AI is, admittedly, one of the most overused words in today’s vocabulary. While many companies are jumping on the bandwagon and using it just so they say they can, the fact is that leveraging AI for smarter hiring can have an immense impact on SaaS sales recruiting.

“Around 85% of recruiters think AI is a useful technology that will replace some parts of the hiring process.” And 70% of companies plan on using it in 2025.

But what are the practical applications of AI for smarter hiring? Here I’ll discuss some of the top use cases and their benefits.

Talent Pool Filtering

Historically, one of the biggest obstacles to SaaS sales recruiting has simply been sifting through a large candidate pool to find a handful of ultra-qualified reps. Sure, applicant tracking systems can be helpful for screening and have certainly streamlined the process.

But at the end of the day, much of a recruiter’s time is still spent combing through candidates and trying to find the perfect picks.

But AI has truly changed the game when it comes to talent pool filtering. By using advanced algorithms, AI can search through a massive volume of SaaS sales candidates and narrow it down to the individuals who possess the exact education, skills, and personality traits you’re looking for. In terms of quantifiable impact, “data suggests that up to 70% of time could be saved by strategically using generative AI.”

While there’s still the need for the human touch when you look over a candidate’s resume, cover letter, and credentials, this can dramatically speed up recruiting and provide you with a list of cherry-picked salespeople who are ready to be moved to the next round of hiring.

Applicant Success Predicting

What if before deciding to greenlight a new SaaS salesperson you could see into the future and know how they’re going to perform once the bright lights are on them? With AI you basically can.

Although you can never say with 100% accuracy that a particular salesperson will work out, you can use predictive analytics to analyze previous hiring data to decide which candidates are most likely to succeed in your unique sales environment.

Say, for example, that after looking at past data, you know that some of the most critical traits of successful salespeople are having strong motivation, controlling emotions, and being able to handle rejection. You could use candidate assessments to objectively determine how a potential candidate ranks in each of these areas.

From there, you could prioritize candidates accordingly, so you’ll know for certain which individuals are most likely to thrive on your sales team. With AI, you can evolve from relying on a hunch to relying on legitimate data to reduce your time-to-hire and find the best of the best.

Recruiter Bias Reduction

As humans, we naturally have certain biases. It’s unavoidable.

But when bias is left unchecked in SaaS sales recruiting, it can be detrimental because it can skew your judgment, lead to missed opportunities, and reduce your diversity. And in some cases, hiring bias can even harm your reputation and lead to legal issues.

According to research, “96% of recruiters think that unconscious bias is a problem in the recruitment process, and more than a third believe it’s a big problem.”

Fortunately, this is yet another area where AI can be utilized. Because AI just focuses on the data, you can essentially eliminate unconscious bias from your SaaS sales hiring.

“By leveraging objective algorithms, AI software can assess candidates based solely on their qualifications, skills, and experience without being influenced by factors such as gender, ethnicity, or age.”

Optimized Candidate Experience

Besides making things better for SaaS sales recruiters, AI can also positively impact the candidate experience. There are several applications, but here are two specific examples.

One is to use an AI chatbot to serve as a dedicated point of contact throughout the hiring process. After someone has applied, for instance, they could ask the chatbot questions or find relevant resources. The chatbot could also provide them with information about the next hiring steps, help them prepare for interviewing, send them updates, and so on.

The chatbot would be available 24/7, so any time a candidate needs assistance, they can get it. Of course, if they need to speak to a human member of your sales recruiting team they could do that (the chatbot could point them to the appropriate party). But the vast majority of the process can be handled by AI.

Another use case is having AI automate interview scheduling.

Let’s say you’ve narrowed your candidate pool down to four candidates and you have three rounds of interviews. That would be a total of 12 interviews. When you combine that with all of the subsequent communication that comes along with it, things can get chaotic in a hurry.

Rather than manually reaching out to each person for each round, as well as following up, you could greatly streamline the process with AI automation. For example, you could develop a series of interview workflows and use AI to perform outreach for you. This would ensure timely communication for candidates and recruiters so you could move through interviewing more efficiently and not waste a candidate’s time.

AI for Smarter Hiring: Better Outcomes with Less Effort

With nearly three-quarters of SaaS sales companies planning to incorporate AI into recruiting in 2025, this technology has officially become ubiquitous. However, not all recruiters are entirely sure of how to properly leverage it.

While AI has a wide range of applications, some of the most practical are filtering the talent pool to find elite candidates that match your company’s style, quantitatively predicting candidate success, reducing recruiter bias, and enhancing the candidate experience.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As AI continues to evolve, the applications will only continue to increase, making now the perfect time to get on board.

Are inefficiencies and weaknesses hurting your SaaS sales hiring process? Use our Hiring Readiness Assessment to reduce mistakes and source candidates faster.