'I would imagine recruiters would save 30 to 40 to 50% of their time,' says Josh Bersin
This article was created in partnership with LinkedIn.
As we move closer towards 2026, one aspect remains top of mind for employers - finding the right skills set for success in the year to come. Despite an onus on hiring, recruiters are still grappling with archaic methods, compounded by too much administrative work and not enough ‘face to face’ time with candidates.
That’s where the power of AI comes in. Research from LinkedIn found that 63% of talent acquisition professionals in Southeast Asia believe AI can help improve their quality of hire, with 79% adding that AI will change the way organisations hire. What’s more, AI adoption among recruiting teams is growing, with 29% of organisations now “actively integrating” or “experimenting” with Gen AI tools, in comparison to 37% globally.
In that vein, LinkedIn recently launched Hiring Assistant - an AI agent for recruiters powered by the world’s most dynamic talent network. And early adopters of the platform are already seeing the benefits, saving four hours per role, reviewing 62% fewer profiles, and seeing a 69% improvement in InMail acceptance rates.
Improved quality of hire, reduction in admin tasks
Hiring Assistant is also drawing praise from respected leaders in the sector – including HR analyst Josh Bersin.
“Recruiting and hiring is one of the most complex parts of running a company,” he explained. “There are dozens and dozens of steps meaning recruiters are forced to deal with lots of information, lots of candidates, many job descriptions and titles – as well as hiring managers who’re demanding results and information.
“Hiring Assistant brings all this together into an integrated solution and gives you intelligent answers and productivity tools all along the way. I would imagine recruiters would save 30 to 40 to 50% of their time, the quality of hire will go up, the time to hire will [improve] and the candidates will have a better experience because they’ll have more personalized conversations directly with the recruiter. There are a lot of tools in the market that do things like Hiring Assistant but none of them have the power of LinkedIn under them.”
Access to AI-powered hiring tools such as Hiring Assistant is the #1 factor HR professionals (54%) say would make the hiring process easier – with TAs in Asia predicting improved hiring efficiency (70%), boosting job post effectiveness (47%) and expanding talent pools (39%) as the top three benefits.
‘It’s a miraculous solution for recruiters’
With Hiring Assistant, recruiters can get back to what they do best – speaking to people.
“Most recruiters like to talk to people, interview people and coach people, but they don’t get to do very much of that,” added Bersin. “[Instead] they have to do sourcing, write job descriptions, place ads, deal with candidate streams and interview scheduling; there’s a lot of administrative work in recruiting.
“Hiring Assistant automates a lot of that, meaning 50% of their time can be saved to spend time with candidates and hiring managers - and that’s where the value of recruiters is. I think it’s a miraculous solution for recruiters, and I think most recruiters are going to love it.”
Part of the draw of Hiring Assistant is the seamlessness of the tool itself, integrating all aspects of the recruiting lifecycle into one, accessible and easy-to-use platform including two game-changing feature;
- AI-Assisted Search allows hiring leaders to use natural language prompts like “I want to hire a senior growth marketing leader.” The system interprets this request and offers high-quality recommendations based on skills, experience, and fit - not just previous employers or degrees. Early results show a +18% lift in InMail acceptance rates compared to manual search methods.
- AI-Assisted Messages enable recruiters to instantly generate personalised candidate outreach. Recruiters who use these messages see a 44% higher acceptance rate, with responses coming in over 11% faster than those sent manually.
In today’s fact-moving, AI-powered hiring landscape, staying ahead of the competition is everything. Hiring Assistant will help organisations to now only survive in the months to come but to really thrive.
“Virtually every company I spoke to in Asia is dealing with job changes, new skills, new roles and increased productivity demands around AI,” added Bersin. “There’s this massive need to upskill, educate, enable and empower people to change their role and use the AI tools that’re becoming available. All of those issues are resolved by tools such as the Career Hub, LinkedIn Learning and, of course, Hiring Assistant which helps you to look at jobs, redesign roles and find people for these new positions.”
It’s not just Bersin that’s seeing the potential, Dr Jaclyn Lee, CHRO at Certis, revealed how the new tool has supercharged the way they hire.
“Hiring Assistant has freed our Recruiting teams from repetitive tasks, streamlined our processes, and helped us find the right talent faster - giving them space to focus on strategic priorities.”
And the results really do speak for themselves. When used alongside LinkedIn Talent Insights, Hiring Assistant boosted Certis’ recruiter productivity by between 60-70%, streamlining their processes and helping their recruiters find the right talent faster.
“Hiring Assistant surfaced candidates we would have otherwise missed - including niche roles that had been open for months,” added Lee. “That’s the real value: uncovering hidden talent.”
For business leaders and people managers, LinkedIn is also offering targeted learning programs, such as AI for Organizational Leaders, Building an AI road map to success, and AI for Managers. Each one is designed to help leaders make smarter decisions, roll out AI with confidence, and lead teams that thrive in a world where AI is part of the job.
Find out more about Hiring Assistant here.
