AI is speeding up recruitment — and putting agency fees under pressure

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Artificial intelligence is speeding up parts of hiring — and that could force recruitment agencies to rethink how they charge.

David Berwick, owner of Adria Solutions, a recruitment agency based in Stockport, England, said that as AI takes on more of the work involved in making a placement, clients may question what their fees actually pay for. Agencies often charge employers a percentage of a successful candidate's first-year salary.

"If a recruitment agency is simply finding CVs and forwarding them to employers, AI is making that service increasingly difficult to justify," Berwick told CNBC. "Businesses can already automate much of that work themselves."

How AI speeds up screening

A 2026 survey of nearly 300 recruitment professionals in the U.K. and Ireland by U.S. recruitment software provider Bullhorn found that 37% said AI had made candidate screening between 26% and 50% faster. LinkedIn's 2025 UK Future of Recruiting report also found that talent acquisition professionals experimenting with or integrating generative AI saved an average of 18% of their working week.

They have this huge hierarchy of analysts, researchers, consultants, and managing partners ... At least 60, 70% of them are going to be out of a job, I think.

Matt Collingwood

VIQU Group

Major recruitment firms are already putting that automation into practice. Swiss staffing company Adecco said in February that it had six AI recruitment agents operating in the U.K. and France, with the U.K. tools saving around 15% of the time spent on recruitment processes.

The U.K. was the first market in the Adecco Group to test these AI recruitment agents, according to Niki Turner-Harding, the company's senior vice president for the U.K. and Ireland. Across the group, AI has supported more than 2.5 million candidate interactions, around half outside normal working hours, the company said.

Will agency fees hold?

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