The staffing trade is stuffed with leaders who’re keen on AI. Fewer have truly dedicated to it. And fewer nonetheless have accomplished the onerous work of creating it operational throughout their organizations.
At Interact Boston 2026, Jason Niad, VP of product at Bullhorn, sat down with two executives who’ve made that shift: Wendy Kennah, COO of Procom Consultants Group, and Neil Bernstein, president and CEO of All Medical Personnel. The dialog wasn’t a method overview. It was an unfiltered account of what the C-suite AI determination truly appears like, funding conversations, resistant leaders, and the moments that made every of them sure they have been on the proper path.
Right here’s what they shared.
The tipping level that turned curiosity into motion
For each Kennah and Bernstein, the choice to put money into AI didn’t come from a single second. It got here from a number of issues converging directly.
Bernstein’s path began along with his personal workforce. His recruiters have been already utilizing ChatGPT to sharpen job descriptions, resumes, and consumer communications, so the proof of idea was already sitting inside his group.
However there’s a distinction between a public LLM and AI embedded in your ATS with your personal information behind it. Seeing Bullhorn Amplify on stage at Interact 2025 confirmed him what that potential seemed like at scale. Approaching contract renewal opened the door to a broader dialog with their account workforce. Three issues lined up, and the choice adopted.
Kennah’s path began earlier and extra experimentally. Procom started testing AI on doc compliance in the summertime of 2024, earlier than they have been on Amplify in any respect. Inside months, time to onboard dropped 30% to 40% and compliance error charges fell to single digits. These outcomes didn’t require a enterprise case. They made the subsequent step apparent.
For leaders nonetheless evaluating, the lesson from each is similar. Early experiments construct the organizational confidence that makes bigger commitments simpler to justify. When recruiters see outcomes, they need extra. When skeptics watch friends succeed, they need in.
Constructing the inner case for funding
Each leaders have been personally bought on AI. Getting their organizations there required greater than that. Staffing firms run lean, and new spend wants justification.
The extra sturdy argument got here from a strategic conviction each leaders shared: they wanted to scale with out including headcount. Framing AI as a capability lever, not a price line, proved persuasive throughout each organizations.
“We wished to make it possible for we might scale with out including the headcount, and the one method we have been going to try this was with operational effectivity.”
— Wendy Kennah, COO, Procom Consultants Group
Change administration is the true work
Deploying Amplify is a tradition shift, not a know-how rollout. Each organizations handled it that method from the beginning.
For Bernstein, his management workforce was a comparatively easy promote. They’d seen AI instruments producing outcomes and understood the chance. The tougher query was the right way to convey the broader workforce alongside, which each he and Kennah knew would take extra deliberate effort than a single announcement.
All Medical Personnel handled it as a company-wide initiative from the beginning. At their January all-hands kickoff, each worker acquired a t-shirt printed with “AI Ignite 2026.” Bernstein even made the onerous name to transition out a senior chief who wasn’t technically snug and couldn’t credibly carry the message to their workforce.
Procom constructed a middle of excellence the place tremendous customers developed and examined every immediate greater than 100 occasions earlier than broader rollout. Getting snug customers in entrance of resistant ones moved the needle sooner than any top-down mandate. The strategic conviction beneath each approaches was the identical.
Each leaders landed on the identical sequencing recommendation: begin inside earlier than going exterior. Resume formatting was their really helpful first step, low friction, instantly seen outcomes, and no candidate-facing publicity whereas the workforce builds confidence.
Early outcomes that proved the funding proper
At Procom, AI-powered doc checking throughout onboarding minimize time-to-onboard by 30% to 40% inside months of launch. Compliance error charges, beforehand a double-digit drawback, dropped to single digits. Catching points on the level of doc submission, relatively than on the finish of the method, meant candidates have been saving time and enhancing the expertise expertise.
On the recruiter aspect, Procom’s AI-enabled new hires at the moment are reaching their first billable placement in six weeks. Earlier than Amplify, that milestone sometimes got here at month three or 4.
At All Medical Personnel, duties that used to take an hour now take minutes. Recruiters have began naming their Amplify assistants and treating them like colleagues they will push again on and refine. That sort of private relationship with the device is a dependable sign that actual adoption has taken maintain.
What main companies are constructing towards
The staffing companies that lead in 2027 received’t appear to be those that led in 2022. The gross sales movement is altering, the transactional recruiter mannequin is giving solution to one thing extra strategic. AI is shifting away from being only a device to the system of motion recruiters run their day by way of.
Each Kennah and Bernstein see a close to future the place recruiters begin their morning in an Amplify dashboard that already is aware of what wants consideration, what’s closest to income, and the place follow-up is overdue. That future is already right here, and the hole between these constructing towards it now and people nonetheless evaluating will solely widen.
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