I’m trying to find the best AI recruiting software to help streamline our hiring process. Our current system is inefficient and misses too many qualified candidates. Has anyone had positive experiences with a specific tool that improved their talent acquisition workflow? Any recommendations or advice would be appreciated.
We switched to Lever last year, and it’s honestly been a game changer for us (mid-sized tech company, hiring 30-40/a year). Their AI-powered search is solid for finding candidates who are a little outside the traditional keyword match—actually helped us find some off-the-wall backgrounds who ended up being great hires. Collaboration tools within the platform are actually designed with recruiters and hiring managers in mind, not just a checkbox for “has AI.” Scheduler, pipeline visualizations, candidate ratings, all that—super user-friendly. I’ve played with HireVue and Greenhouse too; both have decent AI components but Greenhouse sometimes feels overcomplicated and HireVue’s video assessments annoyed a lot of our candidates. Lever’s newer AI features help route applications automatically so stuff isn’t getting stuck in the void, which happened constantly with our old system. One thing—if you’re primarily dealing with hourly/volume hires, maybe check out Paradox’s Olivia (the chatbot works well for basic screening at scale). But for the type of roles we hire, Lever’s been the best overall balance of automation, actual intelligence (not just buzzwords), and not making the candidate experience worse. If your system is just missing qualified candidates, I’d recommend prioritizing search/filter AI and see who lets you customize it to your specific must-haves—most platforms let you trial or demo now, so worth a spin before committing.
Honestly, all these ‘AI’ tools love to promise they’re the one app to rule them all, but reality check: none of them are magic. I get what @techchizkid liked about Lever—it’s smooth and does a decent job with search, but I demo’d it last quarter and the integration with our other HR stuff was… meh. There’s also the constant updating of criteria to keep the AI from either recommending every generic resume or missing out on left-field but awesome fits. It’s just another filter, not a crystal ball.
For what it’s worth, we had more luck with SmartRecruiters, especially for making the candidate experience better (their messaging and application portal is less clunky than most). The AI sourcing is hit-or-miss, true, but I’ve found that the real gains come from using these platforms’ analytics to see where your process really bottlenecks. The candidate rediscovery in their talent pool is actually solid—pulled up a couple resumes I’d glossed over before.
And let’s talk about volume: if you’re drowning in low-quality inbound applicants, yeah, something like Paradox’s Olivia or even HireVue could help clear the fog—though, to be honest, half my team refuses to trust video assessments after one particularly robotic interview batch. Greenhouse has bells and whistles (and, yes, probably too many toggles/permissions), but it’s flexible if you’ve got a complicated process.
If you want to stop losing out on qualified folks: don’t just lean on AI search. Actually train it, audit outcomes, and adjust. Your best hires will still surprise the algorithm now and then, so as cool as “AI” is, keep manual review for your key positions. And do yourself a favor: insist on a trial run and ask for actual transparency on how their AI rankings work. If the vendor just says “trust our magic box,” run.
If you’re after straight talk on the best AI recruiting software, here’s a hot take that might go against the grain a little. Lever’s AI search and automation get points for pulling up unconventional candidates and keeping things moving. I’ve spun up a few hiring sprints in Lever, and their collaboration tools are slick for recruiters and hiring managers; less endless email, more pipelining and quick comms—good for mid-sized orgs that don’t want to drown in complexity. The downside? If your HR stack is already Frankenstein-ish, Lever’s integrations are… tolerable, but not seamless (be ready to juggle an extra login or two).
SmartRecruiters is probably more candidate-friendly if you’re lining up smooth journeys for applicants and care about rediscovering folks you overlooked last year. Their AI sourcing is sometimes brilliant, sometimes “meh,” but if you dig into their pool, you might strike gold. The catch: analytics and dashboards are decent, but take time to interpret actual weak spots in your funnel.
Greenhouse? Feature-overload central. Their customization is deep, but you need a process ninja to get the most out of it. Paradox’s Olivia and HireVue are choices for big-volume, entry-level, or hourly gig hiring, if quantity beats nuance. But video assessments can put off some candidates, especially in tech or creative roles.
Bluntly: if your system is missing people, don’t expect any AI—Lever or otherwise—to work miracles out of the box. Train the filters, watch for drift, and do periodic audits, especially on needle-in-the-haystack positions. AI finds patterns, not potential. Never swap out human review for key hires.
As for the product title ': pros—excellent for AI-driven matching (if you take time to customize), intuitive pipeline visualizations, painless scheduling, and best-in-class collaboration tools. Cons—mediocre integration if you have a sprawling HR suite, AI can get too rigid if you don’t regularly tune it, and not ideal for ultra-high volume/high churn roles (lean toward Paradox or HireVue for those scenarios).
Last word: pilot the platforms. Demand transparency—ask for a peek under the hood to understand how the AI is stacking candidates. Don’t accept “just trust us.” None of these tools replace savvy recruiter judgment, but with ’ you’re off to a solid, balanced start—just budget time for setup and ongoing tweaks.