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Indeed Launches AI-Powered Sourcing Assistant to Expand Recruiter Reach
On Monday, Indeed announced the rollout of its new Sourcing Assistant, an AI‑powered tool designed to help recruiters identify qualified candidates beyond traditional keyword searches. The assistant is part of Indeed’s Smart Sourcing suite, which already offers a large resume database and AI‑driven matching. The new feature is available to employers in the United States who have a Smart Sourcing subscription.
The assistant works by ingesting a job description and automatically generating a set of qualifications for the role. Recruiters can then edit or refine these criteria using natural‑language prompts. The system searches Indeed’s pool of hundreds of millions of profiles, looking for candidates with related skill sets and recent activity that would not be captured by a standard Boolean query. Matches are surfaced for recruiters to review, and the assistant learns from the recruiter’s decisions, including which candidates are rejected. This feedback loop is intended to improve future match quality.
According to Indeed’s VP of product, Thomas Bergman, the company’s Smart Sourcing product was a significant upgrade when it launched a few years ago, but “the actual querying and reviewing of results was still super tedious and time‑consuming.” He added that the new AI assistant is meant to supplement, not replace, manual keyword searches. “The query is just one tiny little bit,” Bergman said. “It doesn’t capture the full human experience of everything that we need to do in the candidate search.”
The launch comes amid a broader trend of AI tools reshaping the hiring process. A recent Harris Poll survey conducted for Indeed found that 71 % of hiring managers say higher volume of applicants has made it harder to find qualified candidates. Bergman noted that even with extensive Boolean fields, recruiters still struggle to surface every suitable candidate.
Recruiters can set limits on outreach, such as daily caps or exclusions, and the assistant prompts them to adhere to these limits while prioritizing quality over quantity. The tool also tracks outreach progress, allowing recruiters to start contacting the most promising candidates first.
While the manual sourcing workflow in Smart Sourcing remains unchanged, the AI assistant is positioned as a supplement that can search beyond the scope of what a human can produce with strategic and creative Boolean queries. After training the assistant on a specific search, recruiters can adjust outreach parameters and monitor the assistant’s performance.
Sourcing Assistant is currently limited to U.S. employers with a Smart Sourcing subscription, but Bergman expects the customer base to expand over the next year. The feature is part of Indeed’s broader effort to streamline talent acquisition and address the challenges highlighted by hiring managers.
The announcement was made in a brief statement to HR professionals and was covered by HR Brew, which highlighted the tool’s potential to reduce the time recruiters spend on candidate search.
In summary, Indeed’s new Sourcing Assistant leverages AI to extend the reach of recruiters beyond keyword‑based searches, learning from recruiter feedback to improve candidate matching. The tool is available now to U.S. employers with an existing Smart Sourcing subscription, with plans for broader rollout in the coming year.
The assistant works by ingesting a job description and automatically generating a set of qualifications for the role. Recruiters can then edit or refine these criteria using natural‑language prompts. The system searches Indeed’s pool of hundreds of millions of profiles, looking for candidates with related skill sets and recent activity that would not be captured by a standard Boolean query. Matches are surfaced for recruiters to review, and the assistant learns from the recruiter’s decisions, including which candidates are rejected. This feedback loop is intended to improve future match quality.
According to Indeed’s VP of product, Thomas Bergman, the company’s Smart Sourcing product was a significant upgrade when it launched a few years ago, but “the actual querying and reviewing of results was still super tedious and time‑consuming.” He added that the new AI assistant is meant to supplement, not replace, manual keyword searches. “The query is just one tiny little bit,” Bergman said. “It doesn’t capture the full human experience of everything that we need to do in the candidate search.”
The launch comes amid a broader trend of AI tools reshaping the hiring process. A recent Harris Poll survey conducted for Indeed found that 71 % of hiring managers say higher volume of applicants has made it harder to find qualified candidates. Bergman noted that even with extensive Boolean fields, recruiters still struggle to surface every suitable candidate.
Recruiters can set limits on outreach, such as daily caps or exclusions, and the assistant prompts them to adhere to these limits while prioritizing quality over quantity. The tool also tracks outreach progress, allowing recruiters to start contacting the most promising candidates first.
While the manual sourcing workflow in Smart Sourcing remains unchanged, the AI assistant is positioned as a supplement that can search beyond the scope of what a human can produce with strategic and creative Boolean queries. After training the assistant on a specific search, recruiters can adjust outreach parameters and monitor the assistant’s performance.
Sourcing Assistant is currently limited to U.S. employers with a Smart Sourcing subscription, but Bergman expects the customer base to expand over the next year. The feature is part of Indeed’s broader effort to streamline talent acquisition and address the challenges highlighted by hiring managers.
The announcement was made in a brief statement to HR professionals and was covered by HR Brew, which highlighted the tool’s potential to reduce the time recruiters spend on candidate search.
In summary, Indeed’s new Sourcing Assistant leverages AI to extend the reach of recruiters beyond keyword‑based searches, learning from recruiter feedback to improve candidate matching. The tool is available now to U.S. employers with an existing Smart Sourcing subscription, with plans for broader rollout in the coming year.
