The 2025 Talent Shift: Why Top CEOs Are Hiring Virtual Assistants Before Full-Time Staff By Tony Ajhar | Business Strategist

In boardrooms across the country, a quiet recalibration is taking place. The post-pandemic workforce has matured into a hybrid ecosystem, one that increasingly leans on global virtual assistants (VAs) as strategic support to high-performing U.S.-based teams. What was once considered a cost-cutting measure is now seen as an intelligent first move in operational design.

Across sectors—tech, finance, e-commerce, healthcare—executives are rethinking how they structure teams, and virtual staffing is emerging as the nucleus of lean, scalable growth.

“We don’t hire assistants. We hire force multipliers,” says David Rush , COO of Access Virtual Staffing and Best Selling Author of the book, "Remote Power". “A full-time VA allows our internal team to remain focused on innovation and execution.”

Rather than replacing American workers, companies are hiring VAs to protect them, from burnout, from admin bloat, and from the kinds of low-leverage tasks that hinder creative output.

A New Hiring Sequence

Gone are the days when startups rushed to hire junior staff for every function. Today’s founders and operators are beginning with full-time VAs who can manage communications, data entry, CRM hygiene, inbox management, and AI-assisted content workflows. So that their U.S. teams can prioritize leadership, strategy, and product innovation.

A recent McKinsey study found that 62% of executives now favor a hybrid staffing model that blends in-house leadership with virtual execution. Businesses using this structure scaled 35% faster and retained talent longer than those using traditional models.

“Remote isn’t a compromise anymore, it’s an edge,” says Erica Wallace, COO at fintech firm Lumino. “We built a 12-person team across five countries in 90 days. Eight were VAs. Our U.S. team moved faster because they weren’t bogged down.”

The Role of AI-Ready VAs

Today’s VAs are not generalists answering phones. They are operators fluent in platforms like Slack, Notion AI, Zapier,GoHighLevel and HubSpot. Many arrive already trained in AI-assisted workflows, allowing them to handle complex systems from day one.

According to McKinsey Digital’s 2024 workplace survey, 99% of C-suite leaders and 94% of employees report familiarity with generative AI tools, with a significant portion expecting adoption to become widespread within a year.

“The right VA doesn’t just take tasks off your plate,” says Liam Cross, CEO of a $400 million SaaS portfolio. “They become the plate.”

Case Study: Margin as a Growth Strategy

Maya Linton, CEO of a Chicago-based edtech firm, faced a familiar problem: overburdened U.S. staff and stalled product development. “My best people were fielding customer emails and formatting newsletters. They were disengaged.”

Linton brought on two full-time VAs. Within weeks, response times improved by 39%, client onboarding accelerated, and internal satisfaction scores jumped. Most importantly, her American team had the bandwidth to launch a new product.

“Hiring VAs didn’t eliminate jobs, it saved them,” she says. “It gave my team space to grow.”

Collaboration, Not Competition

The introduction of VAs is not a threat to domestic employment—it’s a safeguard. A 2023 Harvard Business Review report found that teams using remote collaboration tools like Slack and Zoom whiteboards saw a 25% increase in engagement and output. Delegation, when intentional, doesn’t dilute performance. It amplifies it.

As virtual assistants handle the procedural and repetitive, in-house teams are liberated to focus on relationship-building, client experience, and long-term innovation.

“Our VAs are the infrastructure beneath our best people,” says Julian Reeves, a venture partner at Polaris Capital. “They make sure the talent we fought to hire stays focused on what moves the needle.”

The Economics of Leverage

A mid-level U.S. hire costs an average of $68,000 annually, not including benefits or taxes. A full-time, AI-trained VA averages between $20,000–$30,000. For startups and growth-stage firms, that delta isn’t about savings—it’s about redeployment.

Founders are reinvesting the margin into R&D, marketing, and retention. And in a capital-efficient market, leverage—not headcount is the name of the game.

Conclusion: The Smartest Companies Hire Differently

The 2025 labor market is not about choosing between offshore or onshore. It’s about building an ecosystem. Virtual assistants, when trained, integrated, and treated as long-term assets, give businesses the operational lift they need without compromising their culture or core.

They aren’t displacing American workers.

They’re defending them.

And they’re giving the smartest CEOs something even more valuable than money...time.