The People Who Can Actually Do
The Work With AI
- Found and Proven.
We recruit AI talent and AI-proficient knowledge workers for the roles that now run on AI — and we prove they can do the work before you ever meet them. Hire your own, or work with us.
You pay nothing until you hire.
25+ Years Placing Talent
Every Candidate Proven on Real AI Work
Nationwide Search
Replacement Guarantee
Everyone Says They're Good With AI. Almost Nobody Can Show It.
The Problem
Two years ago, a resume told you something. Today it was probably written with AI, the cover letter was written with AI, and so was the take-home assignment. The signals that used to separate a strong candidate from an average one became things anyone can produce on demand.
Meanwhile, the thing that matters most in a knowledge role has quietly changed. It is no longer whether someone has the skill. It is whether they can use AI to do that skill faster, deeper, and better than the person sitting next to them. That is the difference between a hire who compounds and a hire who costs.
Nothing in a normal hiring process measures it. An interview rewards the people who are good at interviewing. A resume rewards the people who are good at resumes. Neither one shows you who can put AI to work on the actual job.
What We Do
We Recruit for Knowledge Roles. Every Candidate Is Screened for AI Proficiency.
We run the search, we find the people, and before any of them reach your calendar, each one completes an assessment built around the real work of your job. Not a puzzle, not a personality quiz — a task they would genuinely face in their first month, done with AI, scored the same way for every candidate.
The result is a short list of people who have already proven they can do the work. You spend your time interviewing, not screening.
The Roles We Recruit for.
Any role where the work is thinking, writing, and analysis — the parts of a business AI actually touches. If the job produces judgment rather than transactions, AI proficiency shows up in the output within a week. These are also roles that travel: the skill is the skill, and the person can do it from anywhere.
Marketing
Finance & Accounting
We Recruit Nationwide,
and Most of These Roles Work Remote.
Customer Success
You Pay Nothing Until You Hire.
Then a percentage of their first-year base salary.
Replacement guarantee.
Operations & Project Management
HR & People
Strategy & Analysis
How it Works
Four Steps. The Same Every Time.
Our AI proficiency assessment — the AI Proficiency Candidate Evaluation System, or AI/PCES — works two ways.
Step 1
We Recruit
for Your Role.
Marketing, HR, operations, finance, and the other roles that now run on AI. We build the search around your job and we find the candidates.
Step 2
Every Candidate
Takes the Assessment.
We write a real task from the job you are filling, along with the checklist used to score it.
Step 3
They Do
It With AI.
Candidates work through the task in Claude or ChatGPT, then send back the entire conversation — not just the finished answer. How they set the task up and how they pushed the AI when its first answer fell short is the part that cannot be faked.
Step 4
You Meet
Only the Best.
We check every conversation against the same checklist. Yes or no, not opinion. You interview the people who passed.
Built for Business Owners,
Not IT Departments.
AI Quarterback is designed for companies with real teams, real operations, and real upside from getting AI right.
You're a fit if you're past the "should we use AI?" conversation and into "how do we actually do this." If you've experimented with ChatGPT or similar tools but haven't systematized anything. If you want someone who can translate AI into your specific business context — not hand you a generic playbook.
You're probably not a fit if you're looking for someone to build a software product from scratch, need ongoing managed IT services, or want a 6-month discovery phase before anything happens.
25 Years of Building Businesses.
AI Is the Biggest Edge I've Seen.
I'm Kevin Downey.
My path here wasn't traditional. I started as a golf professional, then moved into sales where the real work began. At 27, I became the youngest rep at Slazenger Golf Company and tripled my territory's revenue. A well-known golf pro advised my soon-to-be manager that "someone should hire Kevin before you-know-who nabs that kid." From there I sharpened my craft at Callaway Golf, then relocated to the Kansas City area in 2000.
By 2003, I launched Leawood Office Business Center, a multi-million dollar executive office suite development where I served as project manager — leveraging my sales and marketing background to drive occupancy, build brand awareness, and create long-term operational stability.
My path here wasn't traditional. I started as a golf professional, then moved into sales where the real work began. At 27, I became the youngest rep at Slazenger Golf Company and tripled my territory's revenue. A well-known golf pro advised my soon-to-be manager that "someone should hire Kevin before you-know-who nabs that kid." From there I sharpened my craft at Callaway Golf, then relocated to the Kansas City area in 2000.
By 2003, I launched Leawood Office Business Center, a multi-million dollar executive office suite development where I served as project manager — leveraging my sales and marketing background to drive occupancy, build brand awareness, and create long-term operational stability.
In 2014, I founded Kevin M. Downey — a recruitment and marketing firm I built from the ground up into a business that attracted acquisition interest. Over the following decade, I built scalable recruiting programs that placed top-tier sales talent globally, engineered a B2B email marketing system that sent over 100 million emails, and developed a methodology rooted in one principle: outperform, outwork, and overdeliver.
That full arc is what I bring to every AI engagement. I came to AI the same way I came to everything else — by doing it. I've built AI-powered workflows across prospecting, training, content, and operations. Not in a lab. Inside real businesses with real constraints.
My background in philosophy — graduate work in logic and linguistics at Lewis University — trained me to think in systems and ask better questions. That's what AI rewards. Not technical credentials. Better thinking applied to your specific problems.
I'm not an engineer. I'm the person who sits between the technology and the business owner and makes sure the right things get built. Originally from Orland Park, IL. University of Iowa graduate and enthusiastic Hawkeye fan to this day. Kansas City based since 2000.
Testimonials
What Clients Are Saying
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Every business knows AI can help — few know where to start. Kevin's program bridges that gap and turns real opportunities into real results.
— Ferre Vreysen
Leading AI Automation Specialist, Belgium -
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I use Kevin the way most people wish they could use a consultant — I call him when I'm thinking through something hard and he helps me get to the answer faster. He introduced me to AI as a thinking tool, not just a productivity hack, and that shift alone was worth everything.
— Blademir Hernandez
Owner, MetroEdge Facility Services -
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I've been mentoring business owners through SCORE for years, and AI kept coming up in conversations — but I didn't have a good answer for them. Kevin changed that. He trained me hands-on, and within a week Claude has enabled me to provide much better information and help in my mentoring sessions. Now I recommend him to every business owner I work with who asks about AI.
— Ed Doering
SCORE Mentor, Kansas City Chapter
Contact Us
Start the Conversation That Moves Your Business Forward
Get In Touch
Contact us today to discuss what we can do for your company.
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