AI for recruitment agencies · Sydney

AI for recruitment agencies: consultants back on the phone

In most agencies the best consultants spend half the day on work that is not recruiting. Job ads rewritten from a client’s brief, CVs reformatted into the agency template, shortlists summarised by hand, timesheets chased every Monday. I help permanent and contract agencies turning over one to ten million take that load off, one small step at a time, using the systems you already run.

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Where a recruiter’s week actually goes

A role comes in and the same sequence starts. A brief turned into a job ad and posted to Seek and LinkedIn, two hundred applications read, the best ten reformatted and summarised for the client, interviews arranged across three diaries, and the notes from every call typed into JobAdder or Bullhorn afterwards, if there is time.

On the contract side, there is the back office: timesheets chased and checked, invoices raised to clients, contractor pay reconciled, and the preferred supplier tender or terms of business that needs answering by Friday. None of it is hard. All of it is constant, and it eats the hours a consultant should spend talking to candidates and clients.

That is exactly the kind of work AI is now good at: reading, summarising, matching and drafting, with a person checking before anything goes out. This is not a new platform. You keep your CRM, your job boards, Xero and your shared drive, and AI is connected to what you already run.

What I’d take off your plate first

Usually JobAdder or Bullhorn as the CRM, Seek and LinkedIn for advertising and sourcing, a timesheet and payroll tool for contractors, Xero for the books, and Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for everything else. I connect AI to those, rather than asking you to replace them.

Job ads from the client brief

A call note or the client’s position description turned into a job ad in your agency’s voice, with the right version for Seek, LinkedIn and your own site, ready for the consultant to check and post.

Candidate summaries and shortlists

CVs reformatted into your template with personal details handled the way you agree, each candidate summarised against the brief, and a shortlist email drafted for the client. The consultant decides who goes forward.

Call notes into the CRM

Notes and transcripts from candidate and client calls written up into JobAdder or Bullhorn as tidy records with the next action, so the database stays useful without an hour of typing each evening.

Timesheets and contractor invoicing

Timesheets checked against the placement rate and hours, client invoices drafted, and anomalies flagged before anything reaches Xero. Missing timesheets chased politely on a schedule.

Proposals, terms and supplier tenders

Client proposals, terms of business and preferred supplier panel responses drafted from your past submissions and current rates, so a director starts from eighty per cent.

Pipeline and business development follow-up

Roles, candidates in process and dormant clients pulled from the CRM, with a daily list per consultant of who to call and a short follow-up drafted for each.

And the admin every office has

The same work turns up in every agency: email, spreadsheets, documents, and a Microsoft or Google setup that grew without a plan.

Invoicing and accounts payable

Supplier bills read, coded and matched to the order or the job before they reach Xero or MYOB. Mismatches drafted into an email for someone to approve. Overdue invoices chased politely, on a schedule.

Email that answers itself, nearly

The inbox triaged each morning, routine replies drafted in your tone, attachments filed to the right folder, and a short list of what actually needs you today.

Spreadsheets you stop rebuilding

The weekly report that someone copies and pastes together every Monday, produced before you arrive, with a sentence on why the number moved.

Documents and slides

Proposals, letters, reports and board slides drafted from your own templates and your own past work, so the first draft is eighty per cent there rather than a blank page.

Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, set up properly

Shared drives that make sense, permissions that match who you are now, and AI connected to mail, calendar and files the same way for everyone instead of five people doing it five ways.

Project and job tracking

Status updates written from what actually happened in email and the job system, tasks pulled out of meeting notes, and a morning brief per person of what is due.

How it works: audit, roadmap, implementation, training, support

Sold one step at a time. Each step is quoted before it starts, stands on its own, and you decide after each one whether to take the next. Most businesses your size go from the audit to a working, trained setup in three to six months.

Audit

Two weeks, fixed price. A map of every system you run, a ten-minute staff survey, a few five-minute screen recordings of the work that eats the week, and short conversations with the people who run the business. It costs your team minutes, not hours.
Roadmap

A ninety-day plan written from what the audit found: which processes first, ranked by admin removed against cost and risk, which AI plan and accounts your team should be on, and a two-page policy on what may go in. Every item has its own price.
Implementation

I build the first one or two automations inside your own Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, connected to the systems you already run. AI drafts, a person approves anything that leaves the building, and it runs beside the manual way until you trust it.
Training

Your team learns on their own work, not on demos. One standard setup for everyone, a short session per group, and one-to-one time with the two or three people who will carry it once I step back.
Support

A light monthly retainer: one call, a one-page summary, fixes, and the next routine your team worked out promoted into something the business runs. I read the AI news so your people do not have to.

Use AI without handing over your clients’ data

A recruitment agency is a large store of personal information: CVs, contact details, salary history, references, right-to-work documents and sometimes background checks, on thousands of people who are not your clients. Add client fee arrangements and your candidate database, the asset the business is built on, and there is a great deal that must stay put.

The work happens inside your CRM and your Microsoft or Google tenant, on a business AI plan with company accounts for every consultant. Nothing goes into a free chatbot or a personal login, candidate data is used only for the roles it was given for, and anything that goes to a client or a candidate waits for a person to say yes. AI summarises and drafts. It does not decide who gets an interview.

The basics, every time

Company accounts on a business AI plan, never personal logins. Business plans do not train on your data.
AI connected to your own Microsoft or Google tenant, so files stay where they already live and access is revoked in one place.
A two-page policy your team can actually remember: which accounts, what may go in, what never does.
Everything I build lives in your accounts and is logged. I work from a staff login, not the master key.

Where most start

A typical first project: candidate summaries and shortlists in your template

Most recruitment audits land on the same quick win. Shortlisted CVs are reformatted into your agency template, each summarised against the brief, and the client shortlist email is drafted for the consultant to check and send. It runs beside the manual way until you trust it. Call notes into the CRM and contractor invoicing are usually next.

Where I work

Based in the Sutherland Shire. In person across these areas, remote everywhere else in Australia.

Sutherland Shire

Cronulla, Miranda, Caringbah, Sutherland, Gymea and around.

Southern Highlands

Bowral, Mittagong, Moss Vale, Exeter, Robertson and around.

St George

Hurstville, Kogarah, Rockdale, Sans Souci, Bexley and around.

Eastern Suburbs

Bondi Junction, Double Bay, Paddington, Woollahra, Randwick and around.

Frequently asked questions

We use JobAdder (or Bullhorn). Do we need to change?

No. Both have proper ways in, and I connect AI to whichever you run. Where something is missing, I start from exports and the inbox, so the CRM your consultants know stays exactly where it is.

Will AI be screening candidates out?

No. It reads and summarises against the brief so a consultant can get through applications faster, but the consultant decides who goes forward. Leaving that judgement with a person is both fairer to candidates and safer for the agency.

Our consultants already use ChatGPT on their own. Is that a problem?

It is common, and it usually means CVs are going into personal accounts nobody can see. The first step is moving everyone onto company accounts on a business plan, with a short policy on what may go in. Their good habits are kept and made standard.

Is this worth it for an agency our size?

If consultants are spending evenings on CRM notes and formatting, or contract invoicing runs late each week, almost certainly. The audit will tell you honestly, and if your CRM can already do it with better setup, I will say so.

How much of my team’s time does this take?

Minutes, by design. Ten for the survey, ten for an optional screen recording, an hour with the key people. Whoever runs operations spends two or three hours across the first fortnight.

Do we have to commit to the whole thing?

No. Every step is quoted on its own and you decide after each one. Plenty of businesses take the audit and one project, and stop there until they see it working.

Are you tied to a particular AI vendor?

No. I lead with Claude because I think it is the strongest all-rounder for business work today, and I work just as happily with Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT or Gemini if that is what your team already uses. Everything is built so the model is one part you can swap.

Questions recruitment agencies ask me

Free or paid ChatGPT and Claude: what’s the difference for a business?

For a business, the difference that matters is control, not smarter answers: business plans keep your data out of training by default, put the accounts under company management, and let an admin decide which systems AI can connect to. Free and personal plans do none of that.

Can AI send emails without me?

It can, if you let it. With the Gmail connector Claude can draft, send, reply to and forward email, but by default it asks for your approval before each of those. I leave that default on: AI drafts, a person presses the button.

Can my boss read my AI chats?

On a work account, assume yes if the business has a reason. Day to day there is usually no screen where a manager reads your chats, but on Claude Team the organisation’s primary owner can export its data, conversations included, and larger plans add compliance tools built for exactly that.

Will AI take my job?

In most small and mid-sized businesses, not soon. AI takes over tasks, such as the drafting, the matching and the chasing, and the job changes around what is left. Whether that is good for you depends on what your employer does with the time, which is why the owner should say it out loud.

Running a agency and doing the admin at night?

Tell me what you run, how many people, and what eats the most time. I will tell you honestly whether an audit is worth it.

Tell me about your business

Tell me what you're dealing with

Three lines is plenty. I reply personally, usually within a day, and the first call is free.