Key takeaways:
- Recruiter call time hit 286 minutes per week in Q1 2026, the highest level on record and double what it was two years ago, as AI tool usage among recruiters climbed.
- Firms using AI at any stage of the recruiting workflow are 3.5 to 4.5 times more likely to have grown revenue, according to the Bullhorn GRID 2026 Industry Trends Report.
- Deep AI adoption was one of only three factors separating growing agencies from shrinking ones in 2025, alongside operational maturity and an owned sourcing mix.
The staffing industry has spent the better part of three years debating whether AI would replace recruiters. The data from 2025 and early 2026 is starting to settle that question, and the answer runs counter to what most of the fear-based coverage predicted.
Recruiter call time reached 286 minutes per week in Q1 2026, the highest level ever recorded, according to the ASA and Prodoscore Staffing Productivity Report released this month. That number has doubled since Q1 2024. Over the same two-year window, the average number of AI tools used per recruiter climbed from one to 1.36.
As AI tool adoption went up, so did time spent talking to candidates and clients.
AI is freeing up time for relationship building
Sourcing and screening are the two tasks recruiters say consume the most time in their day. The Bullhorn GRID 2026 Industry Trends Report, which surveyed nearly 2,300 recruitment professionals globally, found that AI is already cutting the time recruiters spend on those tasks by 26% to 75%. What they’re doing with that recovered time, as the ASA data suggests, is getting on the phone and building relationships.
A third of the recruiters in Bullhorn’s data agree that AI allows them to spend more time connecting with clients and candidates, although identifying better candidates faster ranked as AI’s top current benefit. Speed and relationship time are both going up, which matters for firms that have historically had to trade one off against the other.
Deep AI adoption is a revenue growth factor
Our 2026 State of Staffing Benchmarking Report found that growing agencies had three things in common: higher operational maturity, deep AI adoption, and a sourcing mix anchored by owned channels. So while deep AI adoption was a factor, growing firms were running tighter operations across the board.
And deep AI adoption means adding AI strategically, into the workflows where it can have the biggest impact. According to the GRID report, the highest-growth firms are deploying AI across multiple workflow stages with measurable KPI impact. Firms seeing AI’s effect on candidate screening and faster recruiter ramp-up are as much as six times more likely to have grown revenue. And 55% of firms report AI screening alone has pushed their KPIs up by more than 25%.
The firms seeing the biggest operational gains are using AI embedded in their applicant tracking system (ATS) and across multiple workflow stages. Firms using AI for multiple use cases report more than double the operational improvements of firms using it in a single area. But only 10% of firms have implemented agentic AI across their full workflow.
However, the technology’s success also depends on leadership. Leaders who felt equipped to guide their firm’s AI adoption were nearly 40% more likely to have achieved revenue growth in 2025.
Recovered recruiter time goes to clients and candidates
Recruiters were only able to double their call time because the work that used to fill their days was taken off their plates. AI has helped them reduce time spent on tasks like finding qualified candidates, evaluating applicants, and administrative work.
The key to converting AI investments into actual revenue for these firms was prioritizing time reallocation. Ultimately, the financial impact of the investment is determined by how recruiters choose to use the hours freed up by the technology.
