SmartRecruiters launched an agentic artificial intelligence (AI) platform designed to simplify and speed up hiring processes.
At the platform’s core is Winston – an agentic AI recruiting companion embedded across the hiring journey. This feature anticipates recruiter and hiring manager needs, automates repetitive tasks and delivers real-time, intelligent guidance – turning hours of manual work into minutes of impact, according to the announcement.
Leading enterprises such as Amazon, Dominos, H&M and Qantas are already using SmartRecruiters to enhance recruitment processes.
Businesses face stark hiring challenges
Hiring is often cited as a major barrier to business growth – yet most business leaders believe their technology can’t keep up. Recruiters manage four-times more applications than pre-Covid-19 pandemic – often with no increase in candidate quality, while one in three roles go unfilled past their intended start date, according to SmartRecruiters. What’s more, companies are losing up to US$3,000 per hire due to inefficiencies, delays and disconnected tools.
This is particularly poignant given that skills and talent shortages are the biggest obstacle to business transformation, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Future of Jobs Report.
“Hiring hasn’t just been due for improvement – it’s been overdue for reinvention,” said Rebecca Carr, CEO of SmartRecruiters. “With Winston and SmartOS, we’re replacing outdated systems with something fundamentally new: intelligence that’s built in, not bolted on. This is more than a platform – it’s the beginning of a new era in talent acquisition, one that’s faster, simpler, and ready for the AI era.”
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SmartRecruiters is using AI to transform hiring processes
SmartRecruiters claimed that Winston brings built-in intelligence to every workflow, reducing admin, accelerating time-to-hire and delivering clarity at scale. Initial results from SmartRecruiters’ AI-driven approach to hiring include:
- 95 percent reduction in time spent scheduling interviews.
- 75 percent decrease in recruiter effort on screening tasks.
- 60 percent faster time-to-hire with automated coordination.
- Two-times higher candidate conversion with Winston Chat.
- Over 300 estimated hours saved per recruiter per year through Winston Companion
Key features include:
- SmartOS: SmartRecruiters’ reimagined talent operating system at the core of the platform. It unifies workflows, roles and systems across every step of the hiring journey with native integrations, enterprise-grade orchestration and built-in support for global compliance, localization and scale.
- Modular packaging: This gives customers the flexibility to buy what they need, when they need it. Pre-configured bundles align to real-world hiring models – from high-volume to corporate – making it easy to scale, expand or evolve without complexity.
- Outcome-aligned pricing: A consumption-based model where companies pay based on actual usage and hiring volume. With reduced upfront costs, faster budget approval and clearer ROI, this model removes the guesswork and makes procurement refreshingly simple.
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