Recent decades have seen a shift within the recruitment industry, and Michael Ronis, President of Janbrook Partners, has seen that evolution play out in real time. Entering the field during the final stretch of recruitment’s analog era, Ronis has spent more than two decades adapting to technological pivots and changing expectations around talent acquisition. Through each transition, Ronis knew one thing for certain: hiring remains human work.
Ronis entered recruiting unexpectedly. Fresh out of college, he relocated to New York City, armed with a few hundred dollars, a rundown apartment in Brooklyn, no particular roadmap, and a little more than ambition to figure things out.
At the time, Ronis highlights that executive recruiting was unfamiliar territory. Raised by parents who worked as teachers, he had never encountered a corporate professional before sitting down for his first interview. “They explained it to me there, didn’t let me leave, and offered me the job on the spot. I didn’t go on another interview for the next 20 years,” he recalls, reflecting how a serendipitous opportunity quickly became a career.
Success at a young age, he notes, cemented his commitment to a profession he had stumbled into, and it gave him a front-row seat to every wave of disruption that followed.
Working with startup technology firms during the rise of digital infrastructure, he found himself recruiting technical talent tied to emerging innovations in video compression and software development. Recruiting, he notes, was changing rapidly, and Ronis happened to enter the profession when the internet was reshaping nearly every aspect of business communication.
He shares, “I came in at the very tail end of the old school. If we wanted to send an email, we wrote it down on a post-it note and gave it to the secretary.”
Within only a few years, Ronis recalls that the entire industry had migrated online, email became standard practice, job boards emerged, and internet recruiting transformed the pace and reach of hiring. As the world around him changed, he was among those adapting alongside it. “I started on the ground floor of internet recruiting,” he states. “Some of the stuff that people use now, guys like me semi-invented, purely out of necessity.”
In the following years, Ronis found himself at the center of economic disruptions that repeatedly reshaped the profession. He points to the dot-com collapse and the 2008 housing crisis as defining moments that forced recruiters and businesses alike to rethink hiring priorities.
During the financial downturn in 2009, he launched Janbrook Partners, a boutique recruiting firm, choosing entrepreneurship during a period he believes was one of the most uncertain economic epochs in recent memory. Operating largely through long-term relationships, Ronis built a client base that he notes stayed with him for years.
Today, he believes that the industry he helped shape looks nothing like the one he entered. Modern recruitment, according to Ronis, has become increasingly specialized. He observes how employers no longer search broadly for talent within an industry, and expectations now revolve around highly specific technical expertise and cultural alignment.
For recruiters, this could mean that research has become more critical than ever, and that is precisely where Ronis sees AI earning its place. He views AI as a powerful operational tool, particularly for research, organizational mapping, geographic targeting, resume formatting, and processing large applicant pools. He believes automation can significantly reduce administrative burdens that once consumed recruiters’ time.
AI, he posits, handles the data-heavy groundwork with an efficiency no individual recruiter can match alone. More recently, he notes that he has used AI to rewrite candidates’ resumes, tailoring each one to specific job descriptions before submission. In his view, the technology can help streamline tasks that previously required hours of manual effort.
But there is a line, and Ronis draws it clearly. He believes businesses risk oversimplifying recruitment when they treat AI as a replacement rather than a support system.
Ronis explains, “There are things that AI can’t pick up that a five-minute phone call will teach you.” After decades in the field, he believes he has developed what he calls a ‘sixth sense,’ referring to his ability to read a candidate before the interview even happens. He gauges their mannerisms, communication styles, and the way they approach a problem. Those nuances, he insists, lie with human discernment.
Interpersonal instincts and cultural understanding continue to shape his approach. Years spent working closely with companies have taught him how to identify intangible qualities that rarely appear on resumes or keyword searches. “You develop a feel for a company and its culture,” he says. “Those are the kinds of things AI is going to have a tough time replicating.”
After 25 years in recruitment and witnessing technology evolve, Ronis’ argument is not a defense of the old ways, but rather a case for using new tools without surrendering the judgment that makes those tools meaningful. AI, he highlights, handles the volume, but the recruiter handles the truth.
He remarks, “Efficiency and research matter, but human judgment? That still matters the most.”
