records are the same person, who in your database fits this role. That stretch is what an AI assistant for headhunters does.

HunterBuddy is an AI assistant for headhunters, built by Boseek for independent headhunters and senior search consultants. Starting from public information, patents and papers, open-source communities and your CV database, it helps with BD client research, org charts, job matching, automated sourcing and keeping your network current. When the same person is scattered across different places, it cross-checks the records and rules out namesakes before merging them. Every finding names its source, and anything uncertain is flagged for you to confirm.

• Your CV database · 3 records mergedYue Lin

  Has led a production-line vision team. Records from your CV database, a team page and a paper, checked and merged.

• Found in papersNing Zhou

  Papers and project experience in robotics perception. To confirm: any mass-production experience.

• To confirmSi Chen

  Has led cross-team projects. What they’re working on now, and whether they’re open to a move, is for you to ask.

It works in relay with the other three. CVs downloaded from recruiting platforms can be uploaded and checked along with everything else, and the people and relationships you’ve confirmed in HunterBuddy still go into your CRM or ATS as usual. Who to contact and how to open the conversation is up to you. The product is still in development and currently offered as an invitation-only trial.

05

How do you combine the four kinds of tool?

Walk one search through from start to finish, and you’ll see where each of the four stands and who hands off to whom. Staying with the Xingchuan Robotics example, suppose you’ve been following the robotics sector for a long time:

1. Spot the opportunity

   The AI assistant for headhunters lets you know that Xingchuan Robotics has raised a Series B, a Head of Computer Vision role has appeared on its careers page, and the hiring manager is Qing Xu.

2. Prepare your approach

   Use a general-purpose AI assistant to run through Xingchuan’s business and the basics of computer vision, draft a first message to Qing Xu, then rewrite it in your own words.

3. Find people

   Start in the AI assistant for headhunters by searching your CV database and the org charts you’ve mapped, then go to recruiting platforms to search, fill the gaps and get in touch.

4. Keep records

   Log it in your CRM or ATS: who you put forward, which round they’ve reached, what the candidate said. Everyone on the team can see it.

5. Stay current

   Six months on, a candidate’s team changes. The AI assistant for headhunters lets you know, and you check it against your live searches before deciding whether to make that call.

You can also pick the tool by the question in front of you. To write a good paragraph or make sense of a document, turn to a general-purpose AI assistant. To post a role, find people and start a conversation, use a recruiting platform. To keep clear records of where things stand and who on the team does what, rely on a CRM or ATS. To get to the bottom of a person or a company, with the sources kept, hand it to an AI assistant for headhunters.

You don’t need all of them at once. A consultant who has just gone independent can start with one recruiting platform and a spreadsheet, then consider a CRM or ATS and an AI assistant for headhunters once there are more live searches and more people in the database. Don’t enter the same information in several tools. Pick one place as the source of truth, and only refer to it everywhere else.