HelloSky CEO says AI should change who executive recruiters interview

HelloSky CEO Alex Bates is selling executive recruiters on a narrower promise for AI: not choosing leaders, but changing who gets considered in the first place. In an NYSE Live interview covered by Hunt Scanlon Media, he argued that skilled consultants too often evaluate the wrong people before returning to candidates they already know.

The talent intelligence company’s “Moneyball” approach aims to surface executives whose track records are stronger than their online visibility. In a LinkedIn post about the interview, Bates said many leading executives have little or no LinkedIn biography. He described HelloSky’s graph as a way to examine career trajectories and identify people behind revenue growth, business turning points and exits, rather than rely on familiar contacts.

Bates’s distinction is between finding candidates and reading them. In the interview, he credited experienced recruiters with an ability to assess motivation and competencies, and said HelloSky’s technology was intended to give those recruiters better targets. He also argued that AI’s growing output creates another task for people: deciding which information deserves attention.

“We’re very big on human-in-the-loop,” Bates said, according to Hunt Scanlon. “My thesis is that human gifts are underappreciated and underrepresented in the mainstream.”

Hunt Scanlon Ventures, whose adjacent business is Hunt Scanlon Media, invested in HelloSky in 2025, according to its investment blog, ExitUp. Its account describes HelloSky’s tools as combining market mapping, candidate intelligence, behavioral analytics and AI-powered ranking.

Bates said in the NYSE interview that the company had launched a plugin for ChatGPT and Claude intended to make its talent-targeting capabilities more accessible.