In our on-demand world, prospects will slip through your fingers into the black hole if your recruiting process is slow. The numbers prove it: 60% of job seekers will drop out of the application process if it takes too long.
The average time-to-fill across all industries is 36 days. However, job seekers expect a much shorter turnaround, anticipating merely 1-2 weeks between interview and job offer.
Your recruiting team is already running to keep pace with candidates’ expectations, trying to stay ahead of the curve to meet their needs. This is even more true when it comes to top talent, who can get snatched up by faster recruiters before your team even sees the application come in.
If you aren’t thinking about using AI to accelerate your recruiting and help your team win the race for top talent, you are basically entering the Indy 500 on foot.
Here are 3 common chokepoints in the recruiting process and how acceleration AI helps you succeed where others fail.
Chokepoint #1: Website visitors not converting to leads
Your website is often your first opportunity to make a good impression on candidates and clients. Candidates often spend one to two hours researching a company before applying with them, meaning your online reputation is crucial in getting candidates through the door.
But, if candidates reach out through your website and hear crickets waiting for a response, that’s going to do more than damage your reputation. It’s going to send candidates to a competitor who’s easier to work with.
Solution: Automatic AI lead conversion, qualification, and meeting booking
Recruiting acceleration AI helps you get candidates through your virtual front door. AI-powered chatbots can help answer common questions, move candidates through the application process, and book meetings to your recruiters calendars – instantly.
This means that a prospect can answer some initial questions, find out if they are qualified for an open position, and have a concrete plan for next steps – all within minutes of navigating to your website.
By adding AI chatbots to your website, you can double your website leads, reducing bounce rates and accelerating time-to-placement.

And this increased efficiency can be accomplished without sapping any of your recruiting team’s time. This means that, when candidates are ready to meet, your team will have the time and energy to start building a strong, lasting relationship with them.
Chokepoint #2: Slow, manual lead distribution
Once a candidate is in your system, the clock starts ticking. They are waiting to hear back from your team, waiting to see if the effort they put into their application will be rewarded, and waiting to see if your firm is one they can rely on.
This is a crucial moment for building trust and loyalty.
If leads languish in limbo in a shared email inbox or your ATS, killing valuable time, the moment of truth will be a painful one for your team.
Manual lead distribution can slow down the candidate journey. It can also lead to uneven distribution, loading many candidates on a few recruiters without regard for recruiter workload, industry specialties, or client relationships. This can strain recruiters and slow down the process even further.
Even when candidates find their way to the right team member, leads can die on the vine as lead notifications get lost in email inboxes.
And the process is slowed down even further if a candidate has to wait for their recruiter to respond manually to their initial outreach.
Solution: AI-powered lead routing, real-time notifications, and Bullhorn Automation
AI-powered lead routing, real-time recruiting notifications, and automated candidate communication make this entire initial process faster and more profitable.
After AI chatbots engage and qualify candidates, AI lead routing puts them in the right recruiters’ hands. This means that candidates not only hear back from your firm faster, they also are paired with a recruiter who is perfectly suited to meet their needs.

Real-time recruiting notifications keep recruiters and sales reps on track with lead follow-up, meaning a lead never gets stuck in an inbox. Instead of getting lost in between the onslaught of daily emails, ATS-based notifications will pop up to direct your recruiters’ attention to the candidates that most urgently need their attention.

The key is that candidates won’t have to wait for recruiters to reach out. You can also layer AI into your Bullhorn Automation emails to enable candidates and clients to click to start a real-time conversation with your firm on demand 24/7 and get quick answers to questions. Speeding up candidate communication keeps leads in the loop, providing the routine but vital information that moves the candidate journey forward.
Chokepoint #3: Recruiters and sales reps are only available during business hours
In the age of always-on communication, candidates don’t want a recruiting team who is only available from 9-5. All throughout the candidate journey, prospects expect service 24/7.
New contacts who can’t engage immediately will navigate away. Even established candidates may find it frustrating to not get answers to basic questions exactly when they need them.
This is especially true when you are working with candidates in healthcare and other industries whose typical hours may include night shifts and other unconventional schedules.
In the worst-case scenario, your contacts will find a firm that’s more available and can meet them exactly where (and when) they need.
Solution: An ecosystem of intelligent digital workers available 24/7
Enter Intelligent Digital Workers (IDWs). Forget about old-school simple chatbots who can’t answer an unexpected question. Intelligent digital workers, built on the newest generation of AI, are capable enough to serve on the frontlines while your recruiters are out of the office.
Rather than running on scripts, these IDWs can handle the kind of nuanced, human situations that naturally arise with prospects, and constantly learn from their experiences, meaning they get better and better at responding to candidate needs as they go.

Your contacts will be in good hands 24/7. And your recruiters and sales reps can come into the office in the morning with a calendar already booked with qualified leads that came in the night before.
This kind of on-demand experience proves that you value contacts’ needs and time.
Speeding up your recruiting cycle in these three ways helps you keep pace with candidate expectations, leading to happier prospects and quicker placements.
In fact, recruiting acceleration AI can double website leads and improve conversion rates on clients and candidates.
Want to learn more about recruiting acceleration? Check out our eBook on recruiting acceleration best practices aand the power of AI to revolutionize your staffing firm.