A lean n8n and AI pilot that took a boutique UK executive-search firm from hand-typed notes, manual CV cleanup and remembered follow-ups to a fully automated admin cycle, delivered in roughly one working week.
Project overview
A small executive-search consultancy in the UK ran every vacancy cycle by hand. Meeting notes were rewritten into advert drafts one keystroke at a time. Contact details were stripped out of incoming CVs manually before each document was rebranded. Terms templates were edited client by client, and follow-up dates were tracked from memory. With nothing joining the steps together, the founder became the bottleneck for every single document that left the business.
We built a minimal, n8n-centred pilot that covers the whole admin cycle, from a raw note or transcript through to a ready-to-send output. The AI does the structuring; every approval stays with the recruiter. It was scoped, built and handed over in about one working week and sized for a two-person team rather than an enterprise rollout.
Challenges to resolve
Every vacancy meant turning a fresh page of notes into a job advert by hand. Nothing carried over from the last role, so the same structure was typed out again and again before a single candidate ever saw a listing.
Contact details were removed and branding applied to each CV by hand. It was slow, it was easy to miss a phone number or an email, and every manual pass carried a real data-leak risk before the document reached a client.
Terms and conditions templates were edited per client, with names and dates swapped in manually every time. The work was low-value but unavoidable, and it stacked up across every new engagement.
Check-ins with candidates and clients relied on memory. A missed nudge cost momentum, and momentum lost on an executive search often meant a placement lost with it.
Tech stack used
Four building blocks wired into one admin cycle, kept deliberately small so a two-person team can own it.
The backbone that carries each admin step from a raw note or transcript through to a ready-to-send output, keeping every approval with the recruiter.
The models that turn unstructured notes into structured briefs, adverts and documents, scoped narrowly on strict, reviewable prompts.
Wiring into the firm's existing tools, booking dated follow-up tasks into Outlook through the Graph API.
Finished documents written to client-specific folders, with every run logged by ID, timestamp, user and status.
The solution
Notes or a call transcript go in, and a strict prompt template returns a structured brief plus a first-draft advert. Before it drafts anything, the workflow checks that the role, the location and the must-have skills are actually present, so a thin brief never turns into a thin advert.
The workflow auto-detects and redacts contact details, applies the firm's header and logo, and produces a redaction report for the record. Export is blocked until the clean check passes, so a CV cannot leave the business with a stray number still on it.
Client name and date populate the moment the workflow is triggered, and the finished document is written straight to a client-specific folder. The per-client editing that used to happen by hand now happens on submit.
The recruiter sets the check-in type and timing once. When the vacancy package is processed, dated reminder tasks land in Outlook through the Graph API, so the next nudge is already booked before anyone has to remember it.
Every run is logged with an ID, timestamp, user and status, and a hash check catches duplicate CVs before they slip into the pipeline. The team can see exactly what ran, when and by whom.
The AI is scoped narrowly on purpose: it turns unstructured notes into structured documents, and nothing more. Every output passes a human review before it reaches a client, so the automation carries the admin while the recruiter keeps every judgment call.
Why it matters
What used to take around 40 minutes of typing now comes down to a single submission, with a structured brief and first-draft advert waiting on the other side.
Redaction and branding run automatically and export is gated on a clean check, so no CV goes out with contact details still attached.
Follow-up tasks are booked the moment a package is processed, so warm candidates and clients get their nudge on time instead of being forgotten.
The team owns every workflow and every prompt, so the system keeps running long after handover with no developer on standby.
"It is just the two of us, so every hour we used to spend reformatting notes or chasing follow-up dates was an hour we were not recruiting. Now that admin happens by itself, and we actually trust it."