Process Agent — AI-Assisted Offer and Close-Out Workflow

What This File Covers

This file defines where and how AI tools can be used in offer delivery and search close-out. The offer stage involves the most sensitive communications in the recruiting process — compensation terms, legal commitments, and high-emotion rejections. AI assists with drafting and preparation. Every output requires practitioner review. Every term requires client authorization.

Design Phase — Preparing the Offer

Offer Letter Drafting

When to use AI: After all terms are authorized by the client. AI drafts the written offer letter from the authorized terms.

What to provide:

• All authorized offer terms (compensation, title, start date, reporting, location, special provisions)
• Client HR requirements (employment classification, contingencies, restrictive covenants)
• The client's standard offer letter format (if one exists)
• Reference data for proper nouns

Expected output: A draft offer letter ready for practitioner and client HR/legal review.

Quality check:

• Every term matches authorization exactly (no rounding, no approximation)
• Contingencies are accurate per client HR policy
• Employment classification is correct
• Nothing appears in the letter that wasn't authorized
• Tone is professional and warm — not overly corporate or overly casual

Common AI failure modes:

• Adding standard terms that weren't authorized ("signing bonus" when none was discussed)
• Softening compensation language ("competitive salary" instead of the specific number)
• Including boilerplate contingencies not confirmed with client HR
• Generic opening that doesn't reflect the practitioner's relationship with the candidate

Verbal Offer Talking Points

When to use AI: After terms are authorized and the practitioner wants preparation materials for the call.

What to provide:

• Authorized terms
• Candidate's name and relevant background
• Debrief summary / scorecard evidence (for personalization)
• Any known candidate concerns or priorities from screening

Expected output: Conversational talking points — not a script. Including personalization drawn from evaluation evidence.

Quality check: The talking points should feel like notes the practitioner jotted down, not a formal document. If it reads like a script, it's wrong.

Negotiation Prep Brief

When to use AI: Before the verbal offer call. AI prepares a brief anticipating the candidate's likely negotiation position.

What to provide:

• Candidate's stated compensation expectations (from screening)
• Candidate's current compensation (if known)
• The authorized offer
• The threshold
• The practitioner's negotiation authority
• Common non-salary negotiation items

Expected output: A brief covering: likely asks, recommended responses within authority, escalation triggers, non-salary flexibility areas.

Quality check: The brief should prepare the practitioner for the conversation, not script it. Every recommendation must be within authorized parameters.

Execution Phase — Close-Out

Release Communication Drafting

When to use AI: After the decision is made and the practitioner knows which candidates are not advancing. AI drafts release communications calibrated by stage.

What to provide:

• Candidate name
• Stage at which they're exiting
• Any personalization context the practitioner provides
• The release communication template for that stage
• Tone guidance

Expected output: Draft release communications — phone talking points for candidates who get a call, and written communications for email follow-up.

Quality check:

• Calibrated to the candidate's investment (pre-screen ≠ finalist)
• Warm and respectful, not corporate-cold
• Does not reveal information about other candidates or the selected hire
• Does not make promises about future opportunities unless the practitioner specifically intends to follow through
• Phone talking points feel conversational, not scripted

Bulk Close-Out Communications

When to use AI: When the role is filled and close-out communications need to go to all remaining candidates.

What to provide:

• Candidate list with stage information
• Close-out template
• Any personalization context

Expected output: Personalized close-out communications varying by how far each candidate progressed.

Quality check: Each communication reviewed by the practitioner. A candidate who had one phone screen gets a different close-out than a candidate who presented to the board twice.

Post-Acceptance Warm Communications

When to use AI: During the period between offer acceptance and start date. AI drafts periodic check-in communications.

What to provide:

• New hire's name
• Start date
• Any organizational updates worth sharing
• Tone guidance (warm, excited, welcoming)

Expected output: Draft warm communications — casual, personal, keeping the new hire connected.

Quality check: These should feel like a real person checking in, not an automated drip campaign.

Internal Summary Documentation

When to use AI: After the search closes. AI produces the client-facing summary documenting offer terms, negotiation outcome, and search close-out status.

What to provide:

• Final offer terms (as accepted)
• Negotiation summary (what was asked, what was agreed)
• Candidate release status (all candidates notified?)
• Timeline summary
• Any outstanding items

Expected output: A clean summary document for the client's records.

Where AI Cannot Replace the Practitioner

The verbal offer call. Live conversation requiring warmth, judgment, and real-time response to the candidate's reaction.

Negotiation. Requires reading the candidate, making judgment calls within authority, and knowing when to escalate. AI prepares; the practitioner negotiates.

Finalist release calls. These are the most emotionally charged communications in the process. They require empathy, patience, and the ability to respond to disappointment, frustration, or questions in real time.

Authorization decisions. Only the client authorizes terms. Only the practitioner determines whether a request falls within authority.

Counter-offer conversations. When a new hire gets a counter-offer from their current employer, the practitioner's conversation is a relationship act, not a communication template.

What AI Does Not Do

Authorize offer terms. AI drafts from authorized terms. It does not create, recommend, or expand terms.

Send communications without practitioner review. Every communication — offer letter, release, close-out, warm check-in — is reviewed by the practitioner before it reaches anyone.

Negotiate. AI can prepare the practitioner for negotiation. It cannot conduct negotiation.

Replace the phone call. The verbal offer, the finalist release, and the counter-offer conversation are human interactions. AI produces preparation materials. The practitioner has the conversation.