3 ways Indeed is leveraging AI to help bridge the gap between hiring managers and job seekers

By Allison McLellan, Indeed senior content writer, employer content marketing

A staggering 99% of 300 US hiring managers say sourcing qualified talent is a challenge, according to a recent Indeed-commissioned survey with Harris Poll¹, and over half of them have seen reductions in their recruiting personnel. With Indeed's new AI-powered Smart Sourcing tool, hiring managers can automatically receive a list of quality candidates who match the requirements of a job description.

Building on the Indeed Resume tool, which allows recruiters to search the 245 million resumes on Indeed, Smart Sourcing uses AI-powered algorithms to match active candidates to open roles, cutting back on time spent manually filtering through talent. Custom-generated messaging and collaboration tools can further streamline your workflow while maintaining an individualized approach to candidate communication. In fact, 90% of users agree that Smart Sourcing is the preferred product for sourcing quality talent.²

"Indeed has been invested in AI for a long time," Jason Kudrikow, Indeed senior talent strategy advisor, said. "Now, with the recent acceleration of large language models and generative AI technology, we're able to combine our enormous database of resumes with what we know employers are looking for in order to make smart matches — and help you connect with them faster."

Here are three ways Smart Sourcing can help you hire smarter and faster.

1. You're automatically matched with quality candidates

The Indeed-commissioned Harris Poll survey found that 74% of hiring managers would prefer to automatically match with qualified talent based on skills and relevant experiences instead of manually searching for them. Smart Sourcing's matched candidates does exactly that: Simply toggle between your jobs on Indeed via a drop-down menu to instantly view recommended candidates and then invite them to apply.

"As you accept or reject candidates, the Smart Sourcing AI will learn what you prefer over time," Kudrikow said. "It lets you curate your matched candidates' results like a Spotify playlist, tailored to your unique preferences."

You can still manually search and filter resumes or use automated recommendations to expedite the process. Matches are based on three things: The keyword relevancy of your job post, job seekers' resumes, job seekers' search activity on Indeed, and how recently job seekers have been on the site. This helps Indeed's matching algorithms present you with the most relevant candidates who are demonstrating interest in new opportunities.

Universal Health Services (UHS), a leading hospital and healthcare provider with 400 facilities across the US, Puerto Rico, and the UK, reported its candidate-response rate improved by 30% since using Smart Sourcing. "Smart Sourcing serves up appropriate candidates that tend to be more eager to respond and are active on Indeed. So we get both quality candidates that are a fit and a higher response rate than with another similar tool," said one director of recruiting at UHS.

In the survey, 70% of 1,107 US workers agree that companies who have contacted them in the past could have done a better job of reviewing their skills and experience beforehand. This lack of preparation, personalization, and attention to detail in recruiting can reflect poorly on your company.

That's why matched candidates include candidate highlights, a generative AI capability that analyzes and summarizes each resume. This can help suggest why the candidate could be a great fit for your role, or point out potential gaps in their experience. This accelerated evaluation enables you to make better-informed hiring decisions to preserve both your employer brand and the candidate experience.

Matched candidates you invite to apply are 17 times more likely to apply to your job than job seekers who only see it when searching on Indeed, and employers who use this feature when sponsoring their jobs hire 20% faster.^3,4

2. AI-powered messaging accelerates and personalizes candidate outreach

On average, employers contacting candidates through Indeed's resume search receive a positive response from a job seeker in just 10 hours.⁵ But, 95% of hiring managers believe that their productivity would be even better if administrative tasks like candidate outreach could be assisted by AI. Indeed's customizable AI-powered messages reduce the time and effort it takes to manually write, personalize, and proofread candidate communications.

This allows you to generate a customized message based on the content of the candidate's resume and your job posting. You can generate message variations by desired tone and refine the information before sending it."The AI-powered messages are very effective because they're personalized for each individual candidate. It's amazing how the AI pulls in the right pieces of a job description to describe the highlights of the job and uses information from a candidate's resume to say why it's a great fit," said the UHS recruiting director.

With a Professional Subscription, hiring managers gain the ability to automate post-outreach and follow-up with custom reminder messages. Message analytics track how your templates perform and provide actionable insights on candidate engagement, helping you maximize ROI.

3. Collaborative tools make the feedback process easier

Recruiting and hiring can be a complex task with work distributed across multiple people and platforms. To simplify the process, Smart Sourcing Professional Subscriptions allow you to invite collaborators to sourcing projects and accelerate the candidate feedback process with collaborative task management tools.

If you need to continue the hiring process on your company's applicant tracking system (ATS), Indeed offers integrations with Workday, iCIMS, and Greenhouse that automatically transfer candidate information for you. You can also take your sourcing with you on the go with the Indeed Connect for Employers app. Once you've reached out to potential candidates, notifications let you know when they respond to an application invite or a message, allowing you to reply in real-time and keep the hiring process moving forward.

Getting started with Smart Sourcing

Smart Sourcing subscriptions are available starting today, and existing Indeed Resume subscriptions have transitioned to Smart Sourcing. Available in both Standard and Professional options, subscriptions include access to candidate search and filters, matching quality candidates to your job, and offering faster candidate connections.

"No one gets into talent attraction for the legwork," Kudikrow said. "Indeed is harnessing the power of AI to make it easier than ever to get your opportunities in front of qualified talent, fast, and focus on what makes the profession so rewarding — the human connection."

Learn more about how Smart Sourcing can help you make better hiring decisions.

This post was created by Indeed with Insider Studios.

Survey methodology: 

This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Indeed from February 12–20, 2024, among 1,107 employed adults, ages 18 and older, and 300 hiring managers (those with sole or primary decision making in the recruiting and hiring process) with 2,000+ employees. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the employee sample data is accurate to within +/– 2.6 percentage points and the hiring manager sample data is accurate to within +/— 5.6% using a 95% confidence level.

¹Harris Poll survey of U.S. hiring managers with 2,000+ employees (n=300) and employed adults, ages 18 and older (n=1107), conducted on behalf of Indeed, February 2024

²Indeed U.S. Survey, 2024 (n=300)

³Indeed data (U.S.), August 2023

⁴Indeed data (U.S.), 2023

⁵Indeed data (worldwide), 2023