The Josh Bersin Company has released new research showing that jobs aren’t disappearing—they’re being matched with greater intelligence. The research, produced in collaboration with AMS, reveals major advances in talent acquisition driven by AI-enabled technology, which are yielding two to three times faster time to hire, stronger candidate-role matches, and unprecedented precision in sourcing.
The global market for recruiting, hiring, and staffing is over $850 billion and is growing at 13% per year, despite the economic slowdown, though signs of strain are evident. This means TA leaders are turning to AI to adapt, as AI transforms jobs, creates the need for new roles, new skills, and AI expertise.
According to the report, even without AI disruption, over 20% of employees consider changing jobs each year, driving demand for a new wave of high-precision tools for assessment, interviewing, selection, and hiring. Companies joining this AI revolution are hiring 200-300% faster, with greater accuracy and efficiency than their peers, despite the job market slowdown.
According to the report, the TA automation revolution is delivering benefits across the hiring ecosystem: job seekers experience faster recognition and better fit, while employers gain accurate, real-time, and highly scalable recruitment. This is against the context of failure with current hiring. In 2024, less than one in four (17%) of applicants made it to the interview stage, and 60% of job seekers, due to too-slow hiring portals, abandoned the whole application process.
The research shows how organizations are already realizing benefits such as lower hiring costs, stronger internal mobility, and higher productivity. AI-empowered TA teams are also streamlining operations by shifting large portions of manual, admin-heavy work to specialized vendors. The research highlights how AI is helping TA overcome frustrations like vague job descriptions, inconsistent interviews, and labor-intensive processes.
Some organizations are using AI-powered recruiting assistants to manage routine communication and negotiations. Recruiters set parameters for salary, benefits, and start dates, while the AI answers questions, updates offers, and proposes alternatives in real time. By automating tasks and personalizing the experience, AI shortens turnaround times and frees recruiters to focus on strategy.
“For decades, TA has been viewed as a cost center, focused on using applicant tracking systems to manage incoming candidates and relying on recruiters to screen and interview. This process was slow, expensive, and delivered a poor experience for job seekers,” says Stella Ioannidou, report author and industry analyst and senior research director at The Josh Bersin Company. “Today, by leveraging AI-powered platforms and integrated data, TA teams can identify, attract, and engage the best talent in the market with unparalleled precision, often before competitors even know those candidates are available, resulting in a proactive, data-driven approach that enables organizations to respond quickly to changing business needs, seize new opportunities, and fuel growth from within.”
