[Podcast] Industry Spotlight | Maximizing AI ROI in Recruiting: Efficiency, Upskilling, and Competitive Advantage with Lauren Jednat

Lauren Jednat [00:00:00]:
Initially, AI, there was this big kind of jump scare that it was going to take everybody’s jobs. And so the idea that we really like to project is that it’s augmenting your business. It is not replacing people. When you’re considering those 250 calls that you have your recruiters doing, each on a weekly basis, and you’re removing that from the top of the funnel because the agent’s doing that for you, that means more submittals, more placements, more. More revenue, expanding your team. We still have to have humans in this process and in this industry. But this is something that in a smart way can be replaced. That’s ultimately going to generate more revenue and more efficiencies across the board.

Kortney Harmon [00:00:44]:
Hi, I’m Kortney Harmon, director of Industry relations at Crelate. This is the Industry Spotlight, a series of the Full desk experience, a Crelate original podcast. In this series, we will talk with top leaders and influencers who are shaping the talent industry, shining a light on popular trends, the latest news, and the stories that laid the groundwork for their success. Welcome back to another episode of the Full Desk Experience. Industry Spotlight. Welcome back to another episode of the Full Desk Experience. I’m your host, Kortney Harmon, director of Industry relations here at Crelate, and today I have an incredible guest joining me, and we’re going to deep dive into AI sourcing agents and their ROI impact on recruiting. You know, I’ve been watching this industry evolve, and we’re truly at a pivotal moment.

Kortney Harmon [00:01:37]:
Just last week, I saw some partners going together, brands replacing order takers at 61,000 restaurants with voice AI bots. 300,000 jobs transformed. Now, I know that’s actually not in our same industry, but it’s impacting us just in the same way. So instead of debating which piece of AI to use, the world has fundamentally shifted around us. So Lauren and I are going to talk about that today. So I am thrilled to welcome Lauren Judnett. She is one of my favorite and frequent guests to discuss our topic today. And we’re going to discuss how AI sourcing agents are really revolutionizing the recruiting industry, moving us away from that traditional search method to true discovery within maybe our existing systems that connect to the outside world.

Kortney Harmon [00:02:24]:
Key piece. So we’re going to dive into that financial impact, efficiency gains, and really what it means for leaders positioning themselves for success in 2025. So, Lauren, thank you so much for taking out of your busy, busy schedule to sit with me for a small portion of time. So thank you.

Lauren Jednat [00:02:40]:
Of course, I’m happy to thank You.

Kortney Harmon [00:02:42]:
I’m excited. This is actually pieces and parts of your talk from Naps and you got to be on the webinar for Relate here a few weeks ago. There’s some exciting things going on and I’m excited to pick your brain about what you know and kind of apply it to our industry because, let’s face it, we both were in this industry and it has changed drastically since we were there.

Lauren Jednat [00:03:00]:
Oh my gosh. I think about it all the time whenever I’m on with customers. I mean, I’m meeting with 5 to 10, talking to them at the very least of our customer base daily and thinking. I feel like what I did was so archaic at this point. It’s amazing to see the evolution of the industry and how it’s been influenced by AI.

Kortney Harmon [00:03:19]:
I love it. And honestly, I think we probably should start with the basics. I think there’s still confusion in our industry about what we’re really talking about here. I just did a talk last week at Colorado Staffing association and I talked about AI agents and people were like, huh? And I just, we just dropped the podcast last week and it says sourcing is dead. They’re like, you’re not wrong, but what do I do? It has ensued so much panic and people are kind of clamming up. So let’s talk about if you can explain what an AI sourcing agent is and how they’re changing the game by shifting recruiting from that traditional search to what we’re calling discovery within your ats.

Lauren Jednat [00:03:55]:
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s common amongst the industry for there to be questions. And sometimes people are afraid to ask what an agent is because it’s just become this common term that everybody’s talking about and they’re like, it seems like I should know what this is and how it functions and what I should do with it. But it’s just because AI has been evolving so, so rapidly. So I get the questions, but hopefully we answer some of them today for the audience. So for me, the AI agent, it should really function as a full time employee for the company. So it’s the job of the agent is to be constantly learning from your data and your preferred candidates in the system, your preferred prospects, the types of companies that make sense strategic account for business development as opposed to this massive pool of companies that are all across LinkedIn and all these other platforms that we’re pulling data down from. So the agent’s job is to recognize your patterns of behavior.

Lauren Jednat [00:04:57]:
Who are you making placements with, what industry is that in? And identifying and Learning from those things to give you top tier suggestive results that you can then take action with. So it’s really removing so much of the manual labor that goes into candidate sourcing and prospecting with business development.

Kortney Harmon [00:05:20]:
I love that. I think at some point in time you said it should be full time. Can you elaborate more of what that means and kind of how, how that helps our leaders think?

Lauren Jednat [00:05:31]:
Absolutely. So full time is going to be key as many of you are currently shopping for agents or may begin shopping for an AI agent in the near future to just keep up with the times really. But some of these agents, as you’re shopping and we’re going to talk about some key points here for what you should be looking for in this technology here in a little bit together, but some of them are credit based or they only function and are learning eight hours a week or 40 hours a month. And you have to read the fine print. So whenever you are selecting your tech stack, your tools, you’re supplementing. You really need an agent that’s full time. I mean, and even when we talk about it learning when you’re not online. So when you’re logging off at 5 or 6pm, the agent is still learning from your data.

Lauren Jednat [00:06:21]:
It’s considering from an outsourcing perspective all of the updates and changes that are happening across the board as People update their LinkedIn, they started with a new company, they have a new job title, there’s a change in leadership somewhere a company might have closed. Where are those employees going? Who’s absorbing them? So the agent should be a full time employee that’s learning and then giving you the most valuable information in return. So we’ll talk a little bit more about how often they should be working for you, but it really should be a full time employee concept because it’s an investment.

Kortney Harmon [00:06:57]:
It is an investment and I love that. I know I’ve been on demos and other calls and we probably are going to get into this later, but we’re talking about ROI is people are worried that AI is going to replace jobs. And while I understand that, I almost think it’s upskilling our entire base of who we are. Who wouldn’t want something that’s sourcing and working for you or discovering things 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But then you upskill your sourcer to a recruiter and they’re able to perform their job better because they understand the foundational awareness of that role to begin with much sooner, much earlier. So I look at it on a scale of let’s upskill roles, not replace roles.

Lauren Jednat [00:07:37]:
So yeah, and that’s something I actually spoke about in naps as well. So we were talking and initially AI there was this big kind of jump scare that it was going to take everybody’s jobs. And so the idea that we really like to project is that it’s augmenting your business. It is not replacing people. When you’re considering those 250 calls that you have your recruiters doing, each on a weekly basis and you’re removing that from the top of the funnel because the agent’s doing that for you, that means more submittals, more placements, more revenue, expanding your team. We still have to have humans in this process and in this industry. But this is something that in a smart way can be replaced. That’s ultimately going to generate more revenue and more efficiencies across the board.

Kortney Harmon [00:08:27]:
I love it. I’ve been saying this for months now and the data really is backing it up. But I just did that podcast on the old way of sourcing is dead. If you’re relying on methods from, I hate to say this, 2020 was Covid and everybody remember, remembers the struggle we had in 2020. But if you’re still relying on the methods from 2020, heck, even five months ago, it’s not cutting it anymore. And if teams are still doing that, they’re falling behind. Now here’s what the numbers say. 61% of leaders cite sourcing as their top challenge.

Kortney Harmon [00:09:00]:
However, 37% of those people blame it on inefficient tools for their struggles. That was mind blowing to me. But let’s talk how AI technology is helping recruiters tap into that hidden talent with their existing database to tackle this issue head on.

Lauren Jednat [00:09:16]:
Yeah, I mean you’re absolutely right. I think if this was 2020, and I’ve told you this before, the way that I was trained to recruit would be completely ar archaic at this point. And I probably wouldn’t even have a job. I wouldn’t know how to function if that was my, my go to. But then I also think about just the past six to 12 months. I mean last fall we were in Staffing World together and the keynote speaker was phenomenal. But everybody was just talking about AI and the future of AI. And if we consider how evolved AI has, like how, how quickly it’s evolved just since last fall, it hasn’t even been a year.

Lauren Jednat [00:09:56]:
And the next thing is agents. So for me, if we’re not adopting these agents now, you’re just continuing honestly to fall behind and so these agents, it, it’s. For me, it’s a couple of things. Today’s culture, it’s no longer a challenge to find people. I think the problem is the opposite, in fact. Everybody’s online, everybody’s got a profile on LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter X or wherever. We are finding these individuals, they’ resumes all over. Indeed.

Lauren Jednat [00:10:24]:
And all these other platforms. The pool, the candidate pool is like too big now. And then the thing that really sits with me is there’s absolutely no way that a person, no matter how seasoned they are in recruiting, can go through hundreds of resumes and profiles as quickly as an agent can. It’s scanning and flipping and scanning and flipping. And there’s just the efficiency. It’s unmatched. You can’t even compare the two. So for all of these teams that are adopting the agents and going through hundreds of resumes that much more quickly and then proceeding with the humanized process of screening and interviewing and submitting and building the relationship, which is key and why we still have to be in the industry, anybody that’s not doing that is moving a hundred times slower at the top of their funnel.

Kortney Harmon [00:11:18]:
Absolutely. And honestly, with the other side of this coin is AI is helping people apply to jobs faster. And the amount of increase, I think 75 applicants per position per minute are likely to go to like 250. I talked to one of Chris Allaire, he was on the podcast and he talked about this thing. He’s like, I don’t go to the well every time. Because honestly, there’s so much junk. I don’t know who’s right, who’s wrong, I don’t have the time. And when there’s hundreds of candidates per minute applying because of these AI things, there’s no way I can source them.

Kortney Harmon [00:11:52]:
There’s no way it’s manageable.

Lauren Jednat [00:11:53]:
Yeah, well, and that’s the other great thing about the agent. We haven’t even touched on it, but the agent’s constantly scanning all these different resources and telling you, hey, this person’s job title changed. Hey, this position, you know, just came open. This changed. Like this phone number’s updated, this email is updated. So it’s pulling down the most recent information. Because when we’re sourcing from multiple platforms and most people, most companies that are mid size in our industry have five to 10 different platforms included in their tech stack. How do you know which one’s the most updated? It’s not timestamped, it doesn’t say.

Lauren Jednat [00:12:28]:
Updated on May 1, 2021. So the agent’s able to see the newest data and suggestively provide that to you. And that’s really the thing, it’s funneling all of those efforts down that don’t require a person so that you can take the hands on approach to taking the top tier candidates or the best potential clients and prospects and then building the relationship and making the placements.

Kortney Harmon [00:12:56]:
It’s mind blowing. And honestly the numbers really behind this talk, because the ROI story is really compelling. I think the numbers right now today are industry reports. They’re saying that AI can slash hiring costs by 30% and can cut time to hire by 50 to 70% and we’re seeing 81% of companies reduce time to fill up to 90%. So based on observations across the recruiting sector, how are AI sourcing agents driving these financial and efficiency improvements for recruiting teams? Because I know, I know you’ve seen it, I know you’re talking about it, I know you’ve seen firsthand. So talk to me about that.

Lauren Jednat [00:13:33]:
The conversations are different based on the business model, the objectives. See if they’re doing executive level or skilled trade staffing. What I’m seeing is the individuals that have been researching this and learning about agents and the capability and they understand the general concept at the very least, if they’re looking to expand their team. So for one, they’re not looking to hire a new BD person and then spend six weeks training them about the business and then another four on their tech stack and their platforms and then giving them a three month adoption period. They’re looking at taking that salary that they were considering investing into expanding the team and they’re going to invest it into an agent and then that agent can learn from Joe who’s the most productive, you know, top performer and learn what Joe’s doing. Right. And then funnel everything and continue to learn and then Joe’s going to be able to distribute those new clients down the funnel and you can see the ripple effect from there. So that’s one thing is reimagining.

Lauren Jednat [00:14:42]:
We have this budget, what are we going to do with it? And I don’t think the training time is talked about enough. I mean the agents come ready to go. So you’re eliminating all of those resources for training.

Kortney Harmon [00:14:56]:
I can tell you I was a director of learning and development for an organization and new franchise model for MRI. I was 12 weeks. People were with me 12 weeks.

Lauren Jednat [00:15:07]:
Yeah.

Kortney Harmon [00:15:08]:
If it was a new hire, they were with me for a minimum of three. They were on probation for a minimum of a month and a half. We were seeing what they were doing. Holy Moses. That is mind blowing to how quickly.

Lauren Jednat [00:15:19]:
They ramp up and you’re paying them their standard salary that whole time. And then I was training recruiters when I was with Aerotech and we literally had the device that plugged into the desk phone so I could have two phones at the same time and I had to listen in on all of their calls. And like, so then me as a producer, I’m away from my desk.

Kortney Harmon [00:15:38]:
Yeah.

Lauren Jednat [00:15:38]:
Training them to run their desk. And you’re eliminating all of that interruption into the efficiencies in your process. So that’s one of the really big things is that’s being considered is reallocation of that salary to generate more revenue and then expand the team ultimately. But also the training time and expenses are being greatly cut down. So ultimately we’re not looking to replace a team member. We’re looking to invest at a lower cost into efficient AI tools and agent that is going to grow your business so that you can then hire and expand in a way that is going to better benefit your finances, your business model and expansion.

Kortney Harmon [00:16:22]:
Yeah. And you might have had initial insights to say, I’m going to hire a sourcer before the end of the year. But now with these agents, you’re like, okay, maybe you know what, I need more business development. I need more leads coming in. So you might have just changed the, the trajectory of how your business is working. Not necessarily who you’re hiring, just allocate funds differently. Reimagine. I’m going to use your word, reimagine.

Lauren Jednat [00:16:44]:
Yeah, that’s the big thing too. A lot of people get caught up with the term sourcing. Replacing a source or sourcing. And for me, and what I’ve experienced is that really leans more towards the candidate side of things. And so I know here at cree late, we’re re, we’re leaning into discovery. So we’re discovering strategic accounts, we’re discovering who the key player is there. That’s going to be the decision maker much more quickly make those connections. And then as well, obviously the candidate side of things, but across the board.

Kortney Harmon [00:17:17]:
Now I’m going to ask you a question we didn’t talk about. Are you ready?

Lauren Jednat [00:17:20]:
I’m ready.

Kortney Harmon [00:17:20]:
I know you would be.

Lauren Jednat [00:17:22]:
We’ll see. We’ll find out.

Kortney Harmon [00:17:25]:
Do you think that gap, the gap between those that are using AI and not using AI, do you think that is getting. And this is what I’m assuming, but I want to see from your end, you talk to five to ten offices every Single day. Do you think that gap is getting bigger and bigger the further we get along? For those that aren’t adopting, I truly do.

Lauren Jednat [00:17:44]:
I was actually thinking about this this morning whenever I was just kind of going through what we were going to be talking about today. And it really came to me because it’s an excellent point. I see a glaring difference with those that have already invested in AI strategically and the growth that they’re seeing and the number of jobs I get on the calls for the consults with them. And the narrative is always, we’re drowning. Like, we have so many open jobs and we have so many candidates, and we’re. We’ve got to bring more resources on. And it’s always the teams that have already begun using AI and take your pick of the tools that are out there. Some are becoming more popular and advancing just as quickly as others.

Lauren Jednat [00:18:33]:
So this actually brings another point, Kortney, that I talked about at naps. Okay, So I think it’s critical when owners are considering their tech stack and they’re choosing and they’re interviewing across the board to also take a look at is the ATS CRM is crelate, or whoever you’re looking at, are they expanding and working to keep up with the technology at the same pace that I’m looking for my business to grow? And if that is the gap, if, hey, this ATS looks really good or this AI tool looks really good, but how many updates have they done in the past six to 12 months? How many webinars have they done? Are they invested in the industry outside of their box? Are they looking at, you know, the positives that other people are, the positive impacts that other tech stacks are having, and then making moves in the right direction. So sometimes it comes down to these tech stacks, because I do the migrations right. I always ask, why’d you come to Cree Lake? Well, they really just didn’t make any updates in the last two years, and so we were falling behind. And it’s so common that some tech is not advancing as quickly as others. So you need to find partners that you’re aligned with so you can grow together.

Kortney Harmon [00:19:53]:
I love that. And talk about efficiency at its finest right there. And honestly, what I think you also said, I’m gonna read between the lines and put some words in your mouth, so smack me if you think it’s wrong. There’s a cost to inaction here. You’re seeing the benefit of people using AI, and I’m having conversations with people saying, well, you know, I’m evaluating, I’m looking, but I’m down 40% this year. Yeah, that’s the cost of inaction almost.

Lauren Jednat [00:20:18]:
And then for me, it seems like a rabbit hole because some of these people that I see that are not investing, it’s inevitable, within six to 12 months, they are requesting to reduce their user licenses. And then they have less people working for them, less placements are occurring. Revenue just continues to reduce. And it’s unfortunate, but that’s why we’re trying to get the good word out.

Kortney Harmon [00:20:41]:
Yeah, you gotta talk about a domino effect that you don’t wanna be a part of.

Lauren Jednat [00:20:46]:
Absolutely. And I hate to see it. I mean, we love our entire customer base, but it’s a requirement. And if you are not an individual, you’re an owner, but you’re like, hey, I just. And I talk to people like this often. They’re like, hey, I just am not really good with technology. My team does it or what? Listen to your team. If they need more, it’s an appropriate investment.

Lauren Jednat [00:21:08]:
And if it’s intimidating, hire somebody or contract somebody out that has experience with the industry and can help you to consider AI and power, BI and open APIs and all of the things that everybody. That’s excelling, all the eyes.

Kortney Harmon [00:21:29]:
You’re right. I love it. And you’re literally talking about that shift, that fundamental shift. It’s happening in our industry. AI agents are drastically. We talked about reducing time to hire, cutting recruitment cost. We’re talking about sourcing here, but it can apply to the board reducing ROI. What’s fascinating is that 83% of professionals report that AI enhances their capabilities rather than replacing them.

Kortney Harmon [00:21:55]:
We’re not looking at transforming where AI will shift 85 million jobs, but create 97 million new ones by 2020, the end of 2025. So across the industry in mid-2025, right now, how are AI sourcing agents evolving the recruiter’s role to do more strategic position? Right. And what are ROI or organizations realizing when recruiters focus on building relationships and making key decisions over manual work? Have you seen that firsthand? Talk to me about the process behind it.

Lauren Jednat [00:22:25]:
Absolutely. So I think any recruiter would agree that the most difficult part of the job is making those 250 calls a week or whatever your standard KPI was. I mean, I came out of. I haven’t been in recruiting for almost five years, obviously, and the industry’s changed, but I came out of the world that everybody was in at some point. It was 250 calls, 32 G2s, 10 in person interviews, five placements. I had to make that every week to maintain and expand my book.

Kortney Harmon [00:22:58]:
Right. You act like those. You’re dreaming about those still. Like you recited those numbers pretty efficiently.

Lauren Jednat [00:23:03]:
I guarantee like 40% of the people listening right now know exactly where I worked before.

Kortney Harmon [00:23:11]:
I love it.

Lauren Jednat [00:23:13]:
It’s burned into your brain. And it was productive at the time. It’s what you had to do. Right. Especially I was in skilled trades. I was high volume staffing.

Kortney Harmon [00:23:22]:
Yep.

Lauren Jednat [00:23:22]:
But my thought here is, even if that’s still your structure that you have for your team’s recruiter reports or whatever KPIs were running for them, imagine removing the 250 calls, just dropping it off from the expectations. And their job actually starts with everything that comes after. Even if you think like 32 phone screens, 10 interviews, 5 submittals, how many placements, you’re still only looking at like less than 20% of that 250 efforts it takes to even get there. So like that’s the time reduction that you’re looking at. At the end of the day, if the agent is going through a thousand resumes and that’s minimal, call it a thousand a week, you’re looking at four times as many candidates and then it’s four. Funneling everything down to present to Lauren the recruiter and say, looks like these are your top 25 for this job. These are in your system. These are not yet in your ats.

Lauren Jednat [00:24:28]:
These three have updated contact information. This one just recently changed positions. Like, imagine what you can do with that and then be actionable and how much more you can get done. Those are the numbers that you were talking about earlier for productivity.

Kortney Harmon [00:24:43]:
Absolutely.

Lauren Jednat [00:24:43]:
80% more productive right there.

Kortney Harmon [00:24:45]:
Yeah. It’s the. What’s next? What am I doing? Not. Let me think about it. Not let me go source on LinkedIn. Let me go down a rabbit hole of looking where this person worked. And then I see the column on the right that says people also viewed. And then I like continue down the rabbit hole.

Kortney Harmon [00:25:00]:
It’s helping keeping me focused. How is KPI’s gonna look like a year from now? Like you, I had to make exactly calls a day. What does KPIs look like in the future, Lauren?

Lauren Jednat [00:25:10]:
I think that the middle of the funnel the numbers are going. So if you’re not reaching out and reading all the resumes and you’re removing that 250 reach outs, if we’re calling it that, then instead of 30 phone screens, maybe it’s 40 or 45 phone screens. And then if you’re screening more people you’re submitting more people. I mean, those are the numbers that are going to change and go up to fill the 40 hours a week that that recruiter is running their desk, not the top of the funnel. That is time consuming and tedious and honestly not always good for morale. I remember having team members that would work over lunch or skip the. The happy hour because they would be like, I still have 20 calls to go. I don’t want to get yelled at or put on a pip.

Lauren Jednat [00:25:58]:
Like, it’s crazy, right? If it’s just becomes about the numbers and the purpose behind it all goes away if that’s the fixation. But let the agent do all that for you and then you talk to people, have meaningful conversations.

Kortney Harmon [00:26:11]:
Ratio reports are going to be revolutionized. And hey, Lauren, that’s. I think that’s your and I’s next thing. We’re going to come up with some new ratio reports. What do you think?

Lauren Jednat [00:26:19]:
Oh, I would love to. Oh, my gosh.

Kortney Harmon [00:26:21]:
I love it. Okay.

Lauren Jednat [00:26:22]:
I love pulling them up. Reporting is my favorite. I’m a total geek. You.

Kortney Harmon [00:26:26]:
I love the concept behind the training. Right. That goes along with it. But you love numbers way more than I do.

Lauren Jednat [00:26:31]:
I do.

Kortney Harmon [00:26:32]:
I can’t wait. I love this. Obviously, I want to talk to you before I let you go, because I told you I’d only keep you 30 minutes and it worked. 27. Hot dang.

Lauren Jednat [00:26:41]:
Oh, okay. Time flies when you’re having fun.

Kortney Harmon [00:26:43]:
Time flies. And I don’t know if you can hear my dog. He’s being a jerk. I want to look forward because this is just the beginning. As we head deeper into this post AI era, what our CEO has already talked about, and we’ve went on to podcast with this. What do you see as the most promising ROI opportunity for recruiting leaders that are now adopting AI sourcing agents, and how should they strategically position themselves to remain competitive through the end of 2025 and into 2026?

Lauren Jednat [00:27:13]:
Yeah. So Kortney, let me, you know, let me know that we were going to talk about this ahead of time. And I was glad because one of the things that I like to do. We obviously all have our different groups within the company, but our customer success group has really been spearheading our living platform. And so I went and got some feedback from our partner, Kate about what she’s seeing in the market, and she and I were so aligned and I got some great notes from her. So I want to give four pro tips for when you are searching and searching for shopping, interviewing different tools to support an agent So I do have them here for you. So the first of which is going to be data relevance. So don’t look for more data, but look for relevant information.

Lauren Jednat [00:28:02]:
So the tool should be learning from your existing system. So not just generic algorithms. So make sure that it’s a tool that can learn not only from the data that exists within your ats, but also from the patterns from your team. It’s going to recognize who’s getting placed, what differentiates those candidate records. So skill sets, all that good stuff. So number one, data relevance. Number two is going to be safety. This is just from a.

Lauren Jednat [00:28:30]:
Just be smart with your data. Make sure they’re SOC2 compliant, that they don’t share your data with their user base. And this is something that came up on the webinar two weeks ago. It’s an excellent question. We would never pull if one of our customers, only one, had Kortney’s contact information. We would never pull it from their database to share it across other users. So that’s your S O C2 compliance. Make sure that they’re in line with everything there.

Lauren Jednat [00:28:57]:
So that’s number two. Cool.

Kortney Harmon [00:28:59]:
Yeah.

Lauren Jednat [00:28:59]:
So number three is this term unlimited or credits?

Kortney Harmon [00:29:05]:
Tell me more.

Lauren Jednat [00:29:05]:
So this is that we referenced it in the beginning when we’re talking about reading the fine print, essentially. So we’ve talked to people and they’re like, hey, I’m getting an agent and it’s only $150 a month. And you’re like, dang, that seems low. Like, that’s all right. And then you go research them and you’re like, oh, you get that agent for eight hours a month, is that productive? Two hours a week. How much can it learn in that time and how much can it output in that time? It’s just extremely stringent. So when you’re considering credits or this term unlimited, always ask, is it going to be a full time employee? Is it going to be constantly learning what when I’m online, when I’m offline, is it going to learn and be constantly working? So keep an eye out for unlimited and read your fine print. And then the fourth is going to be real people.

Lauren Jednat [00:30:01]:
So something that we take a lot of pride in is you’re always going to have a real person to talk to at crelate, whether it’s the support team or a product consultant. So make sure that they have actual support staff and engineers that you can speak to if something goes wrong. It’s inevitable. Technology, like we all know, like, oh, great. Technology’s great, isn’t it? Right. That’s the saying, something can always go wrong. So just make sure there’s real people you’re working with and ask about the different support teams that are available to you once you do purchase and sign. So those would be my four.

Kortney Harmon [00:30:38]:
And honestly it’s good to think about because if we’re talking about ROI impact and that agent’s only working for you two hours a week, what kind of impact is that going to have to your bottom line?

Lauren Jednat [00:30:46]:
I mean if you really think about it, eight hours and you’re talking an average of 40 hour work weeks, four weeks in a month, that’s nothing. At the end of the day you’re really not getting the bang for your buck. Like what’s like 6% or something like that of the time. It’s actually working for you. So if you’re gonna make the investment, make one that actually meets your needs so that you don’t get stuck in a contract for three years with something that isn’t doing the job.

Kortney Harmon [00:31:16]:
I love it. This was good. I love this. Thank you for joining me today. Is there anything else lose or anything else you want to talk about? Anything else we didn’t hit that are like just beware, just think about it, just do it. I don’t know, we’ll steal Nike thing, just do it. Any last words of advice? Because every single conversation I have, it’s overwhelmed with people.

Lauren Jednat [00:31:39]:
Yeah.

Kortney Harmon [00:31:40]:
And it’s just you hit the nail on the head whenever you talked about it’s changed so much. I did a talk at Staffing World, the same one we were at and that sourcing talk to today, six months later, not even the same talk at all.

Lauren Jednat [00:31:53]:
Yeah, it’s the irony of the technology getting smarter, the rate at which it’s advancing. I mean you have to get on the bandwagon. Now if you’re just getting into AI, you are behind and I hate to say it that way but like again, bring in a resource that’s going to catch the team up to speed or even a challenge that I give is we did it here at Cree Late Kortney for one month, have everybody on staff use AI for their day to day and then collect feedback on the efficiencies that it generated. If you can get your team into good habits with AI, that’s step one. But start shopping for agents and learning about them. Like really just take the time to become educated because there is no way it won’t benefit your business if you find the agent and the tech that’s right for you.

Kortney Harmon [00:32:53]:
Automations is almost a thing of the past, those two things still happen. But there, there is ambient, is electricity and lights. Now it is on to the next.

Lauren Jednat [00:33:00]:
Oh, I know, yeah. When people, when I kick off consultations and implementations now and somebody says we want to get our automations in place, it’s a very different thing. They meant a year ago when they wanted their automations in place.

Kortney Harmon [00:33:15]:
It’s crazy.

Lauren Jednat [00:33:15]:
I’ve had to learn a lot about integrations well over the last six months.

Kortney Harmon [00:33:19]:
I think I’m going to pull you back in six months we’re going to have the same conversation again.

Lauren Jednat [00:33:23]:
Yeah.

Kortney Harmon [00:33:23]:
And what the next new thing is because it is going at record pace. I mean, heck, who knows? We’re going to be living in the IROBOT world here with Will Smith and.

Lauren Jednat [00:33:31]:
A little bit just another eye.

Kortney Harmon [00:33:33]:
Just another eye in the, in the gamut of things. Oh, well, thank you so much. This was great. And I think it just strikes us to sit here and say what else? What else do I need to think about? What else do I need to look at? And like you’re seeing these things daily. I, I’m hearing the challenges daily, but you’re seeing them in action. So hopefully there are some key takeaways for our audience and that window for competitive advantage is closing fast. So if you’re not one of those organizations that are implementing AI sourcing agents now, you need to do so. And, and I don’t normally do this, Lauren, but I think you need to take a look at creates.

Kortney Harmon [00:34:16]:
Do you disagree?

Lauren Jednat [00:34:17]:
I do not.

Kortney Harmon [00:34:18]:
I don’t normally talk our product at all, but I. What I have seen and how good this is and what we’re hearing from our clients and our customers and what you’ve seen. I think the first step is taking a look. So we will put the link in our show notes if you’re interested in purchasing an agent or adding it onto your crelate or seeing if it’s time for you to switch a system to a system that is actually growing and investing and not staying stagnant like you were talking about.

Lauren Jednat [00:34:45]:
Yeah. If you’re already a crelate customer, everybody knows how I feel about consolidating your tech stack.

Kortney Harmon [00:34:52]:
Yay. So no soapboxes. It’s okay. We are, we’re all on them. All right.

Lauren Jednat [00:34:58]:
All right.

Kortney Harmon [00:34:59]:
I love it. Well, Lauren, thank you again for all of your time and hopefully our listeners got something out of this and hopefully they’re eager to learn more. So until next time, have an amazing day and connect with Lauren too. We’re going to put her information in the show notes as well. Have a wonderful day.

Lauren Jednat [00:35:16]:
Thanks for having me. Bye.

Kortney Harmon [00:35:20]:
I’m Kortney Harmon with Crelate. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Industry Spotlight, a new series from the Full Desk Experience. New episodes will be dropping monthly. Be sure you’re subscribed to our podcast so you can catch the next Industry Spotlight episode and all episodes of the Full Desk Experience here or wherever you listen.

Kortney Harmon [00:00:00]:
Now for the harsh truth about technology. If your recruiting tech stack isn’t built on a living platform that continuously evolves with AI, it’s not an asset, it’s dragging you into irrelevance. So what exactly is a living platform? It’s the difference between survival and extinction. In recruiting, it evolves without you having to push it. Traditional systems require you to upgrade them. Living platforms upgrade themselves. It’s putting something in the box. And while you put it in the box, it’s getting sunlight, it’s getting water, it’s getting nutrition.

Kortney Harmon [00:00:35]:
To grow and thrive and be bigger every day. It gets smarter every day. Hi, I’m Kortney Harmon, Director of Industry Relations at crelate. Welcome to FDE Express, a short, sweet format of the Full Desk Experience, a Crelate original podcast. We’ll be diving into specific topics to show you how you grow your firm within 10 minutes or less. Each episode will cover quick hit topics to give you inspiration and food for thought for your talent businesses. Welcome back to the Fulldesk Experience where we talk about growth blockers across your people, process and tech. I’m your host, Kortney Harmon, Director of Industry Relations here at Crelate, and today we’re tackling the brutal truth that many in our industry do not want to hear.

Kortney Harmon [00:01:29]:
The traditional way you’ve been doing business in recruiting for decades is dead in a post AI world. That’s right, I said it dead. Let’s be completely transparent. If you’re still counting calls, submissions, interviews the same way you did five years ago, you’re not just falling behind, you’re already irrelevant. In an industry becoming transformed by AI. Those traditional metrics aren’t just failing to drive growth, they’re actually killing your business. So in this recruiting world, we’ve all been accustomed to certain metrics, me included the number of calls, your number of submissions, your number of interviews, and even placements. The uncomfortable truth is recruiting isn’t about filling seats.

Kortney Harmon [00:02:16]:
It’s actually about driving different business results. And your outdated KPIs are actually missing the point entirely. I had a call with a recruiting company last year. Each person on their team was actually making 50 calls daily, sending hundreds of LinkedIn messages weekly, submitting dozens of candidates. Their activity metrics looked incredible on paper, but as we dug deeper, their placement rates has actually dropped 15% and consultation retention was at an all time low. Our teams often get stuck in this hamster wheel of manual data. Essentially, it’s like a chore and almost never get to the point of actually producing meaningful results. Does that sound familiar? This is the death spiral of recruiting metrics and it is evolving drastically in this post AI world.

Kortney Harmon [00:03:08]:
Now let me be brutally honest, if you’re not leveraging AI in your recruiting workflows, you might as well close up shop now because your competitors who are will probably bury you in the next 18 months. Tech is evolving so fast it’s hard to keep up with. If you didn’t get a chance to listen to one of our previous episodes with Aaron Elder, the CEO here at Crelate, I encourage you to do so. He talked about that post AI world and what that means. The recruiting landscape has changed with the rise of AI technology. We’ve talked about it and and some conservative estimates show that AI driven changes will replace about 25% of jobs worldwide by 2026. And if we think recruiters or part of recruiting is immune, we probably need to think again. So let’s talk about some warning signs to show that you’re stuck on this KPI hamster wheel in the AI era.

Kortney Harmon [00:04:04]:
Number one, if you’re still doing the work AI could and should handle, that’s your first warning sign. Your team possibly is spending hours on tasks that AI systems could complete in minutes. It isn’t just efficient, it’s actually professional malpractice. In 2025, you’re falling behind by the minute. Number two warning sign is that your data lives in silos, your metrics live in different systems. And it happens. But the problem is that those systems don’t communicate. They’re preventing you from seeing the complete picture.

Kortney Harmon [00:04:40]:
In an AI era, isolated data just limits you and it actually is active sabotage towards your data and your growth of your firms. And number three, you’re looking backwards, not forwards. If you’re measuring what happened yesterday instead of what AI can predict tomorrow, you’re driving your business looking only in the review mirror. How’s that working out for you? The transition from startup to scale up is a big leap with unexpected hurdles. The same applies to transitioning from traditional recruiting to AI powered recruiting. Many aren’t going to make it, but for those who will, they’re going to thrive. So now that we’ve confronted the harsh reality, let’s talk solutions. I don’t care if it makes you uncomfortable.

Kortney Harmon [00:05:29]:
Your comfort zone is potentially what could be killing your business. We’re done being on this hamster wheel of trying to solve problems ourselves. It’s time to pull up the help chain. The help is AI and it’s non negotiable. It’s on like electricity in the background. So when you’re assessing your current recruiting KPIs through a lens of AI. You need to ask yourself, why are humans doing the work that AI should handle? If your recruiters are manually searching on LinkedIn, are you wasting human capital? Are you predicting or reporting? If your metrics can’t tell you which candidates will succeed before you hire them, your metrics might be a little dated. Can your platform learn or is it brain dead? A static system in a dynamic world isn’t just limiting, it’s suicide.

Kortney Harmon [00:06:21]:
So here’s the hard truth. If you’re still measuring the number of calls recruiters are making, instead of measuring AI powered engagement quality, the quality, not the quantity, you don’t just have a metrics problem, you potentially have a leadership problem. So let’s talk about how well functioning recruiting operations can deteriorate into exhausting cycles without the right technology foundation. This decline isn’t gradual anymore. It’s about acceleration towards being obsolete again. Did you see the episode with Aaron? He talked about the evolution of AI in the last six months. And what was being talked about last week. In this world where AI can source screen engage candidates around the clock, running your recruiting desk with purely human effort isn’t just efficient, it can be negligent.

Kortney Harmon [00:07:14]:
Here’s the warning signs. Your recruiting operations has shifted from a well oiled machine to the hamster wheel in the AI era. Number one, your recruiters are doing robot work. If your team is spending hours researching candidates when AI could be doing this automatically, we’re probably paying humans a premium rate to do the work that machines could do much better. Number two, your tech stack is a disconnected mess. We talked about those data silos. If your tools don’t talk to each other, you don’t have a technology ecosystem. It’s the junkyard.

Kortney Harmon [00:07:49]:
It’s not a platform to help your teams scale. And maybe, just maybe, your teams actually hate their jobs. When recruiters spend all day on repetitive tasks instead of building relationships, they’re very unhappy. It’s trying to keep up with all the things that happen in our work days that we just can’t keep up with. And the most dangerous thing about this KPI hamster wheel is that it feels like work. It’s just motion without progress. Your 60 hour work week means nothing if an AI system can’t produce better results in shorter time. Your expectations, your metrics, your output is going to change drastically in the next few months and even year.

Kortney Harmon [00:08:36]:
So let’s talk about seven steps to better recruiting metrics in this AI era. So let’s get Practical. I’m not here to coddle you. I’m here to save your business. The foundational success of AI integration isn’t a gentle evolution. It’s truly a radical transformation. The first thing you have to do in step one is you have to first stop measuring busy work. If you’re celebrating how many calls your recruiters are making, you’re measuring effort, not results.

Kortney Harmon [00:09:06]:
It’s like praising someone for how much they sweat instead of how far they ran. Step number two, we need to embrace AI specific outcomes. So in this AI era, if your human is handling a task that AI could. You’re not running a recruiting business, you’re running museum potentially of obsolete practices. We need to change how we think. Step number three, implement radical workflow automations. And many of you are doing this already. AI doesn’t just speed things up, it fundamentally transform what’s possible.

Kortney Harmon [00:09:40]:
If you’re just using AI to do old things faster, you can put a rocket engine on a horse cart. So hopefully you have those automations set up to help you move faster. Step number four, build a digital living platform, not a digital coffin. Most ATS systems aren’t just platforms. They’re where good data goes to die. A living platform evolves. Traditional systems just age. We don’t want to put things in a box just to have them in a box.

Kortney Harmon [00:10:13]:
Step number five, we have to deploy AI agents aggressively. Every hour your recruiter spends on research, initial outreach, or scheduling, an hour is wasted time. AI could handle those tasks for you. Step number six, redefine what actually recruiters do. And this is going to change so much in the next six months. The recruiter of 2025, who isn’t an AI wrangler, relationship builder and strategic advisor, isn’t a modern recruiter. We have to evolve how we’re handling our businesses and what a recruiter looks like in this day and age. So now step number seven is evolve or die.

Kortney Harmon [00:10:55]:
There’s no middle ground anymore. You’re either committed to continuous AI evolvement and evolution, or you’re preparing for your business’s obituary. So we’ve talked about the people and the process aspect of getting the KPI hamster wheel. Now for the harsh truth about technology. If your recruiting tech stack isn’t built on a living platform that continuously evolves with AI, it’s not an asset, it’s dragging you into irrelevance. So what exactly is a living platform? It’s the difference between survival and extinction. In recruiting, it evolves without you having to push it. Traditional systems require you to Upgrade them.

Kortney Harmon [00:11:36]:
Living platforms upgrade themselves. It’s putting something in the box. And while you put it in the box, it’s getting sunlight, it’s getting water, it’s getting nutrition. To grow and thrive and be bigger every day. It gets smarter every day. Your platform isn’t measurably more intelligent this month than last month. If it’s not alive, it’s decaying. It connects everything.

Kortney Harmon [00:12:00]:
Without human intervention, manual Data entry in 2025 isn’t just efficient, it’s something that shouldn’t happen anymore, alone, on its own. And a living platform doesn’t just store data for you, it activates it. Data sitting unused in your system isn’t an asset, it’s a wasted opportunity. We’ve all heard if it’s not in the system, it didn’t happen. So let me share a vision of what recruitment looks like with a living platform as your foundation. Imagine starting your day not with a to do list of manual tasks, but with a strategic briefing from your AI agent that you’ve already completed yesterday’s to do list while you slept. Your sourcing agent has already identified and Pre qualified 25 candidates overnight. Your outreach agent has personalized and sent communication with 40% response rate.

Kortney Harmon [00:12:50]:
Your analytics agent alerts you potential issues before they even become problems. This isn’t science fiction. It’s happening now. And if it’s not happening in your business, you’re already behind. So as we wrap up today’s episode, let me be crystal clear. The future of recruiting doesn’t belong to the hardest working or the most experienced any longer. It belongs to those who harness AI most effectively. Human effort without AI amplification is just becoming inefficient.

Kortney Harmon [00:13:19]:
The recruiters who thrive won’t be those working harder on the hamster wheel, but those who will leverage AI agents to handle routine tasks while focusing on their human talents is where it’s going to make the most impact. So if you want to continue to learn from experts on time management, networking, career development, overcoming burnout, that’s commendable. But if you’re not simultaneously implementing AI through your recruiting practices, then you’re arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. So I would encourage you to start by assessing your current technology foundation. Is it a static system that requires consistent manual updates, or is it a living platform that evolves with the rapidly changing recruiting landscape that we are in today? The future isn’t just coming, it’s already here. Dividing our industry into two groups. Those who embrace AI and those who will work for them. Thank you so much for your time today.

Kortney Harmon [00:14:16]:
This is an ever changing topic that we will continue to discuss and bring to the forefront of our industry. So stay tuned as we continue to talk about the recruiting world. In a post AI era, evolution isn’t just optional, it’s existential. That’s all for today’s episode of FDE Express. I’m Kortney Harmon with Crelate. If you have any questions or topics you’d like for us to cover in future episodes, please feel free to submit them to [email protected] or ask us live next session. And don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast. Wherever you listen and see, sign up for our monthly events to keep learning and growing your business.

Kortney Harmon [00:15:01]:
Thanks for tuning in to FDE Express, a short and sweet format of the full desk experience. We’ll see you next time.