Every organization has unique requirements when recruiting new talent and applying for a new position is uniquely personal to every job candidate. Talent recruiting is a people business, so how can artificial intelligence AI-powered technology possibly support the individual needs of hiring companies and job seekers? If you’re aware of the dynamics in talent acquisition today, the answer may come as a surprise.  

Companies across all business sectors have turned to AI to simplify, accelerate, and make processes more efficient. In the talent recruiting space, Goodwin Recruiting is no exception. As Goodwin’s CEO, I’d like to tell you about Hunter, our virtual recruiter, including what prompted us to pursue this innovative, AI-driven recruiting technology and how we use it.  

In short, we embraced AI because it is transformative for everyone involved in the talent acquisition process. Our Hunter augments the exceptional work of our 350+ human recruiting partners nationwide. As a result, our clients secure top talent faster, qualified candidates surge to the top of thousands of résumés for specific jobs, and screening and in-person interview processes are faster and more proficient. These benefits and more are experienced every day by hiring companies and job candidates alike.  

What is a virtual recruiter?  

AI made its debut in talent recruiting in the 1990s, known for years (and still) as applicant tracking systems (ATS) as those tools included keyword-based resume screening to more quickly identify the candidates that appeared to be more qualified on paper. Modern solutions have blown the roof off those traditional models with advanced and intelligent capabilities, like scanning résumés using language-reading software, scheduling interviews, giving job applicants short tests that measure skills and personality traits, and even evaluating video interviews by analyzing candidate responses, tone, and emotional intelligence. The list goes on, and the solutions, methods, and capabilities widely vary among organizations that employ the technology. 

Our Hunter is an AI-powered digital platform that handles parts of our recruiting processes, including sourcing job candidates, screening résumés, answering candidate questions, and capturing additional candidate attributes. In other words, Hunter expertly automates early-stage recruiting processes to save time for our clients and candidates, ensure consistency and accuracy, and fast-track action from our human recruiting partners.  

Hunter’s biggest contribution to Goodwin Recruiting’s process is performing initial screenings to make sure job applicants are real people who fully intended to apply for roles we are filling. (This is a huge issue in the talent acquisition world at large, which I address below.) Then, we quickly provide Hunter’s curated lists of real, genuinely interested, and qualified people to our human recruiters, who personally move candidates forward in our process.  

How widespread is AI-powered recruiting technology?  

A study conducted in late 2024 revealed that more than half of surveyed companies were using AI in their hiring process – a figure projected to grow to nearly 70% by the end of 2025. This fast-evolving tech has become mainstream with its ability to scan millions of résumés and employment histories and identify ideal candidates for roles based on job requirements, company cultures, and core values. Since the process is automated, it is more likely that candidate selection is based on a good fit and less likely to be influenced by human opinions or biases. 

Major brands adopting AI for talent recruitment are experiencing the impact. Here’s an example. Chipotle Mexican Grill recently deployed a conversational AI hiring assistant named ‘Ava Cado’ to speed up hiring for 20,000 seasonal roles. Job application rates have surged and the company is finding new workers 75% faster, helping to keep their restaurants fully staffed during peak demand.  

While ‘Ava’ does not screen résumés (again, applications vary), the company receives positive feedback on their AI tech, just like we do. “We’ve gotten a lot of anecdotal feedback from both general managers and candidates, and it’s been incredibly strong,” said Chipotle’s Chief Human Resources Officer Ilene Eskenazi. “I personally have been pleasantly surprised by how much candidates have enjoyed interacting with Ava.”  

What compelled us to adopt a virtual recruiter?  

On several occasions, we’ve been asked, “Why would a family-owned organization use a virtual recruiter to source talent?” This is a great question and one that we answer like any other – with full transparency.  

Goodwin Recruiting receives more than 40,000 job applications every month for the job openings we fill for our clients. Before we deployed Hunter, nearly 60% of the applicants we followed up with did not return our calls or emails. And among the candidates our recruiters did manage to connect with, many didn’t realize they had applied for our jobs in the first place.

Our recruiting partners were spending literally tens of thousands of hours each month following up on fake résumés, group applies, and job applications sent from various talent pools and technology platforms for people who simply weren’t interested or aware.  

Real-world scenarios: It’s easy for job seekers to set up keyword searches on job boards or job sites and mass apply to any open roles containing those keywords. For example, if I post a job for a CFO role in Atlanta, and the posting includes “cash forecasting” in the job description, we will receive hundreds if not thousands of applications from candidates who simply work with or handle cash in their current role. Unfortunately, many job boards do not discourage this behavior because hiring companies and recruiting firms are charged by the application.   

These issues are not unique to our recruiting agency or any hiring company. The scenarios described above are among the biggest challenges for everyone trying to find and hire great candidates today. The sheer volume of applications received is too vast for human recruiters to effectively manage, and the most devastating result is that truly qualified, talented, and interested individuals often get lost in the deluge.  

We address this reality with our virtual recruiter, and while Hunter is not perfect, it cuts down initial phone screen timelines with applicants from 72 hours to seven minutes, and more quickly moves real and interested candidates through our process. Hunter also gathers game-changing information that’s not included in résumés and forwards it to our recruiters who may otherwise not pursue a candidate. In fact, Hunter has led to a significant number of qualified applicants being placed this year in roles for which they would have been rejected based on their résumés alone, when in the course of screening, new information and relevant experience is discovered and documented. The fact is that many great candidates and employees are not great résumé writers.   

Candidates are enjoying the experience. Although some job candidates have expressed ways our virtual recruiter could be improved, and some do not like it simply because of what it is, the overwhelming majority of our candidates are quick to connect with Hunter and experience how it can move them along more quickly in the interview process. Some candidates enjoy the conversation so much, despite the virtual recruiter disclaimer, they call into our HQ and ask to speak with Hunter.   

Choose a trusted recruiting partner that optimizes human-AI collaboration 

Real relationships drive success, and AI frees up time in our days to build and keep relationships strong. I want to stress that AI will never replace the human component of our business, it will greatly enhance the effectiveness of our recruiters and allow them to use the emotionally intelligent approach to our work that lands us on the Forbes Best Recruitment Company list year after year. 

At the end of the day, we are in the business of  helping great companies hire great people and we will continue to leverage new technologies to augment our well-known strengths and make talent acquisition more strategic, time-efficient, and successful for our clients and job candidates.  

Connect with us when you need strategic access to top talent – or if you’re a professional looking for job opportunities with leading employers. Our recruiting partners are also known for providing valuable career advice to today’s professionals.