How Indeed uses AI recruitment tools responsibly

Indeed has a dedicated Responsible AI team made up of people from fields such as computer science, sociology and astrophysics. This team evaluates systems and builds technologies based on responsible AI principles to contribute to fair, transparent and effective recruitment at Indeed.

Indeed’s responsible AI principles

Our Responsible AI team follows a core set of principles when using and developing Indeed AI tools. These principles are:

1. Jobseeker first

Indeed’s mission is to help people get jobs. We work hard to open access to opportunities for all jobseekers. The development, management and use of AI are guided by our mission and this principle above all others.

2. Prioritise fairness and equality

Talent is universal, but opportunity is not. Without proper care, the biases and barriers that jobseekers face can be reinforced or amplified at the scale that AI enables. Appropriate controls and oversight, including complying with Indeed’s Privacy Policy, are essential to the success of AI systems and important for the protection of the people who depend on Indeed to find meaningful employment.

We are committed to fairness and equity in our products, to building products that enable jobseekers to benefit from AI, and to building a diverse team that is representative of jobseekers.

3. Listen and learn

A commitment to fairness and equity requires nuance, expertise and dedication. These concepts are highly contextual and vary within and between cultures. There is no single or settled definition of fairness or equity.

We use data, both quantitative and qualitative, to rigorously evaluate our products’ fairness from the initial design phase onwards. We incorporate the lived experiences of jobseekers. We know that learning is a journey and that this work is never done.

4. Recruitment is human

AI provides exciting opportunities to augment, assist and support people in doing their best work. However, recruitment is a fundamentally human process, and humans will continue to have important roles to play in jobseeking and recruitment.

Decisions about jobs and recruitment are among the most important in people’s lives, and we want to preserve the human element in those decisions while continuing to improve and simplify the experience of finding the right job or candidate.

5. Innovate responsibly

The rapid development of AI has opened many exciting new doors for jobseekers and employers. However, embracing these developments responsibly will require care, consideration and a clear-eyed assessment.

It is important that we work to make these systems accountable for the outcomes, transparent in clear and simple ways regarding how they impact people, and well-governed with robust security and safety as described in Indeed Safety, ensuring that they respect human rights while carefully considering the risks and potential benefits that they may bring.

Additionally, they should respect human rights while carefully considering both the risks and potential benefits that they may bring. We welcome open dialogue about the uses of AI in the jobseeking, advertising and hiring space.

We will continue to approach these issues with an open mind and a desire to learn and improve, with the goal of helping our users find meaningful employment.

To learn more about our approach, you can read our full Responsible AI Principles article on our global website.

What Indeed tools and features are powered by AI?

Indeed’s AI-powered tools are designed to make recruitment more efficient by assisting with tasks suc h as drafting job descriptions and sorting candidates based on your criteria.

While these features help streamline the process, employers remain in full control of recruitment decisions – AI is meant to support and expedite, not replace, human judgement.

Here’s an overview of some of Indeed’s AI tools and how they work.

Indeed Talent Scout

Indeed Talent Scout is an intelligent, conversational AI agent that helps you connect with top candidates and recruit more efficiently by accessing Indeed’s vast talent pool of searchable Jobseeker Profiles and data from millions of jobs. Indeed Talent Scout is only available in the US at the time of writing of this article. 

Through a simple back-and-forth conversation, Talent Scout helps you build your applicant shortlist, connect with hard-to-find talent and optimise your job postings, saving you time to focus on more important tasks. Here’s what it can do for you:

• Give you a list of top applicants based on your matching criteria
• Show profiles for prospective candidates who match your job description, so you can invite them to apply*
• Align on the criteria used to match candidates with your job requirements and preferences
• Refine matching criteria by learning from intake notes or a sample CV you provide**
• Summarise how each candidate matches your job requirements
• Provide recommendations to optimise job content, including titles, descriptions and benefits, to attract the right candidates
• Generate personalised outreach messages at scale so you can focus on interviewing
• Provide market- and job-specific insights to help you stand out

*Only available with Premium Sponsored Jobs or Smart Sourcing subscription.
**Feature is forthcoming and subject to change

AI Job Description Generator

Imagine writing a job description in a matter of seconds rather than hours. Indeed’s AI Job Description Generator* speeds up the writing process while ensuring job descriptions are clear, engaging and designed to attract top talent.

*Feature available in a limited number of countries

It uses OpenAI’s GPT models and Indeed’s proprietary AI, drawing from Indeed’s database of millions of job descriptions to generate tailored suggestions based on the details that you provide. These suggestions can then be edited, refined or replaced at your discretion; the final job description is always up to you.

Using Indeed’s AI Job Description Generator has many potential benefits:

• Employers say AI features in Indeed Premium Sponsored Jobs help them save time in their daily workflow, allowing them to shift more focus to tasks such as connecting with candidates and refining recruitment decisions.^[1]
• Job descriptions can be generated in just a few seconds, which may free up time for recruitment teams to focus on other tasks like getting to know potential candidates.
• The generator incorporates best practices for effective job descriptions, including formatting, readability and essential details such as salary range, benefits package and job type.
• AI-generated content may help employers think about different ways to describe a role while remaining fully customisable.

By using the AI Job Description Generator, you get editable suggestions designed to save time and help create job postings that attract relevant jobseekers.

Smart Sourcing AI features

Smart Sourcing uses AI features to help employers find candidates with the right experience, skills and qualifications for a job. It analyses information from jobseeker CVs and profiles and matches it to the criteria you include in a job post.

On average, employers using Smart Sourcing see a 24% positive response rate from matched candidates and a 28% positive response rate across Smart Sourcing outreach overall.

AI-powered Smart Sourcing features are meant to help make recruitment faster but not replace human decisions. You can always review, adjust or disregard the AI-powered recommendations based on your unique recruitment needs.

Smart Sourcing uses three AI-powered features designed to help employers connect with potential candidates more efficiently:

Job-based Matched Candidates

Indeed’s Job-based Matched Candidates feature uses AI to help you find potential candidates. It suggests candidates based on their qualifications, skills and preferences relevant to your job description using data collected from jobseekers.

Key points to note:

• Matches are generated using multiple data points, including job descriptions, CVs, profiles and jobseeker activity on Indeed.
• Indeed’s AI-powered matching continuously learns and improves from actions you are taking on Indeed. You can help it learn your preferences faster by clicking on the ‘not a match’ button when you come across candidates who are not a fit for your role.
• If you are looking for a candidate with specific skills or qualifications, you can apply filters to matched candidates or conduct a keyword search.

Sourcing Assistant

Within Smart Sourcing, Sourcing Assistant uses AI to help you identify and engage suitable candidates more efficiently. Employers using Sourcing Assistant also saved an average of 7 hours per week on sourcing activities, giving them more time to focus on interviewing and decision-making.

AI-generated outreach messages

Promptly reaching out to candidates can help your organisation stand out from other employers, and using AI-generated outreach messages may help. These messages are designed to connect employers with candidates efficiently. On average, employers using Smart Sourcing see a 28% positive response rate when they reach out to candidates.

Smart Sourcing’s AI-powered messages use OpenAI’s GPT models and Indeed’s proprietary AI to draft content, but you always remain in control of the final message. You can choose to go with the AI suggestion or edit and refine the messages as needed.

Key points to note:

• AI-suggested messages are based on job details and candidate CVs
• When jobseekers respond positively, AI messaging helps turn those connections into applications: for Enterprise employers, positive responses lead to job applications an average of 1.7 times more, and for SME employers, 1.9 times more, compared to outreach without AI messaging
• You have full control and can edit and change the AI content, or simply use your own message templates
• Using AI-generated messages is completely optional

Indeed AI hiring tools FAQs

How does Indeed use AI on the site?

While there is no single agreed definition of AI, some of Indeed’s software, automation and algorithms may be considered AI by some definitions. Indeed’s AI-powered features assist in personalising experiences and returning relevant search results to streamline the recruitment process. However, Indeed’s AI-powered tools do not determine who sees or applies for jobs and do not make employment decisions.

Can I help improve my matches or find other candidates on my own?

Yes, you can rate your matched candidates to help improve future recommendations, and you can also search for candidates on your own in addition to reviewing your matched results.

You can also refine Talent Scout’s matching* by uploading intake notes or a sample CV.** It learns from your feedback and continuously improves in real-time to find you the right matches.

*Only available with Premium Sponsored Jobs or Smart Sourcing subscription in the US at the time of writing of this article

**Feature is forthcoming and subject to change

Can Indeed AI help reduce time to hire?

Yes, by identifying quality candidates more efficiently, AI can potentially help shorten the recruitment process. For example, within Smart Sourcing, applicants sourced by the Sourcing Assistant were recruited 6 days (31%) faster on average than applicants recruited from other sources.

Putting it all together

Indeed’s AI tools are designed to speed up and simplify recruitment while keeping humans firmly in charge of decisions. By pairing responsible AI principles with products such as Talent Scout, the AI Job Description Generator and Smart Sourcing, Indeed can help you identify strong candidates faster, personalise outreach and draft clearer job posts without replacing your judgement about who to engage, interview or recruit.

When you treat AI outputs as suggestions to review, refine and sometimes reject, rather than answers to follow blindly, you can get the efficiency gains of automation while preserving fairness, transparency and the human connection that good recruitment depends on.

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