The coming year will present significant opportunities to truly turn artificial intelligence loose on the talent acquisition space, according to a new report. And the efficiencies the tech offers, researchers find, couldn’t be more needed.

The fourth annual Hiring Insights Report from GoodTime, which automates interview management tasks, queried more than 500 U.S. talent acquisition leaders about the pressing challenges and emerging trends shaping the hiring landscape today.

Significantly, TA teams reported meeting only 47.9% of their hiring goals in 2024 on average, the lowest rate recorded in the past four years.

Ahryun Moon, GoodTime’s CEO and co-founder, explains that the sinking success rate is attributable to several factors, including persistent hiring bottlenecks, increased time-to-hire and rising candidate expectations that are straining hiring efficiency across industries.

On the upside, Moon says, the report surfaced key opportunities for 2025 and beyond, including greater use of AI and automation, tools that streamline hiring and a renewed focus on candidate experience—strategies that top-performing teams are already embracing to stay competitive. The survey found that 99% of talent acquisition teams now use AI and automation to some degree to streamline hiring, with 93% planning additional technology investments in 2025.

“The data makes it clear: Talent teams can’t afford to stay stuck in the hiring struggles of 2024,” Moon says, adding that the path forward demands “bold investments in automation and AI” to eliminate those bottlenecks and meet hiring goals faster.

AI + human: Revolutionizing talent acquisition

Moon points out that 60% of employers reported increases in time-to-hire last year, which should be a wake-up call for talent teams. The culprit isn’t a lack of effort; rather, she says, the issue is outdated tech and processes that can’t keep up with today’s hiring demands.

“The good news is that these delays aren’t permanent,” she says. “The top-performing TA teams are automating processes with AI, moving faster and still delivering the personalized hiring experiences that top candidates expect.”

While AI will be a key to talent acquisition success this year, focusing on “efficiency alone isn’t enough,” Moon adds. “The teams that will win in 2025 are those that balance speed with exceptional, human-centric hiring experiences.”

The 2025 Hiring Insights Report also revealed that hiring challenges varied significantly across sectors. For example, healthcare was the only sector to report year-over-year improvements in hiring goal attainment, reaching 56%. Conversely, the retail and manufacturing sectors faced some of the starkest struggles, with hiring goal attainment dipping to 36%—the lowest in three years.

Without a rethought talent acquisition strategy, these TA teams could continue to face a “perfect storm” in 2025—shrinking resources, increasing complexity and high candidate expectations, adding that the drop in hiring goal success reflects systemic bottlenecks like scheduling delays and poor communication.

“If your hiring process still revolves around email chains and manual scheduling, you’re playing a losing game,” Moon says, adding that the top TA teams don’t just automate tasks—they reimagine how hiring gets done entirely. That means cutting out inefficiencies and adopting new AI and automation tools that let recruiters focus on what they need to do best: build relationships.

“It’s time for talent acquisition to evolve from reactive firefighting to proactive strategizing,” Moon says. “Investing in human-centric AI tools that eliminate bottlenecks frees up recruiters to focus on high-value activities like engaging candidates and raising the bar on quality of hire.

“The teams that thrive in 2025,” she says, “will be those that not only wholeheartedly embrace AI but also remember that hiring is a fundamentally human endeavor.”