Up-Close Look at AI Agents: Insights from Josh Bersin and Anoop Gupta

Hiring has always been a challenge, but today, it feels like a marathon with unexpected hurdles at every turn. Finding candidates takes too long, outdated tools can’t keep up, and traditional hiring methods fall short. So how can companies stay ahead? The answer: AI agents.  

AI agents—intelligent systems that automate repetitive tasks and analyze data at scale—are helping teams find better candidates faster. In a recent SeekOut webinar, CEO Anoop Gupta and industry expert Josh Bersin discussed what agentic AI in recruiting entails and how companies can use it to gain a competitive edge. 

"AI is unquestionably one of the most critical strategic priorities occupying the minds of the C-suite," – Anoop Gupta, CEO of SeekOut 

 Why traditional recruiting no longer works

Traditional hiring doesn't work like it used to. The talent market has evolved but hiring processes haven’t. You may spend hours testing different search methods and sifting through hundreds of candidates, hoping to find the right fit. But this takes dedicated time that you’d likely rather spend elsewhere.

With packed schedules and an often-overlooked ATS, great candidates inevitably slip through the cracks. Even when you do engage quality people, the workflow drags on—sometimes up to 90 days for specialized roles. Teams today need flexible solutions that allow them to scale up or down without the burden of long hiring cycles or rigid commitments.

In the webinar, Josh explains how much the corporate landscape is changing due to AI innovation, and more specifically, with AI agents. He cites a PwC survey, which found that 68% of CEOs believe AI will significantly change how their company creates and delivers value. 

"Once AI systems are doing work on our behalf, giving us insights across different business processes, and making decisions using data that we don't have time to make—we, as humans, can add value in more interesting ways." –Josh Bersin, Founder and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company 

How AI agents are transforming hiring 

AI agents move beyond simple automation to enable more intelligent, decision-making systems. Unlike early AI models that generated text or suggested candidates based on keywords, AI agents actively analyze data, make recommendations, and assist you in real time.  

Agentic AI is making hiring more efficient and precise by handling the tedious stages of the hiring process: finding candidates, analyzing them, and reaching out to them. Anoop explains in the webinar that using agentic AI services like SeekOut Spot can shorten hiring time from weeks to days.  

"When you're looking for a specialized engineer, consultant, or senior leader, today, it can take 30 plus days just to go from a job rec to the first candidate to an interview. With AI agents, this time could be cut from 30+ days to 3 days, delivering faster and higher quality." – Anoop Gupta 

With AI agents stepping in to streamline processes, hiring becomes more human. Instead of being buried in administrative work, you can spend your time where it matters most, which is connecting with promising people. 

How SeekOut Spot speeds up hiring while keeping humans in control 

SeekOut Spot is an end-to-end service that is human-driven and AI-assisted. With SeekOut Spot, you’re not blindly handing over your hiring to AI or inexperienced recruiters. You’re instead partnering with a dedicated and highly trained SeekOut recruiter who works alongside you to define what success looks like in your next hire. 

Features of SeekOut Spot include: 

• Human-guided AI with a “What Good Looks Like” (WGLL) rubric: Instead of relying on generic job descriptions, your SeekOut recruiter collaborates with you to build a custom rubric that defines the key skills, experience, and attributes of an ideal candidate. 

• AI-powered research, human decision-making: SeekOut’s agentic AI conducts deep research on thousands of profiles to surface the strongest candidates. But a human recruiter oversees every step of the process—from outreach to selection. 

• Viable, interview-ready candidates in days: While traditional hiring cycles can stretch for weeks, SeekOut Spot delivers a slate of pre-screened, top-tier candidates in as little as three days. 

SeekOut Spot prioritizes both speed and quality without sacrificing one for the other.  

Webinar Q&A: What hiring leaders want to know 

During the webinar, talent leaders raised important questions about fitting SeekOut Spot into their hiring strategy. Here are some of the key takeaways from those discussions. 

How can I integrate SeekOut Spot into my existing HR stack? 

SeekOut Recruit integrates with ATS, HRIS, interview tools, and more to streamline workflows. SeekOut spot is not an integrated tool, but a custom service that sits separate from your software. The benefit of Spot is that it can be used only when you really need it, like during high-volume hiring surges when your recruiting team doesn't have bandwidth. 

"You might think if you bought everything from one vendor, it would be more integrated, but this is a different world now. These specialized systems like SeekOut are so much more sophisticated than the core HR, HCM platforms." – Josh Bersin 

How do we show the ROI of bringing AI into our workflows? 

Proving ROI starts with defining what success means for your organization. Ask yourself: 

• Are you measured on cost per hire? (Hopefully not.) 

• Is your leadership focused on time to hire? (For many, yes.) 

• Or is the true metric quality of hire and long-term workforce impact? 

Once you identify what matters most, SeekOut can work with you to align AI-driven solutions to your specific hiring goals. 

"People spend a lot on talent acquisition. If you're Meta or Google, which have thousands of recruiters, that's a $300 to 400 million operation. My suggestion is experimentation first. If you're not testing how AI can enhance efficiency now, you'll be playing catch-up when the industry shifts." – Anoop Gupta 

How does SeekOut Spot differ from SeekOut Recruit? 

The biggest difference is that SeekOut Recruit is a software tool, while SeekOut Spot is a service that complements your workflow in times of greater need. 

• SeekOut Recruit is an HR platform that allows your recruiters to source candidates on their own, using AI-powered search, talent analytics, and ATS integrations. 

• SeekOut Spot combines a human SeekOut recruiter with agentic AI, offering a fully managed hiring service that delivers top candidates in days. 

With SeekOut Spot, agentic AI speeds up sourcing, deep research, and outreach while prioritizing your input throughout the entire process. This gets you to the right hires in less time, without sacrificing human insight. 

The future of hiring is here—try SeekOut Spot today 

In the webinar, Anoop emphasizes that AI agents are here, and their arrival is irreversible. The future isn’t years away—it’s happening now. Businesses are already using AI in their hiring processes to fill roles faster, cut costs, and secure better hires.  

"Right now, AI feels like a competitive advantage, but two years from now, everybody will have AI, and it'll be how you use it and what you do with it that sets you apart." –Josh Bersin 

The best way to experience the impact of agentic AI for hiring is to try it for yourself. Sign up today and see how SeekOut Spot can help you hire smarter and more efficiently.