Recruiters are always in a pickle when finding the right talent. And 81% of recruiters find it really, really challenging to attract good candidates. 

With AI, automation, tools, and so many other things taking over, recruitment is evolving. While this is a huge positive, the new modern tools come with a fair share of technicalities that recruiters need to understand.

We’ll look into some of these hurdles, what recruiters can do about them in 2025, and find relevant AI-based solutions for these.   

What Recruiting Challenges to Expect in 2025

Finding good candidates has always been difficult for different reasons. 

Sometimes you can’t find the exact person who ticks off all the boxes. Sometimes companies are too specific about the jobs they’re hiring for. And all these reasons make a recruiter’s job tougher. 

With that said, let’s look at some challenges that recruiters face and how they’ll shape hiring decisions in 2025. 

1. The Remote Hiring Bottleneck

Since COVID hit, “Working remotely” has become a huge consideration for many candidates. In fact, 58% of white-collar candidates look for “remote” opportunities. 

While that’s great for flexibility, it’s a nightmare for recruiters trying to:

1. Assess cultural fit without meeting candidates in person.
2. Maintain good communication across different time zones.

And matching the exact skills isn’t the problem anymore. You need to look at a candidate holistically – what values they hold, how well they work in a team, etc. 

At that point, recruiters need extra help (Especially when interviewing candidates). That extra help comes from AI recruiting tools, let’s take a look at some of them:  

Bullhorn: ATS Built for High-Volume Recruiters

Bullhorn is a powerful ATS that simplifies the recruitment process for remote teams, especially those dealing with high-volume hiring.

Why Bullhorn is great for remote hiring:

• It handles everything from job posting to onboarding in one platform.
• The ATS keeps recruiters connected with candidates through automated follow-ups and reminders.
• It integrates with other recruiting tools (like AI notetakers) to maintain an updated workflow.  

That way, recruiters can maintain efficiency and organization (even with the complexities of remote hiring). 

Quil: AI Notetaker Built for Recruiters

Recruiters are always in meetings. Sometimes candidates, sometimes the team. So here’s one AI recruiting tool to help: Quil. 

Quil is an AI notetaker specifically built for third-party recruiters. It caters to everything a recruiter needs:

• Automatic ATS updates that sync notes, feedback, and action items with your favorite AI recruiting tools. 
• Detailed meeting summaries: that record and summarize conversations with the important parts 
• Candidate write-ups: to share with the hiring team after each candidate interview. 

Quil helps recruiters save tons of manual work, fatigue, and time that can be invested elsewhere. 

Zoho Recruit: All-in-One Recruitment Software

Zoho Recruit is a flexible ATS that offers customizable workflows tailored to the needs of remote hiring.

What makes Zoho Recruit ideal for 2025:

• Uses machine learning to match candidates to job roles based on skills and experience.
• Simplifies coordinating interviews with candidates across different time zones.
• Enables remote hiring teams to work together efficiently with shared dashboards and tools.

Zoho Recruit is particularly effective for small to mid-sized organizations looking for a cost-effective but powerful recruitment solution.

2. Volume Overload in High-Demand Industries

Industries like tech, healthcare, and logistics have seen exponential growth in hiring demands. 

With tech startups doubling down on innovation and the healthcare sector facing talent shortages, recruiters are overwhelmed with thousands of applications for a single role. 

In fact, studies show that 65% of recruiters cite managing high applicant volumes as their biggest time sink. 

The sheer volume isn’t just a paperwork issue – it’s about ensuring the best candidates don’t get lost in the pile. 

Imagine sifting through hundreds of resumes, only to realize the perfect candidate slipped through the cracks – that’ll be a recruiter’s worst nightmare. 

And that’s where AI helps:

AI recruitment tools step in to make this process smarter, not harder. 

Using natural language processing (NLP), these tools can scan resumes for skills, experiences, and even subtle language cues to identify top-tier candidates. They help recruiters prioritize, segment, and focus their efforts on the most promising applicants.

Some AI tools assess a candidate's soft skills – such as emotional intelligence and leadership potential – using advanced algorithms. 

Others focus on sourcing by scanning multiple platforms and compiling a refined list of pre-qualified candidates, saving recruiters so much time (and effort).

Once an interview begins, you can automate multiple touchpoints – like AI meeting notes, updating the ATS, or sharing updates with the entire hiring team. 

Plus, it reduces manual errors too. 

3. Candidate Drop-Off Due to Poor Communication

Let’s describe another recruiter’s nightmare: losing great candidates mid-process.

Unfortunately, 60% of job seekers abandon their applications due to poor communication or delays in feedback (and this is especially true for Gen-Z folks – this generation is built differently). 

And it makes sense too. If you don’t make a candidate feel valued, or make the next steps clear – they’ll just drop out of the pipeline. These are what Gen-Z calls “red flags” about the company culture. 

Candidates either assume the company wasn’t interested or accepted offers elsewhere before the process could move forward.

And here’s how AI helps: 

It offers great solutions for improving how you communicate with candidates. 

For example, chatbots can provide real-time updates to candidates, and answer questions about interview schedules, application statuses, and company information, helping candidates feel valued even when you’re busy.

Plus, you can use some AI tools to simplify how candidates book interviews, work across different time zones, and just make your work easier. 

With such tools, recruiters can maintain consistent, clear communication, which leads to higher retention and keeps candidates excited about joining the organization. 

Result: happier candidates and a better candidate pipeline. 

Why 2025 Is the Year to Prioritize Recruiting Workflows

Let’s be real – recruiting workflows aren’t just about keeping things tidy. 

They’re a direct reflection of your company’s brand, and in 2025, that “employer” brand will be defined by how efficiently you hire. 

Besides, it’s not 2010 where candidates run after roles. Good candidates have tons of options these days – and how you manage your hiring process can make or break their decision to join your team.

Plus, your hiring process isn’t just about filling a role; it’s about showing top candidates that you value their time, effort, and experience. 

When workflows are clunky, when communication gets delayed, or when things feel disorganized, candidates will quickly head to your competitors who are offering a smoother, more professional experience.

The Elephant in the Room: Will AI Replace Recruiters? 

The short answer: No. AI will not replace recruiters. 

It is, however, changing how recruiters work. And for the better. For instance, recruiters can use AI to automate the mundane parts of their job descriptions (like ATS updates). 

Plus, they can use AI to keep things moving without any blockers and focus on what matters most: building meaningful relationships with candidates and making smarter decisions.

And if you’re still not using AI, you’re already lagging behind. Big time. 65% of recruiters already use it to streamline their processes (and make things easier for them). 

That probably means they’ll get hold of good candidates on time and offer them the application experience they expect. And 2025 will be the year when this number surges. 

The real question is, are you up for a new adventure or want to stick to your outdated methods? 

Read This if You Just Skimmed Through… 

The recruitment industry has always been challenging – and 2025 will be no different. 

But the silver lining is you can cut down a considerable size of those challenges and make them tilt in a favorable direction using AI tools to help you with recruiting. 

Here’s what we’ve learned:

• Remote hiring isn’t easy, but AI tools can help you assess cultural fit and manage cross-time-zone scheduling without the headaches.
• 65% of recruiters say high application volumes are a major time-sink – AI can help prioritize and filter through resumes faster, so no great candidate slips through.
• With so much data to sift through, AI can make sense of it all and surface the insights that matter most.
• AI notetakers, like Quil, save recruiters time by capturing key points from interviews and automatically syncing with ATS, so no valuable insight gets missed.
• AI doesn't just look at resumes; it helps source candidates by scanning multiple platforms and pulling in the best-fit talent.
• AI also helps recruiters with data-driven insights to make smarter, faster hiring decisions.

So, how much could AI improve your recruitment game in 2025?