AI agents and assistants are no longer a thing of the future – they’re here, and they’re already making a splash in recruitment. Right now, 15% of firms have purchased or developed AI solutions of some kind, and another 52% are experimenting with generative AI on some level, according to Bullhorn’s 15th annual GRID Industry Trends Report.
And firms aren’t just giving AI a try – they’re already focused on making the most of AI agents and assistants to amplify the power of their workforces. Because AI and automation help to turn recruiter productivity into profitability, it’s no surprise that this year’s report found that their use at every stage of the recruitment lifecycle is correlated with increased revenue.
So how are top-performing recruitment firms using AI to help their workforces become more productive and their businesses more profitable? Let’s dive into this year’s GRID Industry Trends Report and see what over 1,500 staffing pros had to say.
1. Finding better job matches
37% of respondents in this year’s survey said that they’re using AI to achieve better job matches. And that’s not all – these staffing professionals predicted that search and match is likely to be the best use case for AI, especially when recruitment-specific tools trained on their own data are available. Responses in this year’s report suggest that, with AI agents, recruiters believe they could save 4.5 hours per week on search and match alone.
How does it work? AI takes the hassle out of sourcing by instantly expanding your search — no complex Boolean strings needed. The moment a job comes in, AI agents provide you with a list of top candidate matches from both inside and outside your database, allowing you to engage with them immediately and move them forward to the next stage. Plus, AI sourcing agents identify the candidates that are most likely to get hired using AI relevancy ranking. All of this helps eliminate what GRID survey respondents said was the biggest friction point in the entire recruitment process: candidates being matched for jobs that are not a good fit.
As Javar Manning of Miller Brother Staffing said, “The speed and accuracy of matching resumes to jobs is just faster, more detailed, and more accurate than other products.”
2. Communicating faster and at scale
Recruitment is all about communication, from reaching out to new clients and candidates to answering questions from talent to writing clear job descriptions. AI assistants make it easy for recruiters to get their message across more clearly and quickly than ever before. 37% of GRID respondents said that AI has already helped them achieve faster response times.
And AI isn’t removing the personal element that’s so essential to recruitment. Instead, it’s making it easier for recruiters to connect at scale. 39% of respondents said that they were using AI for more personalized outreach – which was actually the most common use of AI agents and assistants reported in the GRID 2025 Industry Trends Report.
“People often run into writer’s block – how do I write this message? The easiest fallback is usually an old, outdated template that’s been sitting around for years,” said James Veale of Meet. “With the AI Assistant, we can help them create a first draft of a message or job description. It updates the content, includes the right information, and ensures it’s more aligned with what the client or candidate is looking for.”
And this use of AI assistants is already paying off; top-performing firms were 50% more likely to be using AI to achieve faster response times. Candidates are noticing the difference, too. In last year’s GRID Talent Trends Report, featuring the survey results of more than 2,400 global contingent workers, 63% of candidates working with AI said they received faster response times – and the same report found that timely communication drives candidate loyalty.
3. Streamlining onboarding
15% of staffing pros said that onboarding and paperwork are the biggest sources of friction in the talent experience. And talent agrees – in the GRID Talent Trends Report, respondents said that work authorization and onboarding were some of their top pain points in their experiences with recruitment agencies.
The good news: AI is already making this process easier. 30% of staffing pros are already using AI agents and assistants to streamline administrative processes like onboarding. Gone are the days of chasing candidates for work authorization forms – AI and automation take care of the heavy lifting and get your candidates to work faster, without the headaches.
Productivity = profitability
Your team and talent aren’t the only ones who will see gains from AI agents and assistants. Firms that delight talent at every stage of the recruitment lifecycle – from engaging candidates to having the right job matches to readily redeploying top candidates – are twice as likely to see higher revenue. Simply put, productivity leads to profitability for your business.
Agencies are already seeing stronger revenue as a result of leveraging AI agents and assistants throughout the recruitment lifecycle:
The key to driving worker productivity without adding headcount lies in AI agents and assistants infused throughout the entire recruitment lifecycle. Because every single stage of recruitment is equally important to delighting talent, it’s essential that firms have AI amplifying their every step, strung together in one cohesive solution, trained on your data to guide your teams towards the ideal outcomes. With end-to-end AI agents and assistants amplifying the power of your workforce in every step, your clients will get better talent, faster – meaning that you’ll see benefit in your bottom line.
As AI agents and assistants become more powerful, these gains will increase, and the gap between those leveraging AI and those not will become wider. As Bev White, CEO of Nash Squared, said at last year’s Engage London, “Fundamentally, this is a people industry, but AI can be your greatest ally.”
