Problem fit
What measurable recruitment problem does the tool solve, and what is the non-AI alternative?
Technology-independent buyer guidance
Recruitment AI Buyer’s Guide
Questions to ask before buying another AI tool for a recruitment business. The goal is to test business fit, candidate impact, integration, governance and total cost rather than reward the most polished demo.
Candidate impact
Could the system rank, exclude, profile or materially influence a person's opportunity?
Data use
What candidate/client data is processed, retained, trained on or transferred to subprocessors?
Accuracy
What task-specific evidence exists beyond generic benchmark claims or demo examples?
Human control
Can recruiters understand, override and correct high-impact output?
Integration
What APIs, permissions, failure modes and duplicate-record risks exist in the ATS/CRM?
Lock-in
Can data, prompts, workflows and decision history be exported if the supplier changes?
Security
How are credentials, candidate data, tool permissions, logging and incident response handled?
Commercial reality
Include implementation, integration, support, token/usage, change and exit costs in TCO.
Operational proof
Pilot against a defined baseline before rolling out organisation-wide.