BOSTON, Nov. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Workable, a leading recruiting and HR software provider, revealed new data on candidate engagement with artificial intelligence during HR Tech 2026 in Las Vegas. In a presentation titled "What 200,000 AI Interviews Taught Us About Candidate Experience," Chief Revenue Officer Sarfraz Ali shared that just 0.1% of candidates requested to speak with a human when given the option during an AI-powered recruiting conversation.
The finding emerged from Workable's analysis of candidate interactions with its AI recruiting agents, launched in May 2026. Since launch, more than 1,700 customers have used Workable Agent across nearly 12,000 jobs, generating 1.2 million applications and offering new insight into how AI is reshaping the hiring process.
Workable Agent evaluated all 1.2 million applications as they arrived, identifying more than 350,000 candidates for further engagement. Those candidates received outreach, typically within minutes, with 63% opening the resulting conversations and 77% of those completing them. Nearly 200,000 candidates ultimately progressed to conversations with recruiters or hiring managers.
Despite every candidate engaged by the Agent being offered the opportunity to speak with a human instead, only 222 requested a handoff.
The results challenge a common assumption that candidates inherently resist interacting with AI during the hiring process. However, Ali cautioned against interpreting the findings as evidence that candidates prefer AI over human interaction.
"This is not saying candidates prefer talking to a machine. I don't think it means that," Ali explained during the presentation. "What we were offering before wasn't a human conversation either. It was a form, and a wait, and then usually nothing at all."
Rather than replacing a traditionally high-touch experience, AI is addressing a hiring process that often leaves candidates waiting days or weeks for a response, with little opportunity to demonstrate their qualifications beyond a resume. By handling initial screening and engaging candidates within minutes, AI can help qualified applicants reach meaningful conversations with recruiters and hiring managers faster, while allowing those teams to focus on the human interactions that matter most.
Rethinking the traditional hiring process
During his presentation, Ali identified eight structural problems in traditional recruiting, including application batching, inconsistent evaluations, unconscious bias, delayed screening questions, and limited outreach to passive candidates.
He argued that many of these challenges result from processes designed around the limits of human capacity rather than the needs of recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates.
Workable's AI agents address these limitations by evaluating candidates against defined job requirements as applications arrive, conducting contextual screening conversations, and identifying qualified candidates who might otherwise be overlooked.
Unlike traditional automated screening tools, Workable Agent can ask follow-up questions based on a candidate's responses, clarify gaps in experience, and provide recruiters with detailed evaluations and conversation transcripts.
The technology is designed to support human-led hiring decisions while reducing the administrative demands that can slow the process.
AI recruiting in practice
The presentation also highlighted results from Belong, a UK nonprofit care organization employing approximately 1,500 people. Using Workable Agent, its three-person recruiting team expanded its candidate reach and filled a challenging Head of Operations position in just seven days, from posting to offer.
Belong's results demonstrate how smaller recruiting teams can use AI to expand their candidate reach, accelerate hiring, and manage demanding recruitment needs without adding headcount.
About Workable
Workable is a talent management platform for an agentic world. Trusted by more than 35,000 companies, Workable brings together everything recruiting teams, hiring teams, and candidates need to make hiring and managing people easier. Its scalable, all-in-one platform combines a full-featured applicant tracking system, HR information system, and AI-powered recruiting capabilities, including the Workable Agent. Purpose-built for hiring and talent management, Workable's technology supports the next generation of AI-driven workflows, from its own agents to third-party agents connected through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
Media Contact
Brendan Jeannetti
Brendan.Jeannetti@Workable.com
