21,663 candidate screens accomplished monthly. 49% enchancment in submittal-to-hire ratio. 59% sooner time to fill. 39% sooner new rent ramp-up. These aren’t hypothetical statistics — they’re the outcomes that main recruitment agency IDR has already seen after implementing Bullhorn’s next-generation AI answer, Amplify.
To share the secrets and techniques behind their success, IDR COO Will Hayes sat down with Bullhorn’s Staci Chapman at Have interaction Boston 2025. He gave us an in-depth have a look at how his agency is reworking their recruitment course of with AI and seeing unbelievable outcomes.
Why AI grew to become a no brainer for IDR
Will Hayes kicked off the dialogue by sharing IDR’s early forays into AI, sparked by the launch of ChatGPT in 2023. By that summer season, they have been already exploring AI options, seeing it as a pure development of their automation and information cleanup initiatives — however their first main “aha!” second got here with candidate screening.
The rapid advantages of utilizing AI within the candidate screening course of have been two-fold: enhancing the candidate expertise and unlocking missed alternatives. 1000’s of purposes sometimes went untouched, making a “black gap” for candidates and leaving cash on the desk for IDR. Amount comes from high quality, Hayes mentioned, including, “I believe good high quality is derived from excessive volumes of output,” he mentioned. By leveraging AI to course of 1000’s extra candidates, they gained higher choices and finally, higher high quality placements.
The AI adoption journey
Whereas IDR has a powerful historical past of expertise adoption, Hayes famous that AI is a special beast. In contrast to fast stand-up options for job boards or different integrations, AI integration calls for a deeper thought course of. The problem isn’t the implementation pace — it was fairly quick for Hayes and his crew — however quite bringing your crew alongside on the journey. This includes important change administration, specializing in adoption, enablement, equipping workers, and establishing sturdy suggestions loops. Studying these classes has finally matured IDR’s method to expertise rollouts throughout the group.
The adoption course of is extremely iterative, provided that AI inserts itself into core, long-established phases of the recruitment workflow. It disrupts conventional pondering round sourcing and matching — consider the shift from Boolean strings to AI-powered search. These ongoing conversations require discovering the “better of each worlds,” as Hayes put it, to profit each the enterprise’s prime and backside strains, in addition to the individuals doing the work.
So, how did IDR get their crew excited and purchased into AI? Hayes’ reply was easy: lead by instance and be within the trenches. As COO, he’s copied on 1000’s of screening agent outcomes every month. Whereas he doesn’t evaluate each single one, he randomly picks out some to interact immediately with recruiters and gross sales reps, offering personalised suggestions like, “Hey, this one seems nice. Attain out to them in an electronic mail.” This hands-on method demonstrates that AI is a precedence for management, fostering belief and exhibiting that this isn’t simply one other mandate from above.
The street to adoption gained’t be good. As with every new expertise, particularly AI, bumps are inevitable. The hot button is teaching groups on methods to react when issues aren’t good and speaking that the long-term return is definitely worth the short-term challenges. “The perfect recommendation is to push your group by the method and be there with them,” mentioned Hayes.
IDR’s AI-infused workflow and future imaginative and prescient
In the case of integrating AI into your groups’ workflows, Hayes beneficial specializing in information high quality and understanding your Bullhorn subject structure. “I actually assume that’s an ignored step on this course of,” Hayes mentioned. “Get entangled along with your crew to know the sphere maps and the structure of your system earlier than you begin storing and changing information contained in the group’s core system.” As soon as the information basis is stable, you possibly can leverage instruments like Bullhorn Automation to superpower your processes with AI.
Certainly one of IDR’s core visions for AI is simplifying workers coaching and improvement. Lots of their crew members don’t even notice AI is working within the background. For instance, once they obtain a screening evaluation end result, they don’t see the 1000’s of different candidates routed, vetted, and screened by automations; they only see the highest few. This seamless integration requires a deep understanding of the candidate journey. Hayes recommends experiencing this journey firsthand by going by your individual web site, chatbot, and software processes — and never simply as soon as. “This isn’t like a three-month challenge,” he mentioned. “You need to do that now, and it is best to do it typically.”
IDR has even adjusted recruiter metrics to incentivize AI adoption, as an illustration, by tying ramp bonuses to a proportion of submissions coming from Bullhorn AI instruments. This has led to recruiters doubling and tripling placements because of the simplicity of the AI-powered workflow.
Wanting forward, AI is now not a query of “if” for IDR, however “methods to proceed to innovate.” The pace of product improvement with AI means new use instances emerge continually. The main focus shifts to empowering groups to be progressive, take away obstacles, and give you new prompts and methods of pondering to realize higher-quality and sooner outcomes. The longer term holds an thrilling transformation of the consumer and candidate expertise, shifting in direction of a extra aggressive, virtually e-commerce-like marketplace for expertise.
Taking the leap
Hayes’ parting recommendation for these contemplating AI adoption got here down to 3 factors:
- Embrace the mindset: AI is not only an add-on product; it’s an architectural shift. It’s an “agentic structure”—a mind-set about your small business end-to-end. AI is right here to remain, and progressively shifting your small business is the precise transfer.
- Make the operational shift: That is the place the heavy lifting happens. AI merchandise work, however you have to make them work to your individuals. Operational shifts in administration and coaching are essential, as adoption charges for AI can drop from 100% to 0% if not actively nurtured. Management involvement within the weeds is vital to driving and sustaining adoption.
- Take the steps to get there: When you embedded brokers into our broader automation technique, we actually noticed the ROI speed up. Weave AI into each step of your workflow, and let it take the lead in search, match, and screening.
Past the numbers, Hayes identified that AI improves the work-life stability for recruiters and gross sales professionals. It frees them from mundane duties like in depth resume formatting, permitting them to deal with higher-value actions. This “life-style change for the higher” will turn out to be an ordinary expectation for expertise becoming a member of organizations.
Leaders like Hayes are paving the way in which for a extra environment friendly, efficient, and finally, extra human-centric trade. By leaping in, getting began, and dealing in lockstep along with your crew to undertake AI, you and your crew can be part of the slicing fringe of recruitment.
