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Discover how top talent acquisition leaders are gaining buy-in, reducing anxiety and managing change fatigue to help recruiting and hiring teams embrace AI
In the rush to adopt AI in recruiting, many organizations skip the most important step: Supporting the recruiters and hiring managers who are expected to use this new technology.
While artificial intelligence (AI) promises real productivity gains, change brings uncertainty. Recruiters may worry about being replaced by AI or having their workflows disrupted by unfamiliar tools. Hiring managers often prefer to stay closely involved in hiring decisions and may be wary of anything that seems to take that control away. Without a clear change management strategy, even the smartest AI recruiting tools can spark fear, stall adoption, and alienate the very people they’re meant to empower.
This sentiment surfaced in a recent meeting of Indeed’s Leadership Connect, where talent acquisition leaders from some of the country’s largest employers discussed the challenges and lessons learned from implementing AI in recruiting. Their message was clear: Successful AI adoption requires more than choosing the right technology — it demands a thoughtful, human-centred approach that prioritizes trust, transparency, and engagement.
Here are four change management strategies these leaders use to gain buy-in from their teams and successfully roll out AI recruiting tools across their organizations.
Four change management tips for driving AI adoption in recruiting
1. Reframe AI as a way to empower, not replace, recruiters
AI has the potential to transform recruiting, but not by replacing people. While these tools can automate repetitive tasks and surface data-driven insights, they can’t replicate the human judgement, relationship building, and strategic thinking that define great recruiting.
Mike Aronson, senior director of global talent acquisition operations at Johnson Controls, a building technology and energy solutions company, encourages talent acquisition leaders to use AI implementation as a chance to reposition recruiters as strategic business partners. “We’re trying to free up recruiters from tactical, transactional work — things like interview scheduling or summarizing phone screens — so they can bring more value to the business,” he says. “That time we get back needs to be used to show up as talent advisors, not just order takers.”
By streamlining time-consuming work, AI frees recruiters to do what they do best: Build connections, provide insight and advise. As an example, with adaptability and skills in mind, Indeed’s Premium Sponsored Jobs give postings maximum visibility, while time-saving AI features accelerate the candidate screening process thanks to candidate highlights and auto-generated messages to contact applicants. This enables a shift from reactive hiring to proactive talent engagement, giving recruiters the tools and time to anticipate needs, build pipelines and contribute to long-term work force planning.
“This isn’t about taking responsibilities away — it’s about empowering recruiters to have stronger, more consultative relationships with hiring managers,” Mr. Aronson adds. “And if you’re not ready to be that consultative partner, this may not be the role for you.”
2. Build trust through education and transparency
One of the biggest barriers to AI adoption in recruiting is fear of the unknown. Without a clear understanding of how these tools work and what they do, some recruiters or hiring managers may assume the worst.
That’s why successful talent leaders are putting education and open dialogue at the heart of their change management strategies. For example, one company found success by hosting a fireside chat between its CEO and employees to directly address questions about the company’s new AI recruiting tools. This helped to build trust by offering people a chance to ask hard questions and get clarity on the organization’s vision for AI implementation.
Other organizations are turning to ongoing education to keep the conversation active. At one major university, a monthly “HR coffee chat” series brings together vendor partners, HR leaders, faculty, and staff to present and discuss timely, AI-related topics. These informal sessions create space for recruiters and hiring managers to learn, ask questions, and explore new tools and ideas. It also takes a creative approach with “prompt parties,” hands-on sessions for experimenting with tools like ChatGPT in a collaborative, low-pressure environment.
Some companies are even implementing AI training programs that all employees must complete, signalling that AI fluency is becoming a core competency.
The takeaway? Successfully implementing AI in recruiting isn’t about one-time training. It’s about creating a culture of learning and curiosity.
3. Turn early adopters into AI ambassadors
Rolling out new AI hiring tools company-wide may seem most impactful, but many talent leaders caution that starting small with early adopters can create stronger, more sustainable momentum.
Several organizations in the U.S. Leadership Connect cohort piloted AI tools with select groups of recruiters who were open to experimenting and providing feedback. These “super users” became internal champions, helping their peers understand how the tools work and why they’re valuable.
“We were very intentional about including recruiters in the evaluation process,” said Maria Schaefer, vice-president of talent acquisition at BrightSpring Health Services. “During vendor trials, we invited some of our top recruiters to test the platforms and share feedback: Which tool they liked better, what worked and what didn’t.”
Those early testers played a crucial role beyond selection. “They became our ambassadors during rollout, helping others see how they were using the tools in their day-to-day work and answering questions from their peers,” Ms. Schaefer added.
This peer-driven approach can help scale adoption and build trust through experience, making the shift feel less like a top-down mandate and more like a team-driven evolution.
4. Anticipate and manage change fatigue
In a fast-evolving hiring landscape, recruiting and hiring teams often have to manage multiple tools, processes, and priorities. Plus, even when the benefits of AI in recruiting are clear, change is still difficult. Introducing yet another system can contribute to “change fatigue,” or employee weariness and disengagement from constant organizational change.
Several Leadership Connect members shared the importance of pacing rollouts thoughtfully and avoiding the trap of layering new technology on top of old habits. Ms. Schaefer explained how BrightSpring Health deliberately manages the pace of change: “We’re asking people to change their mindset, their process [and] their routines, and that can be exhausting. We’ve been very deliberate to ensure we’re not tiring our teams out.”
Pairing post-launch resources, such as regular office hours with vendor partners where key hiring collaborators can ask questions and troubleshoot real-world scenarios, with a slow and intentional rollout is a low-stakes way to shift behaviour.
By providing time, space and support, talent leaders can help navigate the learning curve and sustain long-term adoption.
Bottom line: AI adoption is a human-centred journey
Rolling out AI recruiting tools isn’t just about technology — it’s about trust. Success depends on how well you bring both your recruiters and the hiring managers they support along for the ride.
By positioning AI as a partner, not a threat, and leading with transparency, trust, and education, talent acquisition leaders can turn hesitation into momentum and give their teams the future-ready tools they need to thrive.
Advertising feature produced by Indeed. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.