December 5, 2025

Experts are leaning into a new approach to recruiting: Talent intelligence. Here’s the lowdown

14min

We recently asked more than 1,000 employers about the current job market, and 63% said they’re struggling to secure good talent. Shockingly, when we asked candidates, 7 in 10 said they can’t land a job.

You know it’s a sh*t show when no one’s winning. The talent and opportunities are out there, but companies and job seekers aren’t finding each other.

I did some digging into what’s causing this discovery problem and found two key culprits: while some employers are still shooting in the dark when it comes to hiring, others are relying on outdated tech, tools, and platforms.

One manager opens up about the first issue in a recent article:

“I'm sure I'm not the only hiring manager who's felt like they're throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping some of it sticks. I've wasted countless hours reviewing applications, conducting interviews, and making offers, only to end up with a mediocre pool of candidates.”

Meanwhile, Nick Derham, Owner at Adria Solutions, touches on the latter, explaining how frustrating it is when you know exactly who you're trying to find, but technology “still serves up unrelated profiles."

But things are starting to shift dramatically.

Connie Hill, who heads data science for another company, explains that “a new era has begun – one where recruiters use hiring tools that harness the power of data to identify, attract, and retain top-tier talent.”

Just as business intelligence (BI) has transformed how companies use real-time data, trends, and insights over the last decade, talent intelligence (TI) is now using the latest and most advanced AI tools, skills data, and market trends to rewrite how we find and hire talent.

A bird’s eye view: Why we’re outgrowing talent acquisition as we know it

Over the last decade or so, talent acquisition (TA) has been largely reactive (it only kicks off when a position opens) and overly reliant on flimsy tools like keyword matching, ATS filters, and a lot of guesswork. Let’s look at why this no longer holds up in today’s landscape.

we are outgrowing traditional talent acquisition graphic

Skills and jobs are changing at record speed

The World Economic Forum’s latest Future of Jobs Report predicts that nearly four in ten of today’s jobs will either change or become obsolete by 2030. So today’s credentials (college degrees, company tenures, etc.) – which recruiters usually put on a pedestal – may not even matter tomorrow.

What’ll really count, according to the report, is soft skills like analytical thinking, resilience, flexibility, and a willingness to learn.

Šarūnas Bružas, CEO of Desktronic, tells TestGorilla about lessons his company has learned when it comes to soft skills and cultural alignment:

“I've seen...applicants who had impressive credentials… but after conducting a thorough interview of the applicant, [we] discovered they were completely dispassionate toward the type of work being performed at our company.”

With this in mind, we need to give soft skills the same weight as credentials and technical know-how.

But evaluating soft skills the OG way is a breeding ground for bias

Historically, recruiters typically assessed people’s soft skills and personality traits during the interview process.

But without a consistent and tangible way to measure these qualities, everything is open to interpretation (and, therefore, bias). In fact, research shows that many recruiters use “organizational fit” as an excuse to pick the candidates they think hiring managers will “like” or share more in common with and shut the others out, regardless of skill.

That’s why we need intelligent talent tools that provide data-driven ways to measure soft skills and culture match.

Exaggerations are on the rise, and resume screeners can’t catch them

Resumes – which sit at the heart of talent acquisition – aren’t verifiable, and that’s why more than 8 in 10 we surveyed reported concerns with screening resumes in hiring.

One survey shows 70% of candidates admit to lying on their resumes to get a job. Plus, candidates are using AI tools to write their resumes, and research shows that these tools often stretch the truth, making candidates appear more experienced than they are or including certain keywords just to game the system.

One study revealed that 62% of hiring managers felt AI-generated resumes often inflate qualifications, and nearly 50% said candidates’ skills don’t back up these claims.

Resume screeners aren’t built to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s just clever wording. And waiting for humans to pick these inconsistencies up in later interviews means wasting time, effort, and money on candidates who were never right for the job.

That’s why employers need richer data much earlier in the process – something that tells them which candidates are truly worth progressing.

Employees are jumping ship like nobody’s business

If it feels like people aren’t sticking around anymore, it’s because they aren’t. A recent Robert Walters survey revealed that 74% of employees are looking for a new job this year, and the average tenure for professionals has become 1.5 years.

The financial impact? Brutal. Gallup estimates that replacing management costs roughly 200% of their salary, while technical professionals cost 80% and frontline employees cost 40% of their pay. A chunk of these turnover costs comes from the downtime between losing someone and replacing them.

This is where reactive hiring is hugely problematic. You can’t wait for someone to hand in their notice and then kickstart your recruiting process from zero.

Today’s companies need a steady pipeline of talent they can tap into as soon as the need arises. Even better if they have insights that can predict which candidates can learn fast and hit the ground running the fastest.

You can’t just wing it with pay anymore

Recruiters often give candidates very broad, unhelpful salary ranges, or no salary indication at all. There’s an entire Reddit thread devoted to job seekers venting about this. One user sums the irony up perfectly:

“Company: please give us your salary indication to see if you fall within our range
Me: can you tell me what your range is?
Company: we have no strict range
Me: ....okay.”

However, this sort of opacity doesn’t fly anymore. Here’s why.

Employers need to be strategic about pay

Robert Walters reports that 56% of the US workforce is anticipating a pay raise in 2025, yet only 46% of employers plan to offer one – a 16% drop from the year before. With budgets tight, employers really need to think about how they’re going to package their offers and ensure they’re spending their dollars on the right people and jobs.

The law requires pay transparency

New York, California, and several other states now require employers to include salary ranges upfront in their job postings.

Plus, you must honor the pay you promise, so you can’t just make up salary numbers as you go along in the recruiting process. Your numbers must be solid and ready for public view well before you make an offer.

Finally, ghosting job seekers is now a complete no-go

Old-school recruiters have been infamous for ghosting rejected or unseen applications in the hiring process. One blog shares a story that really hammers this problem home.

“Sarah spent three weeks perfecting her resume. She tailored her cover letter to each position, researched company values, and applied to 47 jobs that matched her qualifications perfectly. Her inbox? Complete silence. Not even a generic ‘thanks but no thanks’ email.”

The same blog claims that Sarah isn’t alone. About 75% of job seekers never hear back from employers after applying.

When today’s candidates do when they feel neglected and ignored, they take to social media and post about their experiences on websites like Glassdoor.

According to Glassdoor, a striking 83% of applicants research a company’s reputation, reading an average of six reviews before applying for a job. So companies can’t afford to damage their reputations. You need a hiring approach that respects all candidates, including those who didn’t make the cut.

Enter talent intelligence: A new approach to traditional TA

The rise of tech, AI, and data analytics has made way for a new approach to hiring that’s far more appropriate for today’s work climate: talent intelligence (TI).

Talent intelligence is the practice of collecting and using real-world data, insights, and analytics to guide hiring decisions.

It’s like business intelligence, but for your people. TI pulls together internal information, like a company’s goals, skills, talent acquisition metrics, and performance histories, plus external information like job market trends, labor supply and demand, skills availability, compensation benchmarks, and so on.

Then you, the humans, can use this information to guide every single aspect of hiring – from workforce planning and sourcing to screening, assessments, and finalizing job offers.

Let’s look at how TI compares to TA.

	Traditional talent acquisition	Talent intelligence
Overall approach	Reactive – starts when a role opens.	Proactive – forecasts needs and builds talent pipelines early.
Hiring focus	Credentials, job titles, past experience, and technical abilities	Skills – including hard and soft skills, cultural alignment, and behavioral traits.
Analytical approach	Mainly backward-looking – uses data retrospectively to evaluate success and refine future processes.	Mainly forward-looking – uses data upfront to guide decisions from the start.
Data used	Basic metrics, such as time-to-hire and cost-to-hire.	Advanced insights, such as market trends, labor availability, salary benchmarks, and candidate skills.
Tools used	ATS filters, keyword matching, and basic dashboards focused on the recruitment funnel.	Online skills assessments, AI-driven sourcing, AI resume scoring, AI video interviewing, and predictive analytics platforms.
Final hiring decision	Based on anecdotal evidence and “gut feel.”	Based on skills-based evidence and structured human judgment.

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How talent intelligence is driving better, faster, and fairer hiring

TI provides recruiting teams with actual “intel” they can use to win the best candidates and boost their hiring process. Here’s what it helps with.

1. Proactive workforce planning

Instead of waiting for roles to open, recruiters can use real data to predict what the business will need in the future.

For example, with platforms like Horsefly Analytics, Eightfold AI, or LinkedIn Insights, recruiters can analyze their company’s existing skillsets and compare them to emerging demands across the industry. This is great for spotting existing gaps in your company, and experts like Sanja Sreckovic, Head of Recruitment at DesignRush, are already using it:

“We use analytics to close skill gaps in our marketplace and to predict what we will need in the future, not simply what we need to fill roles presently.”

In addition, hiring teams can access internal data, such as the company’s goals, target revenue, and budgets, to determine where to focus their hiring efforts. Guillermo Triana, Principal Consultant and CEO of PEO-Marketplace.com, does this: “I’ve applied data-driven decisions to talent acquisition in a number of areas through the use of headcount forecasting connected to hard cost drivers.”

2. Smarter sourcing

Most applicant tracking systems can give you insights into the most successful sourcing channels for a specific type of job. Paul DeMott, Chief Technology Officer at Helium SEO, explains how these tools helped him focus his sourcing efforts in the right places:

“We use data and analytics to do predictive sourcing optimization. This means using historical recruitment funnel data to determine which sourcing channels produce the greatest Quality of Hire, not just the highest volume of applicants passed.”

In addition, advanced sourcing tools can now help you find pre-vetted talent. TestGorilla Sourcing, for instance, gives you access to more than 2 million skills-tested candidates and uses AI to quickly match you with top talent.

You’re not only finding folks you would’ve missed in a manual search – you can also see hard evidence of their real-life capabilities. Milos Eric, General Manager at OysterLink, shares:

“I have witnessed AI and analytics speed up hiring decisions, but their true power is in what they expose you to. For example, you may discover that the least likely candidates, based on the data and experience, produce the highest potential performers. That is talent intelligence you can act on.”

3. Fair and accurate screening

Whether you’re using resumes, video interviews, skills tests, or a combination of these, the latest AI tools provide you with quantifiable data to hire top-notch candidates faster and more fairly. Triana, for example, says that resume-scoring dashboards and interview summary bots shaved his time-to-fill from 48 to 33 days.

Here’s how the right metrics improve screening.

AI resume scoring:

AI resume scoring compares candidates’ resumes to fully fleshed-out skills-based criteria that you can edit – for instance, “ability to use Excel for financial modeling,” instead of just keywords like “Excel.”

Importantly, some scoring tools remove personal identifiers from resumes to avoid bias, give every resume a score from 0-5 based on how well it aligns with the job criteria, and provide a brief explanation for each score.

“The integration of AI-powered resume parsing accompanied by AI and machine-generated scores has allowed us to reduce early screening time by 40%, while increasing candidate-job fit.”

AI video interviewing

Today, AI video interviewing tools ask candidates the same set of structured questions (set by recruiters) to ensure fairness and consistency. Here too, candidates are scored based on their performance, and every score can not be overwritten by recruiters and comes with an explanation – providing you with deep insights for better decision-making.

Talent assessments

With assessments, you can test hard skills like coding, accounting, or software proficiency. The right tools also enable you to assess soft skills, cognitive abilities, personality traits, and even a candidate’s cultural contributions.

This multi-measure testing gives you a clear, complete, and objective picture of your candidate’s long-term fit for a job and your company.

Why screening is where TI really shines

Helps separate fact from fiction: When you use a platform that integrates all these screening tools, you can easily catch inconsistencies, exaggerations, and lies – for instance, if a resume score for a job criterion is far from the video interview score.
Keeps humans in the driver’s seat: These TI systems don’t automatically filter out candidates like previous keyword-based models. Humans review every score, edit them, and call the shots. Clark explains, “For me, human judgment validates the qualitative aspects of an individual's abilities that algorithms may be unable to quantify.”
Boosts your employer brand: These tools give you explanations for every score, so you can provide tangible and actionable feedback – even to candidates who didn’t make it. (Some tools can even automate rejections.)
Beats bias: Platforms like TestGorilla put each of these screening tools through rigorous bias checks, ensuring the data you get your hands on is accurate and fair across all demographics.

Attractive offers that make sense

Several online platforms like Payscale, Salary.com, and LinkedIn Salary Insights, or publicly available websites like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, can give you real-time market pay benchmarks, geographic wage data, supply and demand ratios, and so on.

Moreover, you can also get tailored information using an online Motivation test, which reveals if a candidate’s expectations align with your job offer. This way, you can craft salary offers that are appropriate for a particular candidate and role, and post them confidently to your job postings if the law requires it.

Future-proofing your hiring strategy with talent intelligence

With a fast-changing job market, a rise in AI resumes, and bias infiltrating hiring processes, old-school recruitment methods just don’t hold up.

Enter talent intelligence: a smarter, data-powered way to hire that gives you access to real-time trends, analytics, and skills insights so you can map out your talent strategy, build a pipeline of qualified candidates, screen them effectively, and make offers candidates simply can’t refuse.