The Recruitment edition
This is a real edition from 27 October 2026, at the Practical level, in plain language.
Recruitment software increasingly charges for AI separately, while AI interviewers and job application agents are changing the work of recruiters.
Recruitment software charges for AI separately with credits
More and more recruitment software vendors make you pay for using AI. On top of the fixed subscription, there is a second layer of pricing. It is called credits, AI Units or actions. Workday, SAP and Personio already work this way.
At Workable, a screening costs 1 credit, sourcing costs 2 credits and a completed candidate interview costs 10 credits. Every account includes 3,000 AI credits. On paper, that is 3,000 screenings or 300 completed interviews. Extra bundles cost 12 US cents per credit for 5,000 credits and 9.5 US cents for 50,000 credits. The AI agents are a paid add-on to the subscription.
The rules differ per vendor. At Personio, extra use can be invoiced afterwards when the credits run out. At SAP, unused AI Units expire after twelve months.
If you choose or renew an ATS, the price per recruiter says less about your real costs than it used to. Ask the vendor what a credit is, when extra payment starts, whether credits expire and whether prices can change during the contract. Also plan for much more use than in a pilot.
Dayforce acquires Ribbon AI for first interviews
Dayforce wants to acquire Ribbon AI. Ribbon makes software that lets candidates talk to an AI interviewer by voice and video. Dayforce wants to build this into its new 'Agentic Recruiting'. This brings together searching, screening, assessing and contact with candidates. The financial terms and the closing date have not been announced. There is also no date yet for when the combined service will be available. Ribbon also helps find existing candidates again in the ATS. Contact can be made by text message, WhatsApp and email. An AI agent for scheduling interviews is almost ready, but not yet available. Ribbon says it has hundreds of customers and has done more than a million interviews. These are the company's own figures. They say nothing about the quality of hiring. Do you work for an employer with many vacancies, such as in warehouses, retail or hospitality? Then an AI interviewer can also talk to candidates outside office hours. You get the result the next day in your queue. The decision to hire someone stays with people. Read more →
Recruiters often want to block job application agents or handle them separately
Recruitics surveyed 159 recruitment leaders in the US. More than 1 in 4 (27%) want to block AI agents that apply on behalf of candidates. Another 35% allow them but flag them. 18% want a separate route for agents and 18% want to treat them the same as humans. At 71% of the leaders, the number of applications per vacancy rose over the past year. 74% think that more than a quarter of applications contain AI text. 77% see more candidates exaggerating their skills or experience. Recruiters lose on average about nine hours per week to unsuitable, duplicate or incorrect applications. Almost all teams (97%) already use AI themselves. Teams that use AI in four or more parts of the process lose 10.4 hours per week. For teams with AI in three or fewer parts, it is 7 hours. According to these figures, more AI does not automatically save time. Live interviews, internal referrals and verified employment data are trusted more than two years ago. Read more →
Which ATS fits your recruitment? Start with the process
An ATS has long been more than a digital folder for applications. Modern systems also handle talent pools, recruitment marketing, AI, WhatsApp, CRM and onboarding. More features do not automatically make a system better. An organisation with a few dozen vacancies per year has different needs than an agency or a large international employer. AI is an extra layer, not a replacement for the basics. A smart summary helps little if the candidate data is not in order. For a talent pool, more than a button counts: search, filters, consent, retention periods and communication decide whether you can really work with it. For WhatsApp, a good integration goes beyond a send button. Think of incoming messages, templates, shared inboxes, consent and storage in the candidate file. The advice: first make visible where recruiters, hiring managers and candidates run into problems now. Then decide what is necessary, desirable or mainly interesting. A demo with familiar situations is worth more than a general product presentation. An agency mainly looks at CRM for clients and assignments. An organisation with many recurring vacancies mainly looks at talent pools and recruitment marketing. Read more →
This week, discuss with your team what you will do with applications submitted by an AI agent: allow, flag, block or give them their own route. Also agree what you will weigh instead if the cover letter says less, for example a live interview.
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