Over the last few years, you've become more familiar with the benefits of generative AI to your daily workflow as a recruiter. You’ve seen how this technology saves time when writing content—such as drafting candidate outreach messages—and now, we're excited to show you how GPT-powered AI will help you enter the modern era of searching for top talent.
Introducing Conversational Search, the newest capabilities of our generative AI tool, SeekOut Assist. Conversational Search simplifies sourcing by using your everyday language to create effective, targeted searches when looking for candidates. It’s fast, it’s easy to use—and it lets you focus on the human side of hiring.
How Conversational Search works
Using your own words, SeekOut Assist makes searching for candidates accessible to all recruiters, no matter your area of expertise or skill level.
1. Describe your ideal candidate in simple language
Type out what you’re looking for in a candidate. Include words and phrases you’d use to describe the role to a colleague or how a hiring manager would describe the role requirements to you. For example, you could start by entering:
“Product manager at small companies that used to work at FAANG companies”
Pro tip: Start your search with attributes that are specific to SeekOut filters, such as job title, location, and years of experience. In this example, we used the “Past Companies” Power Filter by asking SeekOut Assist to find people who used to work at FAANG companies.
2. SeekOut Assist translates your description into an initial search
SeekOut Assist takes the language you entered—recognizing the nuances of your request—and applies the relevant filters to your search.
In our example, the AI set filters to the title and company size, and understood that by “FAANG” companies, we meant “Meta, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google.” We didn’t have to spend time writing out each company or inputting each name into a Boolean string.
Pro tip: Conversational Search runs on AI-driven natural language processing, which means you don’t have to get too specific with your queries. Even if you typed, “Marketing Managers at the top five grocery chains on the East Coast,” SeekOut Assist will know what those grocery stores are and apply them to your search.
3. Modify your search with more language
After reviewing the initial search, you can easily expand or refine your results with more language. Let’s say you want to broaden your results with other titles. You could enter: “Expand to include similar titles”
In this example, SeekOut Assist added related titles to Product Manager, including Product Management Lead, Product Owner, and Product Development Manager.
Pro tip: You can remove or add other titles as needed without interrupting the conversational workflow. SeekOut Assist will continue to understand your intent and prompt you with relevant suggestions.
4. Modify your search with SeekOut's suggested prompts
Based on your input, SeekOut Assist will suggest prompts to apply to your search. For example, it may suggest the following to narrow down the experience you might be looking for:
“Look for candidates with experience in leading product development teams.”
Once you’ve narrowed down your talent pool, you can move forward engaging with those candidates.
Pro tip: Think of SeekOut Assist’s suggestions as a guide to your search. You can choose to apply them or ignore them.
Why you’ll love Conversational Search
Conversational Search is your AI co-pilot. Instead of starting a search by yourself, SeekOut Assist does the heavy lifting and works alongside you, suggesting next steps and telling you the exact filters it applies to get you targeted results.
- Create complex searches without Boolean. You can skip the tediousness of translating role requirements into Boolean strings. SeekOut Assist crafts them for you.
- Source for roles outside your area of expertise with ease. When you're asked to recruit for roles or industries you’re not familiar with, SeekOut Assist will adjust filters based on your query and suggest terms adjacent to the skills and role you’re looking for.
- Focus on the human side of your work. Conversational Search lets you fly through the tedious and challenging steps of your sourcing process. You’ll have more time to strategize, build candidate relationships, and strengthen partnerships with hiring managers.
Try Conversational Search today
Conversational Search is available as an upgrade to your existing plan. If you have an Enterprise or Ultimate plan, Conversational Search will automatically be available in your account on May 1. We can’t wait to hear how your teams are using these capabilities to find and hire great people.
Not yet using SeekOut? Find out how to boost your recruiting team’s efficiency with these and other great tools—request a demo today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AI-powered candidate sourcing?
AI-powered sourcing uses machine learning to search across billions of candidate profiles, identifying the best matches for open roles based on skills, experience, and potential — far beyond what keyword-based boolean search can achieve.
How does SeekOut's AI sourcing differ from LinkedIn?
SeekOut searches across 1B+ profiles from multiple sources, not just one network. Its AI understands skills context and adjacencies, finding qualified candidates that boolean search on any single platform would miss.
What types of roles benefit most from AI sourcing?
AI sourcing excels for hard-to-fill roles, technical positions, diversity hiring, and high-volume recruiting. It's especially effective for passive candidate discovery — reaching the 70% of professionals who aren't actively job searching.
