Small Businesses, Big Shifts: The Rise of Portfolio Careers — AI in recruiting "EQ.app"

I'm Marcus Sawyerr, founder and CEO of EQ.app. In the episode I co-hosted with Joel Lalgee, we dug into what I call the Great Restructuring — a seismic shift in hiring, company structure, and career design driven by AI, geopolitics, and post-pandemic behavior changes. If you care about AI in recruiting "EQ.app", this is both a wake-up call and a practical roadmap: there are 170 million new jobs on the horizon, 92 million roles that will be replaced, and a very different labor market emerging that rewards curiosity, agility, and the willingness to bet on yourself.

Why "The Great Restructuring" matters

We live in a perfect storm of change: technological advances (especially AI), shifting work norms after COVID, and global geopolitical uncertainty. Companies and individuals are re-evaluating how work gets done and who does it. The traditional growth playbook — hire more people to do more work — is being rewritten. As I said during our conversation, "the data is the new oil," and the leaders who extract, organize, and act on data will command outsized influence.

What this looks like in practice:

• Larger firms consolidate power and scale influence rather than only scale headcount.
• Mid-sized firms (the messy middle) get squeezed — fewer stable "middle" companies as the market polarizes.
• Small businesses proliferate but with a new profile: many are digital-first, lean, and heavily augmented by AI tools.

From headcount to influence

Historically, "huge" meant headcount. Today, huge increasingly means reach and revenue per head. A small, highly productive team using AI and automation can influence thousands of customers or candidates. That changes hiring strategy: leaders must think about revenue-per-employee and the leverage each role provides rather than simply filling seats.

Portfolio careers and fractional work: not a fallback, but a strategy

One of the most important shifts we discussed is the rise of portfolio careers and fractional consulting. These are not temp gigs — they're deliberate, diversified career models. I've seen senior leaders move into portfolio roles, advising startups, sitting on boards, and doing fractional C-suite work. Combined, these income streams can match or exceed previous full-time compensation while giving professionals autonomy and variety.

Why this is happening now:

• AI eliminates administrative friction — research, reporting, outreach and routine tasks can be automated, freeing experts to focus on high-value advice.
• Small and mid-sized firms need expertise but can’t always afford full-time senior hires. Fractional advisors fill that gap.
• Professionals want flexibility, diversification, and control over their schedule and impact.

How to think about a portfolio career

1. Identify the high-value skills you bring that are hard to automate (strategy, interpersonal influence, domain expertise).
2. Use AI to remove the admin work that usually prevents you from taking on multiple clients.
3. Package your expertise into clear offerings (advisory hours, fractional roles, board seats, workshops).
4. Prioritize recurring revenue with one or two core clients and supplement with smaller, high-margin engagements.

Numbers you should memorize

It helps to anchor strategy in figures. Here are the headline takeaways we shared from our research (including World Economic Forum-aligned studies):

• 170 million new jobs are expected to be created globally in the coming wave of restructuring.
• 92 million existing jobs are likely to be displaced.
• Net positive: approximately 78 million new roles overall.
• Industry shifts: technology and data will see major net gains (for instance ~11 million new jobs while displacing ~9 million).
• AI exposure by function: market research and sales tasks have high automation potential — up to 50% of tasks for market analysts and 67% for sales representatives could be automated.
• Other growth sectors: green transition, healthcare, and education are among the fields creating demand.

Implications for recruiters and talent leaders

If you're in recruitment or internal talent acquisition, your role is changing. Transactional hiring — simply filling requisitions — is no longer sufficient. You need to become a strategic advisor to hiring managers and executives.

Three practical shifts to make now:

1. Move from order-taker to strategic partner

Help business leaders think about the return on hiring vs. the return on buy-or-build vs. fractional expertise. Educate stakeholders on revenue-per-head, automation potential, and the best use of human capital.

2. Understand where AI augments work

Be curious about tasks that are vulnerable to automation. The faster you can map a role's task list to what AI can handle, the faster you can redesign roles for impact.

3. Build a network of fractional talent

Create a bench of advisors, fractional operators, and consultants you can call on. Many small businesses will prefer that model — you’ll be able to match them faster and more strategically.

For professionals: a practical checklist to bet on yourself

Transitioning to a portfolio career or adapting within a firm requires a plan. Here's a short checklist you can act on this week:

1. Audit your daily tasks. Which are routine, and which require judgment, empathy, or creative problem-solving?
2. Experiment with AI tools for the routine tasks. Use them in your personal life first to build confidence.
3. Create a one-page offering document for a fractional role you could sell tomorrow.
4. Identify one industry (healthcare, green tech, data) where your skills could apply and start building content or outreach tailored to that niche.
5. Make a 90-day revenue plan: target one core client + two exploratory smaller clients.

Culture and mindset: the non-negotiables

I keep coming back to two behavioral traits that separate winners in this era: curiosity and courage.

"No one's coming to save you. You're in control of this."

That line from our conversation is blunt but true. Employers may not invest in deep AI training for every employee. If you wait for permission, you’ll fall behind. Instead, cultivate curiosity — tinker with tools, join communities, read, and test. Couple that with the courage to take small, calculated risks: launch a side consulting offer, sell five hours of advisory work, or build a single productized service.

How EQ.app fits into this future

At EQ.app our mission is Zero-Admin™. We build systems that remove the administrative drag from recruiting so teams can focus on strategy, relationship-building, and the human side of hiring. When AI handles the research, the outreach, and the repetitive admin, recruiters and executives can do what they do best: influence, coach, and make decisions that move the business forward.

If you're watching how the market is changing and asking, "What's my next move?" start by leaning into two things: tools that remove admin and a network that opens doors to fractional work.

Final thoughts — opportunity in uncertainty

Uncertainty is uncomfortable, but it's also fertile ground for new ideas. The Great Restructuring will create winners and losers. The differentiator won't be digital literacy alone; it will be the people who combine domain expertise, relationship skills, and the savvy use of AI tools to multiply impact.

Whether you're a recruiter looking to become a strategic adviser, an established leader thinking about a portfolio career, or a founder designing a lean, AI-enabled company — there is opportunity. The question is not whether change is coming. The question is: will you be curious enough, and bold enough, to make it happen?

If you want to dig deeper into the research we referenced (including the Great Restructuring white paper), or join a community of practitioners exploring AI in recruiting "EQ.app", come connect with us — there's a growing community of talent leaders sharing practical tactics, templates, and job-ready approaches for this new world.

Stay curious. Stay strategic. And back yourself — no one's coming to save you.