The recruitment industry is entering 2025 with renewed optimism and a deepening focus on digital transformation. According to Bullhorn’s GRID 2025 Industry Trends Report, top-performing firms are 57% more likely to be in advanced stages of digital transformation compared to those that lost revenue in 2024. Their success stems from prioritizing automation and AI across the entire recruitment process to amplify teams to do more, at every step. This technology has become a strategic differentiator that fuels faster placements, higher redeployment rates, and ultimately, business growth.
“2025 is the year that AI becomes mainstream for the staffing industry," said Jason Heilman, SVP of Product - Automation & AI at Bullhorn. “Our customers are already using AI to handle sourcing, matching, personalized messaging, screening and scheduling and seeing an impact across their entire recruitment workflow. Recruiters are spending more time building relationships with the best candidates and working more jobs. Candidate experience has improved, they are receiving feedback more quickly, hearing about more relevant jobs, and getting the opportunity to showcase their skills beyond their resume. Customers are attracting higher-quality talent and filling more jobs, faster. It's a win-win-win."
AI adoption takes massive leap forward in 2025
A clear message emerged from the report: AI adoption is accelerating this year. More than two-thirds (67%) of firms have either purchased an AI solution, built their own, or are experimenting with generative AI. Additionally, 45% of firms are already experimenting with AI to sort through candidate resumes and submissions to find the best ones to screen for individual jobs. Among the most influential innovations, search and match agents have emerged as a game-changer, with firms identifying them as their top AI tool for improving productivity and maintaining an edge in the market.
As AI adoption takes center stage, firms should not overlook the importance of accurate and complete data. In fact, 36% of firms still cite data limitations as a barrier to maximizing the benefits of AI, highlighting the importance of data hygiene and system integration. There is still significant data clean-up and data governance to be done to reap the rewards of AI in recruitment.
AI and automation slash hiring times and improve the candidate experience
Recruiters currently spend an average of 14.6 hours each week searching for the right candidates to fill roles, and nearly a third (30%) of firms say recruiter productivity is the biggest obstacle to reducing expenses this year. But, according to the report, fully autonomous search and match could save recruiters nearly a third of this time (4.5 hours per week) on candidate searches alone, in addition to 3.6 hours each week for screening and administrative tasks.
According to the GRID 2024 Talent Trends Report released last fall, 80% of candidates want to be placed in less than 20 days, and Bullhorn’s GRID Industry Trends Report underscores the impact of automation and AI on placement timelines. By automating these searches and leveraging AI-driven screenings, firms are drastically improving efficiency, accelerating time to placement, and becoming 90% more likely to staff candidates within 20 days.
Overall, AI and automation tools are poised to give recruiters up to 17 hours back each week, enabling them to shift their focus from repetitive tasks to building stronger relationships and prioritizing other revenue-driving activities. This could amplify a firm’s existing team, giving them a crucial advantage as competition in the recruitment space intensifies and client and candidate expectations for faster, better results continue to rise.
Staffing firms unlock profitability with technology use
Overall, firms that focused on automating the full recruitment cycle were more than twice as likely to have realized revenue growth in 2024. Top factors that contributed to revenue gains in 2024 were engaging candidates, having the right job matches, and readily redeploying top talent — all areas that AI will make more efficient. In fact, firms using AI for faster placement are twice as likely to have seen revenue gains in 2024, and firms using AI to achieve better job matches are 96% (or nearly twice as likely) more likely to have seen revenue gains in 2024.
To learn more, read the complete GRID 2025 Industry Trends Report.
