When I say “AI voice agents for recruiting,” most of us over the age of 30 imagine those awful robotic voice calls to your home phone that began with an awkward pause. But I’m not talking about the robot voice of the “I’ll get it” home phone era. I’m talking voices that sound so good they will make you a little confused. Like this one. Honestly, it was so good it scared me a little.  

And no, she didn’t have to spend a month uploading videos or writing some really detailed transcripts with process maps. Instead of automating a transcript, these AI voice agents are trained on massive amounts of real human speech to learn the patterns, rhythm, and tone that make conversation feel natural. “Ums” and natural pauses included. Then, text-to-speech systems based on the same predictive text you use with LLMs like ChatGPT can guess the next word and generate audio as a response, not just a transcript reader. Way better than the folks that call about your car’s warranty. 

Admittedly, at first glance I didn’t care what an AI voice agent would do for recruiting no matter how good they sound. Pew Research reports about 67% of people don't even pick up when an unknown number is calling (myself included). Maybe recruiters are ready for AI voice agents for recruiting, but are candidates? 

The Big But: Candidates Hate It

Broadly? I don’t think so - and that’s not me trying to call candidates luddites. Candidates aren’t going to naturally trust some AI caller. The seeds of mistrust in recruitment marketing are already planted by the scams and spam. It just takes one scam text to make people weary.  80% of respondents to a Resume.org survey who got a job scam text said that the experience made them more cautious of how they view legitimate recruiter outreach. All that data here.

When I asked candidates if they would use an AI voice agent on LinkedIn, my belief was confirmed. In the poll, over 65% of respondents said they would not be ok talking to an AI voice agent about the job. That’s even with me clarifying I was NOT including AI interviews. Over 50 people commented within hours. You can read all the commentary here.

The sentiment broadly showed up in one of three categories - all things you should consider if you’re looking at this technology for any use:  

1. AI voice agents feel impersonal and not an equal exchange of time. Candidates can take up to 3 hours to complete an application and to be met with a robot makes some candidates feel like the employer doesn’t care about them. 
2. Hate the phone. No explanation needed. Me too. 
3. Maybe? Even in all the negative responses, some folks have had good experiences. Some they said are better than they have experienced when a person led the process.

That maybe part is worth taking a bet on. Attention will be more valuable than you realize in the next 3 to 5 years. First, because traditional job board use will change as Indeed changes its pricing and plans. Teams will have to take a more strategic approach when they need applicants. Second, in all the talk of AI for recruiting about streamlining and speed, when do people run out of attention? There are simply too many messages to keep up with and those recruiting AI templates will get flagged if they’re using the same word patterns as everyone else. Recruiters will have to try to get people’s attention on new/old channels, like the phone. 

4 Ways HR And Recruiting Can Use AI Voice Agents

So, experiment now, but don’t just jump right into interviewing. Look at the trust data. Look at candidate sentiment. I didn’t even mention all the liability because I’m not a lawyer. I think we can agree, this isn’t an area to over invest in right now. 

Still, I think we can use AI voice agents to improve other steps of the candidate and employee experience with the tech available right now. Below are a few of the common problems clients have come to me with and a few ways I might recommend using an AI voice agent to improve the system. 

1. Pain Point: Interview scheduling back and forth. You don’t hear back for days because we’re swamped in admin. Idea: Use the agent as a companion to recruiter calls. Remember, attention is limited. Use the AI voice agent to follow up and get a call with a human scheduled. Notice I did not say “do the whole interview.” I’m just not a fan of that tech right now. Managers suck at interviewing so you can be confident machines aren’t so good at it, either. 
2. Pain Point: High volume ghosting in high volume hiring. Idea: This is the area where I think companies can push the limit the most as far as experimentation because they have volume and are often not seeking really specific criteria for qualification. Use an AI voice agent to do outreach, pre-qualify, and set interviews if (big emphasis on if) you can define exactly what you’re looking for and it can be simply codified with keywords.  
3. Pain Point: Complicated application experience. Idea: Create a candidate hotline using an AI voice agent that explains how to complete certain steps and answer frequently asked questions. 
4. Pain Point: No live support for candidates going to interviews. Idea: Interview concierge agent. A number that folks can call on their way to the interview to ask administrative questions like where do I park or leave a message with the team that they are going to be late. If you’ve ever panicked on your way into a parking garage before an interview, you know why I suggested this.

If you’re interested in incorporating AI voice agents into your recruiting or employee experience, focus on areas where you can improve the experience by giving the user more information. Generally, if you’re worried about risk, I say start with AI for your internal employees. Start with use cases where people have questions that can be answered in a standard way - like benefits - and build from there. 

Before You Try AI Voice Agents, Do This 

No matter what AI concept you deploy, remember that how you introduce tech is almost as important as the function it will execute. The majority of job seekers have not interacted with AI beyond ChatGPT, let alone a recruiting chat bot. They will feel intimidated and the psychological effects of that fear won’t help them show up their best. You can help improve hiring outcomes with clear instructions and advice. 

The instructions should clarify why you’re using the agent including a disclosure. “I am an AI voice agent” needs to be said at least once. But going beyond that, tell the candidate why your team is using an AI voice agent for recruiting. It could be something as simple as saying, “we receive over 500 applications per day and pre-qualify every applicant using the support of this AI voice agent.” The “why” could go a long way in justifying the shift to candidates. 

If the technology is used to make a decision (like pre-screening), offer advice on how to be successful using this technology. Wouldn’t you be intimidated if you were expecting a human and heard a robot? Somewhere in all of our brains - there’s a right answer and we’re not broadly conditioned on robotics. Remind the candidate of some basic advice for success if the agent is going to make a decision at the end. Oh, and tell them what to do at the end of the call so you don’t end up in a scenario like this.