Blogs by tag - AI · Barclay Jones

Is Recruitment Ready for AI? Why 2025 Should Be Your Year of Preparation

There’s no doubt that AI is reshaping recruitment—but is the recruitment industry truly ready for it?In a recent battle planning chat with a client, I raised concerns about the readiness of most recruitment businesses to adopt AI meaningfully. While AI is already being used for tasks like note-taking, blog writing, research, creating prompts to help with screening and sales, I think that real transformation requires much more thought and time.For most recruitment firms, poor data quality and fragmented recruitment processes remain major barriers. If 2024 was the year of AI curiosity, 2025 needs to be the year of AI readiness.Get Your Recruitment House in Order FirstI think that recruitment leaders need to use the next 6–12 months to improve internal systems, particularly focusing on data hygiene (data wealth) and process automation. Too many firms are chasing shiny AI tools before ensuring their candidate and client data is clean, current, and usable. In fact, many recruitment CRMs are disorganised—polls show that messy and unstable databases are the norm, not the exception.Automation StrugglesEven the biggest players are feeling the pinch. I often hear of large enterprises struggling to get automation really driving performance due to internal resistance and territorial "leave my data alone" behaviour. Siloed departments, and change-averse individuals can inadvertently block progress, making it difficult to implement even basic automations and change.Plus, as much as the industry is keen to adopt efficiencies and tech, it's often not driving change through continuous, engaging, recruitment training.Automation and AI needs to be "sold" to recruiters with a WIIFM (What's in it for me?) approach. Even the best-intentioned recruiter may find it hard to step into the space that automation and AI creates for them.Have you been hired, or been the one doing the hiring, in the last 5 years? The turbulence, blind-siding, speed of change, means that stopping to take a breath and ensure best practice is a big ask!AI Can’t Replace Relationships (Yet!)My client gave a compelling example of AI not really driving the best outcome when their client was trying to use AI instead of their recruitment business.Luckily my client had the time and knowledge to step in and prevent their client from making a mistake.AI had failed to select the right candidate for a role, missing vital nuances only a seasoned recruitment consultant would catch. They campaigned for the candidate that AI had rejected. The client interviewed and offered!It’s a strong reminder that recruitment remains a relationship-driven business. AI can support consultants, but it can’t replace their ability to read people, understand market subtleties, or build long-term trust. (Yet...)Getting Back to Being Recruitment CONSULTANTSI encourage recruitment leaders to rethink traditional recruiting models—especially the classic 360 / 180 recruitment role.With automation and AI streamlining admin and sourcing, do you really need consultants to do everything? This could be the moment to specialise, refocus roles, and hire people who are better suited to today’s more tech-enabled recruitment landscape.There are way too many recruitment consultants who are actually recruitment co-ordinators / administrators. Large, dirty data sets, managed by untrained recruiters makes for a very transactional process, and this is at a time when recruiters really need to get back to consulting. (The clue is in the job title...)From Vicious to VirtuousThe recruitment industry’s heavy reliance on LinkedIn— which I think is one of the dirtiest databases—is another sign that recruiting firms aren’t maximising their own data or opportunity. The irony? Many of the best candidates are already sitting in your CRMs, but are overlooked in favour of job boards and external sourcing. This results in a vicious cycle of wasted time, rising costs, and lost opportunities.A recent poll confirmed this.Instead, recruitment businesses must create a virtuous cycle: invest in clean data, automate wisely, and help consultants to focus on consulting. With proper engagement, re-engaged candidates and clients can convert faster and generate more revenue than cold leads.The Road Ahead for RecruitersMy client summed it up well: their goals for the next six months are about efficiency, pushing back against unfair client demands, and focusing on higher-value deals.Yes! This is the mindset the industry needs.AI isn’t magic—but with smart preparation, clean data, and clear processes, it can be a game-changer for recruitment. Let 2025 be the year your recruitment business gets truly AI-ready.Automation Buddy / Bullhorn RoIWe are Automation Buddies set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses who want to increase speed and sales.We coach to inspire, and build your automations so you can recruit and sell!Plus, through our Bullhorn Vision service we help generate serious ROI from your Bullhorn, data, and people.READ ABOUT OUR AUTOMATION BUDDY SERVICECONTACT US ABOUT BULLHORN ROI

AI Recruiter Tip ~ Turbo Your Candidate Screening and Sales Calls with AI

Try this intelligent 1-minute AI tip to help you turbo-boost your recruitment screening and sales calls. AI is the new black... but its impact on recruitment and recruiters has yet to be truly understood.And whilst it's not yet going to handle the full recruitment life cycle, I wanted to share my take on how AI could be used to drive great recruitment phone calls! (In seconds!)Pickup the Phone!I'm a big fan of recruiters using tech to help them drive profitable desks.I'm also a massive fan of picking up the phone and speaking to people.But it seems the more tech and data recruiters get, the less time they spend talking to candidates and clients.Having access to tech should not reduce the need to speak to people, but somehow, recruiters seem to be making less calls.Phone calls ~ MonetisedWhat I also often hear from recruitment leaders is that screening and sales calls are not structured well enough.But…Candidate screening / registration calls need to be more than box-ticking “are you alive?” chats.Dropouts and counter offers can be avoided if screening and registration calls are more structured.Leads could be better qualified, or even disqualified if sales calls were more focussed.On my Recruitment HIIT recruitment training system, we have lots of tips and tricks to help you recruit better, sell more effectively, and use tech to create a rewarding and profitable recruitment desk. AI is top of many a recruiter's "how can I?" list - so I’ve created a short 1-minute tip to help recruiters use AI to “SPIN” their screening and sales calls.Watch my 1-minute Bullhorn tip - then go to your preferred AI tool and use it to help you generate some killer questions to help you turbo your screening and registration calls, and sales calls.Watch My AI SPIN Selling Tip for RecruitersNeed more Linkedin / Bullhorn / Automation / Recruitment Tips? Try our 1-minute tips.Be sure to sign up for (or watch the recordings of) our regular free Bullhorn and Automation webinars.CHECK OUT OUR WEBINARSRecruitment TrainingWe deliver the best Recruitment and Bullhorn training through live webinars and our online training platform, Recruitment HIIT.TRY HIIT FREE HERE