In many ways, recruiting teams are ground zero for AI disruption. A large number of tasks that used to be performed by recruiters can now be performed by AI technology. But…with a world of possibilities at your fingertips, it can be hard to know where to start.
Real estate technology giant Zillo Since trials began in late 2023, a number of AI tools for recruitment have been launched. HR Brew recently sat down with Roz Harris, Vice President of Talent Acquisition, Engagement and Engagement at Zillow, to discuss how her recruiting team identifies and adopts AI solutions.
Where to start? In November 2023, Harris’ team began studying how recruiters use artificial intelligence.
“We started looking at the possibilities of AI. What we found was that when you look at the role of recruiters and what they do, about 80% of our jobs are mundane tasks that you hear in conferences about AI being able to replace,” she told HR Brew.
To help ease recruiters’ fears of being replaced by AI, Harris and her team tried an AI tip-a-thon.
Zillow already uses hackathons to develop consumer-facing features and products; Harris’ team has adopted this practice in its internal use of artificial intelligence. For example, the Jamathon team expressed a desire for more guidance when having difficult conversations with hiring managers. They designed a tip that works on ChatGPT, including capturing details about the question and emphasizing soft skills, such as maintaining rapport or trust with the hiring manager. The result: solutions designed by recruiters themselves, rather than top-down mandates from leadership.
“I think the problem they’re trying to solve is, if I had to get my leadership team in a room and say, ‘Let’s do this,’ we simply wouldn’t be asking the same questions and challenges,” Harris said.
After identifying the problem and solution, Harris will bring in what she calls the “cavalry” — legal, enterprise technology, engagement and belonging, and technical assistance teams — to evaluate the tool and determine usability.
So far, the jamathon has produced six AI recruiting tools, Harris said. Some were developed in-house, but most are vendor tools that Harris’ team adopted early on or helped develop. Harris said the Troopers haven’t said “no” to her yet, largely because she follows their best practices, such as avoiding the use of decision-making tools and personal identifiers such as race, gender or identifying keywords to evaluate candidates.
“Fortunately, I’ve been at it for a while, and so has my leadership team. We’ve always known that we didn’t want AI making decisions,” she said. “We stay away from tools and things that do that.”
Measure success. The tools the Harris team uses are focused on assisting recruiters and improving the candidate experience.
On the job seeker side, Zillow’s AI tools include assistants that help candidates find and apply for jobs, and schedule and prepare for interviews. When it comes to recruiters, recruitment marketing software or LinkedIn Recruiters help find quality candidates, while another tool analyzes and provides interview feedback.
“If you’re applying for a job at Zillow, you can get help, which will also help match you to certain positions. And then we’re also using artificial intelligence to help recruiters,” Harris said.
Zillow’s AI-powered interview scheduler is designed to speed up hiring and relieve recruiters of a huge workload; some positions, such as sales or marketing specialists, receive more than 4,000 applications within a day of being posted.
“As someone who started his career as a recruiting coordinator, I think the scheduling tool is actually my favorite,” Harris said.
In the past, recruiting coordinators would spend more than a week coordinating interview schedules, Harris said. Candidates now receive a text message or email with a link showing the interviewer’s availability and scheduling a meeting, which reduces the time to schedule an interview to 30 minutes, a 97% reduction, saving recruiters up to 450 hours per month.
For recruiting coordinators who sweat seeing this statistic, Harris shares good news: “Their skills have improved. They’re still working at Zillow.”
Many of the former coordinators now work in Zillow’s employee service center or in administrative assistant or project manager roles; others help manage the scheduling tool. (and, when AWS outage in October After the internet went down, those former coordinators helped schedule interviews manually. )
Zillow also leverages artificial intelligence Recruit candidates from a wider geographical area.
after embracing it Remote first working modecalled Cloud HQ, and Zillow found that it wasn’t a well-known employer in some cities. Harris’ team used tools, including newsletters and targeted actions, to drive applications, and LinkedIn Recruiter To save time searching for better candidates, Zillow said job advertising technology provider Appcast helps recruit across regions. As of mid-December, 558 employees had been recruited for 2025 through these three channels.
“We have a reputation in the regions where we have offices. Well, when you flip it around and say we’re going to be a cloud headquarters and we’re going to be able to hire across the country, we don’t have a reputation everywhere,” she said. “AI has helped us build our reputation.”
This report is Originally published go through HR Brewing.