Recruitment AI Trends in 2026

Discover trends, opportunities and challenges

More than 300
respondents

AI as an accelerator in recruitment

AI has definitely taken its place within recruitment. Employers are using AI to speed up processes and relieve recruiters, while candidates are increasingly using AI when searching and applying for jobs. Although there are still many next steps to take, the impact is already visible, for example on time-to-fill.

In this AI Trends Report 2026, we share key insights from our annual research among 300+ recruitment professionals in the Netherlands and Belgium. You will read how AI is being deployed today, which choices organisations are making and where the focal points for the coming period lie.

Read more about the design and implementation of the survey here.

Listen to the summary in 1 minute here

"This research shows that AI is no longer a promise, but an increasingly concrete reality in recruitment."

"The time-to-fill benefits of AI in recruitment are already obvious, but it also brings great benefits to the recruiter experience and the candidate experience.

I expect us to move towards a way of working where process operations are all done by AI - driven by recruiters. By doing so, you ensure that the recruiter's broad range of tasks goes back to the core and what most recruiters are most energised by: the human aspect."

Mees van Velzen
CEO at MrWork

Statistics from this survey

Sees AI applications

Average time-to-fill

Investing in AI

Key insights

At a glance

AI in practice

  • 90% of employers are using AI in their recruitment processes. So far, that application is mainly in searching for candidates, making contact and writing job ads.
  • 78% of employers using AI in their recruitment process say it has reduced time-to-fill.
  • 37% of recruiters like to outsource candidate search to AI technology. Candidate qualification (19%) and interview scheduling (11%) are also popular tasks to hand over to AI tooling.
  • 50% of recruitment and staffing agencies are experimenting with AI matching. Yet technology still has a battle to win here. One-third of consultants say they rely more on humans than technology in making the right match.
  • 40% of employers receive AI-generated job applications. They estimate that 10% to 50% of total responses are submitted using AI tools.

Investments & priorities

  • 25% of recruitment professionals name optimising internal processes using technology as their highest priority.
  • 81% of employers will invest more in AI software than in the past year. Additional investments in other recruitment technology such as RMA are also being made.

People & tech

  • 26% of recruitment professionals label finding the right balance between quality and quantity of candidates as their biggest challenge. There is also a lot of focus on the balance between people and tech. Especially now that AI and automations are playing a bigger role, recruitment professionals pay extra attention to the candidate experience.
  • 89% of candidates respond neutrally or positively to employers' use of AI in the recruitment process.

A look back at 2025

Constantly on the move

Despite turbulent times on the world stage and in the economy, the labour market remained remarkably stable in 2025 and many organisations saw their turnover grow. Filling vacancies still required a lot of time: almost 41 days on average. What did change was the focus of recruiters: where previously they struggled with reaching the target group and team capacity, now it is increasingly about balancing quality and quantity of candidates and keeping talent engaged with high expectations.

Recruitment in figures

Although there is a lot happening in the world and stock market prices, oil prices and inflation rates fluctuate considerably, the economy and labour market remain remarkably stable. In 2025, the economy is expected to grow by 1.1% and the number of job vacancies will increase slightly along with it.

Compared to 2024, how will your organisation perform in 2025?

That stability helps employers: over 60% see turnover increasing. Only 16% expect to end 2025 with lower turnover than last year. At the same time, the temping and staffing sector has been facing a decline in hours (-5%) for some time, yet they manage to keep their turnover stable.

What is your average time-to-fill in 2025?

41 days90 days

From a few days to 3 months, the average time from vacancy to hiring varies enormously. The average time-to-fill was just under 41 days in 2025.

Recruitment and staffing agencies are slightly faster than SMEs+ and corporates. On average, they manage to fill vacancies in 39 days, while SMEs and corporate organisations take 42 days to do so.

Recruitment challenges in 2025

Whereas employers in 2024 mainly struggled with reaching the target audience (33%), data insight (24%) and too small teams (23%), recruitment challenges in 2025 looked markedly different. Last year, these challenges faded into the background and two new challenges emerged: finding the right balance between quantity and quality of candidates and sourcing candidates.

Chances are that many employers have managed to solve previous challenges with technological innovations, such as AI for more efficient processes and soft conversions for more responses, and as a result, new challenges are taking over.

What was your biggest recruitment challenge in 2025?

What was your biggest challenge in 2025 to stay engaged with candidates?

The high expectations of candidates made things very difficult for many a recruiter in 2025. Over 40% put this as the number one issue when mentioning challenges related to candidate contact. In addition, recruitment professionals struggle with data and numerical insight and staying in touch with talent. These top three challenges are unchanged from the previous year.

The role of AI in recruitment

Today and tomorrow

The days of just talking about AI are behind us. By 2025, real steps will have been taken, especially in candidate search, making contact and drafting job ads. Organisations that deploy AI often see this reflected immediately in a shorter time-to-fill. This motivates them to follow through: 81% of employers will invest extra in AI technology this year. This mainly involves AI applications that help connect with more candidates. In addition, qualifying candidates and having AI schedule interviews is high on the wish list.

What AI is already benefiting recruiters

AI is currently mainly used for candidate search and contact. A much smaller proportion of employers have implemented AI to reject candidates or schedule interviews.

Within the answer category 'Other', writing job ads using AI is mentioned remarkably often.

Which AI functionalities have you already implemented within recruitment?

How does AI deployment affect time-to-fill?

Of the employers who apply AI in their recruitment process, 78% say it has reduced time-to-fill. Almost 10% even gain a large number of days in the recruitment process by using AI.

Staffing and recruitment agencies and SME+ organisations see the impact of AI on time-to-fill most clearly.

AI will increase efficiency and productivity. On this, recruitment professionals agree.

What the effect will be on the candidate experience, on that everyone has their own view. This MrWork report shows that recruiters and other subject specialists still have strong doubts about the positive impact of AI on the candidate experience. At the same time, various other studies show that candidates are often fine with an employer using AI in the recruitment process, as long as it benefits speed and the employer is transparent about it.

The majority of employers who have already deployed AI in the recruitment process indicate that candidates respond positively or neutrally to it. Only one-fifth of candidates express negative views on this development.

AI enhances the candidate experience in recruitment (more personality and attention)

More and more AI tools (such as Laboro, JobCopilot or SimpleApply) are emerging that allow applicants to respond to vacancies automatically and on a large scale. Fortunately, only 30% of employers are still 'bothered' by these kinds of AI applications. We deliberately use the term 'bother' because about half of employers who receive AI applications are not happy with them. For them, these are often non-qualitative responses that only add to the administrative burden.

To what extent are you getting AI-generated job applications and what do you think of their quality?

Future of AI in recruitment

It is clear which task recruiters would most like to outsource to AI: candidate search. Remarkably, there is also a clear desire for candidate qualification and interview scheduling to be handled by an AI agent, but in practice this is still rare. (22.7% AI qualification applied, 13.6% schedule appointments with AI).

If AI could take one thing off your hands in the recruitment process, what would it be?

Searching for candidates: 37%100%
Qualifying candidates: 19%100%
Scheduling appointments: 10%100%

AI wish list differs by organisation type

Recruitment agencies and staffing organisations are leading the way when it comes to deploying AI. Corporates are also fanatically implementing AI in their recruitment processes. SMEs+ have so far done the least on AI in recruitment, but are working on it. Especially for candidate search, almost half of SME+ recruiters say they would like to deploy AI.

Corporates also see a lot of potential there and, on top of that, think they can gain a lot by letting AI qualify candidates (20%) and schedule appointments (17%). Staffers and recruitment agencies are particularly interested in having AI contact candidates. (23%)

To what extent do you rely on AI when matching candidates to vacancies?

Within the agency and staffing sector, AI matching is already widely experimented with (50%), but only a small proportion has already fully embraced AI matching. Despite the great desire among recruitment agencies to outsource the matching of candidates to vacancies to an AI colleague, one-third say they rely more on consultants than technology. So that's where AI software still has a battle to win!

How do you think investing in AI technology will develop within your organisation in 2026?

It's not just talking about AI. 81% are going to invest more in AI technology than before. This is an increase compared to last year, when only 75% of respondents were going to invest extra on this.

This makes sense, as there seems to be a link between AI adoption and revenue growth. In fact, the majority of organisations indicating they will invest more in AI technology are showing positive growth rates over the past year.

Other recruitment trends in 2026

Developments not to be missed

Besides AI, other developments are also playing a major role in recruitment. What is striking is that technological innovation also dominates here. Making processes more efficient with the help of technology is now top of the priority list, whereas last year employer brand and candidate experience were top priorities. In addition, more budget is allocated to recruitment marketing automation - at the expense of vacancy campaigns. Especially now that recruitment is becoming increasingly digital, there is an extra focus on personal contact to ensure a good balance between people and tech.

Recruitment challenges in 2026

As in 2025, recruitment professionals also expect challenges this year in sourcing candidates and finding the right balance between the number of responses and their quality. In addition, the 'war on talent' continues unabated, as respondents are more likely to say they expect to face competition from other employers.

What biggest recruitment challenge do you expect in 2026 within your organisation?

Everyone has their own challenges

Not every type of organisation faces the same recruitment challenges. For instance, corporates expect far fewer difficulties in sourcing candidates than their colleagues in SME+ and staffing organisations. Corporates do think they suffer more from competition than the other segments. SMEs still have a need to improve candidate-to-applicant conversion, while recruitment agencies and staffers and corporates focus on faster candidate follow-up.

SME+

Corporate

Staffing

Tip: hover over the chart for the percentage and label

How do you think the themes below will develop within your organisation in 2026?

In addition to AI, additional investments in recruitment marketing automation and employer branding remain necessary, but less money is expected to go into vacancy campaigns. In 2025, 55% still invested extra in this form of recruitment marketing, compared to only 46% today.

Key priorities

Employer branding and the candidate experience remain high on the agenda in 2026, but have been knocked out of first place by making internal processes more efficient through technology.

In addition, increasing the application-hire ratio climbs up the priority list compared to last year and there is still less focus on reducing costs and/or recruitment time.

Staffing and recruitment agencies place - after process optimisation with software - automation of the candidate journey high on the agenda.

What's at the top of your priority list for 2026?

Conversation topic: personal contact must remain

The gigantic rise of technological innovations is actually creating more focus on personal contact with candidates. Recruitment professionals know what makes this profession attractive to them: the human aspect. Especially now that AI is taking over tasks, the focus on a personal approach is growing. Because it must stay, that's obvious!

"Besides AI, the human aspect should always be well reflected in the candidate experience. This should have an important and strategic place, without losing the benefits of AI."

What - besides AI - will be a key development within recruitment in 2026?

Conclusions

It's all about balance between tech and people

Technology at the top of the list

If you follow trends in recruitment, there is a clear common thread: technology reigns supreme. Making processes more efficient with technology will be the top priority in 2026, and 8 in 10 employers will make additional investments in AI software. Because of these technological advances, previous challenges, such as reaching the target group or not enough team capacity, are now better under control and new issues arise, especially around candidate quality and sourcing scarce profiles.

The benefits of AI in recruitment

That AI is not just a buzzword or hype and adds real value is shown by the data around revenue growth and time-to-fill. Indeed, the majority of organisations indicating that they will invest more in AI software show positive growth figures over the past year. There is also a clear effect on recruitment speed: 78% of employers who apply AI in the recruitment process indicate that the time-to-fill has been reduced as a result. Almost 10% even gain a large number of days in the recruitment process by using AI.

Recruiters' AI wish list

So far, recruitment professionals have been using AI mainly for candidate search, contacting and writing job ads. The focus for this year is on expanding AI-driven search, plus qualifying candidates and scheduling interviews by AI Agents.

The right balance between people and tech

While the benefits of AI and automation are clear, the candidate experience and the human aspect in recruitment are especially important now. What is clear is that increasing digitalisation should not come at the expense of the personal touch - this should instead reinforce each other. Although most candidates respond positively to the use of AI in the recruitment process, recruiters are still searching for the right balance between people and technology.

Extra depth

AI trends 2026 for staffing & recruitment agencies

Tech has long since ceased to be an afterthought for staffing and recruitment agencies, but a strategic growth factor. The MrWork AI Trends Report 2026 shows how agencies are using AI, where they are leading and where they are making different choices from corporates and SMEs+. Wondering where your agency stands and where there are still opportunities? Read all about recruitment AI trends 2026 for staffing and recruitment agencies here.

Discover trends for staffing & recruitment agencies

Research statement

The numbers behind the numbers

This report is based on a questionnaire consisting of 22 questions, plus 3 additional questions for staffing organisations and recruitment agencies. For some questions, respondents could give multiple answers, so the graphs do not always add up to 100%.

A total of 304 respondents working in recruitment (marketing) in Belgium or the Netherlands completed the questionnaire. In this survey, we distinguish 3 organisational segments:

  • Corporate companies - organisations with 500 employees or more (45.5%)
  • SME(+) - organisations up to 500 employees (25.7%)
  • Recruitment agencies and staffing organisations (28.8%)

Most respondents work as recruitment professionals (56%), but respondents from HR, sales, marketing/communications, executive/MT and employer branding also participated.

Many sectors are represented in the survey, ranging from non-profit to construction and from education to ICT. These are the most common industries:

  • Staffing & Recruiting
  • Healthcare & well-being
  • ICT, media & communication
  • Construction, installation & infrastructure
  • Corporate services
Video
Frequently asked questions

Because with recruitment marketing software you are not dependent on anyone else, you know exactly where each euro goes and your campaigns are live much faster. Just to name a few reasons. Read more considerations in choosing between tech and a media agency in our blog.

No, setting up and monitoring campaigns is just a few clicks away. In addition, your own Customer Success Manager will assist you so that you get the most out of your recruitment marketing efforts.

With RMA, you increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your recruitment process by reaching candidates more easily, speeding up processes, increasing conversion and automating manual tasks. You not only save time, but also money. In fact, the licence fees for the software are lower than labour costs for an additional recruiter. In addition, growing using RMA is scalable and so is increasing your team. A sample business case showing this can be found in this blog.

Yes, MrWork integrates seamlessly with many ATS systems, such as Bullhorn, Recruitee, AFAS and Carerix, and other recruitment tools, so you can count on a streamlined process.

No, if you let smart software help you, it actually saves time. Because our lead generation tooling is built to relieve you of all your worries, including through centralisation and automations. So following up leads is a snap.

Download the slides of this report

Incorporate the data from this report into your own presentations, business cases and more. Download the slides and share the insights with your colleagues and others!

Download slides

More inspiration

Stay up to date on all developments around recruitment marketing automation?

Receive interesting articles and be the first to be invited to events and webinars.

Sign up Recruitment Stories