AI Will Dramatically Change What Recruiters Can Do

00:00 - 00:15Daniel Kelly: Number one, don't think AI is gonna solve all your problems. Number two, don't think you have to do all AI all at once. You're not going to do all the things. Right? But number three is start somewhere with one thing.

00:15 - 00:20Daniel Kelly: Right? And I think that that's something that we at the Hire Truckers team can can help you with.

00:36 - 01:00Ginger Craddock: Daniel, there's a lot of conversation about AI replacing people, particularly in recruiting. But what if the real opportunity isn't replacing a recruiter? What if it's removing the repetitive work, capturing conversations that we're currently missing, and giving recruiters better information to make better hiring decisions?

01:02 - 01:27Daniel Kelly: I totally think that's the case, Ginger. I think there's a lot of fear around AI in our current atmosphere, not just for recruiters, but for... I'm in the development world as well as the recruitment world. But there's a lot of fear there in both scenarios. And I think that's really the wrong outlook to have.

01:29 - 01:55Daniel Kelly: The better way to look at it is that it's just a tool to help empower us to do more with what we already have. I think our expertise still comes into play. I've seen that both in my development practices and in recruiting for the clients we have at Hire Truckers. I am with the Hire Truckers team, by the way. And I don't think AI is a cure all.

01:55 - 02:23Daniel Kelly: It's not gonna just do everything for you. Right? But it is going to help you get the things that you are already doing done faster. And it's gonna help you help you do them without some of the tedious, you know, copy and pasting between different platforms and just some of the the things that took a little little more time before that weren't really high value in the end game.

02:25 - 02:59Ginger Craddock: And I I love your framing of that. It's helping give us a lift in our repetitive workload. Some things that I've learned along the way is AI is only as effective as the context behind it. So when an AI assistant understands a carrier's hiring requirements, job details, pay, home time, and driver qualifications, what can it do today that traditional recruiting technology couldn't do?

03:01 - 03:27Daniel Kelly: So this is actually really exciting to me. Because to begin with, in the early stages of AI, let's say, what, like, three years ago when ChatGPT became a big thing or three and a half, it's been a it's been a minute now. You couldn't rely on the output. Even even given all the right context, it would still hallucinate. But nowadays, man, it's really quite amazing.

03:28 - 04:26Daniel Kelly: I can trust it to a very high degree if I know what I've put into it is accurate. So what this means in the recruiting world is when we're building these AI assistants or, you know, different automations that include AI, if we're able to provide it with the right details about our jobs, then we can with a fairly high degree of trust, we can trust that this is going to give the right data to the drivers. Now, that does mean you have to have a clean context going in. You have to have a nice central place for that context to live, a place that's not going to get stale because you updated it in one place and not another, things like that. But the beauty of it is that you have control over the context that's passed in.

04:27 - 04:52Daniel Kelly: And so, yeah, you can trust the automations to really work. Now, not a 100 of the time still. There's still some, you know, room for for error there, and you probably still want a, you know, some kind of disclaimer on your your driver facing AI stuff. Right? You don't want to try to trick them into thinking they're talking to a person or anything like that.

04:52 - 05:20Daniel Kelly: Honestly, that's just bad practice across all industries. We want the people interacting with those AIs to be aware that they're interacting with AIs, and and act accordingly. But it also means that, we can give drivers a really good experience, with AI. And, you know, instead of reaching the answering machine after hours or something like that, they can actually reach an agent who can, to a high degree of certainty, answer their questions, which is pretty cool.

05:20 - 05:43Ginger Craddock: So, Daniel, I hear what you say... You're saying that the context and how this technology has evolved, it's much more reliable than it it was in the past. It's really iterated forward. So, Daniel, I hear you on the improvement to AI and the reliability of it, especially when experts are using it. We're leveraging it.

05:43 - 05:55Ginger Craddock: We're the experts. We're verifying that it's working correctly. But what about those in our audience who are like, I'm still uncomfortable with it. I don't trust it. What would you say to those in that camp?

05:55 - 06:02Ginger Craddock: Because there are people that are slowly adopting it or just unsure and think maybe I'm not going to adopt.

06:03 - 06:41Daniel Kelly: Definitely. So I I would say a lot of people who don't really trust it quite yet, they've probably been using the free version of ChatGPT, right? Or some of the less sophisticated models that they can find online just for free. But if that's all you've really tested out, you're really missing what all AI can do. Some of these enterprise level models that do cost a little bit of money to run but are are worth it in my opinion in the end, they're they're a lot smarter than what you can try out there for free.

06:41 - 06:55Daniel Kelly: So if you are in that boat right now where you just... You still don't quite trust it, actually go and pay for something. You know, spend... It it doesn't even have to be much. Spend $20 this month and work with an enterprise tier model.

06:55 - 06:57Daniel Kelly: And I think you'll find yourself really impressed by it.

06:58 - 07:28Ginger Craddock: That's an excellent pro tip. And as we think about the recruiting world, one thing we know in recruiting is that every unanswered call represents a potential missed driver. So how can AI powered phone agents engage drivers after hours, answer their questions and collect qualifying information while also allowing recruiters to spend evenings with their families?

07:30 - 07:53Daniel Kelly: This is an excellent question. And this is, one of those scenarios where like, it just makes sense, right? It's not like fear AI is going to take my job. It's, oh, I can actually spend some time with my family tonight without worrying about missing this call or without I'm behind on my quota or something like that. I've actually got someone to stand in for me when I need to be hands off the keyboard and hands off the phone.

07:54 - 08:13Daniel Kelly: It doesn't mean it's replacing me altogether, but it's giving me back some of my free time. Right? So maybe you've given a call to, I don't know, your internet provider or your whatever service out there, your doctor, whatever. And you've had an AI agent pick up the phone. It was just a terrible experience.

08:15 - 08:23Daniel Kelly: Even had this... No lie. I had an AI agent take my order at a drive through the other day. It was weird. It was very weird.

08:26 - 08:42Daniel Kelly: But it was lacking. It it wasn't the best. These models are progressing so quickly, though. There is technology out there, and we're playing with it right now in the Hire Truckers team that actually sounds supernatural. It flows just like you're talking to a person.

08:42 - 09:04Daniel Kelly: It verifies information with the potential driver over the phone. Like, spells out their email address for them, make sure they get everything correct before collecting that data. And given the right provider, these AI agents can really be a pleasure for not just you, the recruiter, but also the drivers who get to interact with them.

09:05 - 09:24Ginger Craddock: I just wanna mirror that back to you, Daniel. In doing... You you saw in the Slack channel, the internal Slack channel recently, I quality assurance tested something that you and your team created. And I'm like, that was just a pleasurable experience. Like that was just a great experience.

09:24 - 10:07Ginger Craddock: I was actually delighted because of how engaging it was. And there were some things the AI recruiting assistant got correct on the call that oftentimes humans will get incorrect. And so I was blown away. My last name is not always easy to spell or easy to understand, especially if I'm in my Southern speak and it got it exactly right, spelled it correctly, and there's an S in a place in my email that oftentimes a human will miss and the AI recruiting assistant caught that. And so I was like, wow.

10:07 - 10:37Ginger Craddock: And then I even interrupted it just because I wanted to speed things along. And again, it was very gracious and just rolled right with me. And I'm like, I liked this conversation. And so wow, how far we've come from the first clunky versions. And so I actually was delighted and have just been talking to everybody about it in my family, my friends, and business as well because I was just genuinely delighted.

10:38 - 11:14Ginger Craddock: So as we continue to see the improvements of these models Daniel, we know that speed to lead can change the recruiting outcome. This has been talked about a lot. So when a driver expresses interest through a short form, how can AI immediately personalize the follow-up conversation instead of sending a generic text or waiting for a recruiter to respond? How do we give them that wow experience?

11:15 - 11:47Daniel Kelly: Well, you know, I think AI can be... A lot of times we'd like to say, okay, AI solutions versus traditional, you know, programmatic solutions. But they they really marry quite well together. And when it comes to to speed to lead, I still think your traditional programmatic solutions are gonna get you, like, 90% of of the way there. Automations where, you know, a text message can be triggered whenever a, you know, a web form is submitted.

11:47 - 12:24Daniel Kelly: Like, we've been doing that for years. Right? But when you, you know, pair that with AI, it could read real time data on the fly, let's say from, you know, some kind of traditional weather API, and then cater the message towards, you know, maybe the user is is feeling a little bit glum because they're in an area that's that's raining right now, and they could cater that kind of tone of the message, you know, to that to that end user's location, which is... It's kinda cool. Honestly, I'm still kinda scratching the surface on how this piece can be truly, practically useful.

12:25 - 12:48Daniel Kelly: But because we're talking in just plain language now with these models, we don't have to think about every single case ahead of time. In traditional programming, it was like, you had to think of all the different cases. Right? But in this, we kind of give a little bit more control over the modeling and it can decide on its own a little bit on how to cater based on, once again, that context that we talked about earlier.

12:49 - 13:08Ginger Craddock: Yeah. Context. Context is king in in getting the outcomes that we want. And so I want everyone that's listening to think... This is my way of putting myself in the driver's seat and figuring out what the experience looks like to them.

13:08 - 13:38Ginger Craddock: And so I want everyone who's listening to think about what has it been like in your journey no matter what your industry's in. What has it been like to submit a job application? I know when I think about it in those times of transition when I've submitted a job application, thinking and checking in with my emotions, there can be a sense of vulnerability. There's a lot of questions. I'm curious about who I'm applying to.

13:38 - 14:20Ginger Craddock: I'll do some research, but times of transition and uncertainty typically come, in my experience, in the job search journey. And so with that lens and thinking about creating a better driver experience, Daniel, what if collecting driver information felt more like a conversation than an application. So how can AI and conversational technology gather the information recruiters need without requiring drivers to navigate those lengthy forms and rigid questionnaires.

14:21 - 14:36Daniel Kelly: Absolutely. So, this is probably maybe some of you are already experiencing something similar in your own, just like personal relationship with your device. Right? You might find yourself talking to it now more instead of filling out forms. Right?

14:36 - 15:15Daniel Kelly: Just in in your own personal dealings with it. Well, that's the beauty of AI for these drivers is that the same way that you're able to schedule an event on your calendar by talking to your phone now instead of tapping on an interface and accidentally tapping the wrong thing and something being scheduled for two weeks out instead of one week out like you meant it to or whatever. Now drivers can do that same thing but for your application. And they can do it not only on your website, but they could also do it by calling a phone number. You're really meeting them where they're at, right?

15:15 - 15:37Daniel Kelly: I mean, is marketing 101. You meet your audience where they're at and you talk to them in the way that... Via the avenue they want to be talked to. So we just mentioned the phone agent a few minutes ago. But once again, yeah, it just astounds me how it can collect that information verbally.

15:38 - 15:50Daniel Kelly: It can read that information back, verify it, and all without a driver ever having to type anything on their tiny little... Their phone keyboard or whatever. It's great.

15:50 - 16:09Ginger Craddock: Hiring CDL drivers isn't about more leads. It's about better ones. That's why serious carriers partner with Hire Truckers by Trucking Clicks. We don't sell ads. We bring clear strategy, straight talk, and a relentless focus on quality drivers.

16:09 - 16:39Ginger Craddock: Even in a tough market, our clients see improved performance month over month. By optimizing smarter and making every hiring dollar work harder. For honest insight, sharper targeting and results that you can trust, visit truckingclicks.com or call (512) 982-0816. Hire Truckers by Trucking Clicks. Clarity, courage, results.

16:39 - 17:13Ginger Craddock: And thinking about that driver being in the cab of the truck or waiting at the dock for a load to be unloaded. You know, they've been on the road focused on driving. And so a lot of times we hear from drivers, they miss the human connection and the human conversations and how just the simple application of having these conversation models. Yes, they're AI, but it changes the body posture. It allows for them to have the experience and choose the experience they want.

17:13 - 17:42Ginger Craddock: If they wanna text, call, or have a conversation with an AI recruiting assistant, they can. And so it really is about choice. I love that we are giving drivers choice in how they want to communicate. And so when we think about traditional applicant tracking systems, they tell us what happened. AI can help us understand the why.

17:43 - 18:08Ginger Craddock: So today, an ATS captures structured fields like name, phone number, CDL, class, and experience. What becomes possible when AI can also analyze phone transcripts, text messages, and chat conversations to uncover information that those individual fields never captured.

18:10 - 18:40Daniel Kelly: This is really cool, and this is something I think we've we've not quite tapped into to its fullest extent, not even close. Yeah, I mean, traditionally with computers, you just... You have these small little fields, these small little buckets that you're gathering very specific data for. But now, when you're gathering this information via a conversation, you have the opportunity to gather all kinds of unintentional information, right? You know, the driver just says something while they're talking to the AI agent.

18:40 - 19:04Daniel Kelly: They ask a question that you didn't anticipate any agent to... Or any potential driver to ask. And this happens over multiple phone calls and multiple chat interactions. Now if you collect that data in a database, you can actually use AI models to search through that information semantically. So you're not just looking for, hey.

19:04 - 19:24Daniel Kelly: What's the driver's name? What's the driver's email address? You can ask questions like, you know, what's a common frustration drivers on on phone calls have? Or what's a, you know, what's a a common issue that... Or what's a common question that potential drivers ask?

19:25 - 19:46Daniel Kelly: And with an AI model, you can search through a lot of data and find an answer to that question. Questions you didn't even know you wanted to to ask while you were collecting the data. That's the beauty of the conversation pieces. You can come back and have these new questions later that you don't have to have these predetermined fields for, if that makes sense.

19:47 - 20:31Ginger Craddock: It does. And with that frame that you've just given us that we don't have to just stick to the predetermined frames and sections, let's imagine asking our recruiting data completely different questions. Like let's reframe it. Instead of simply asking how many leads came in this month, what if a recruiter could ask what were the three biggest concerns preventing interested drivers from moving forward? How close are we to making that kind of intelligence possible?

20:32 - 20:53Daniel Kelly: It's, it's here. To be honest, it's already here. And it's just a matter of us actually collecting that data more in conversational context, chats, phone agents, and then... And moving away from, you know, traditional form inputs because they just... They give you the the fields.

20:53 - 20:59Daniel Kelly: Right? So you don't get that more elaborate data without the conversation piece.

21:00 - 21:50Ginger Craddock: But with the conversations, we have that clear perspective quickly. I think that's been the thing that's so pleasantly surprising to me. Like, just thinking about how over the course of weeks or months, I'll have multiple conversations. And I'll remember bits and pieces, like the statistics on what we remember, you know, are super small, minuscule, but how I'm able to actually tap into that and go, well, I remember this, what was that person actually saying? And it'll come back with a much clearer message and puts me back in that moment And I just found it incredibly helpful for nurturing relationships and having better conversations.

21:51 - 22:41Ginger Craddock: And I think every recruiter is looking to have better meaningful conversations and move these potential drivers through their pipeline. So now I wanna shift from the conversation side to advertising creative. So AI is changing advertising creative, but can I say it's not always for the better? So we're seeing an explosion of this generic AI generated content across social media. So how can carriers and marketing teams use AI to communicate their authentic story faster and more accurately without contributing to all the noise?

22:42 - 23:01Daniel Kelly: That's a great question. My background is in in web development and in graphic design, And this is hitting us hard right now. Right? Like, a lot of people talking about that kind of stuff. And the term that we've always all kind of consolidated on is AI slob.

23:01 - 23:14Daniel Kelly: Right? It's just gross. And it's gross because it's so easy to do. And at the end of the day, all... In LLM or a large language model, all the AI really is is just a predictor of...

23:15 - 23:45Daniel Kelly: It's a pattern recognition machine. And so it likes to spit out creative that looks exactly like what it spit out the last time. Right? And so that's where we get all this kind of generic AI slop. And that's where we get we get a lot of creative that's just not on brand for our company because they're just putting so much trust in the model, which isn't always necessarily a good thing.

23:45 - 24:22Daniel Kelly: But it also is because there's a lot of people who don't have the background in design and in marketing who are suddenly getting their hands dirty using, you know, these image generation models, right, which is not a problem. I want people to experiment and have fun and learn new things. But as I mentioned earlier, there is still talent you have to bring to the table, right? And so I I think one of the ways that I've seen it most effectively used here at... On the Hire Truckers team is not just to give a model, you know, a job of, hey.

24:22 - 24:43Daniel Kelly: Generate an ad for me. Just open whatever. It's it's more like, let's take an existing image from the client, an actual real truck and a real driver, and let's use the AI model to superimpose some text on it in a way that blends well. Right? It's not just sans serif on...

24:43 - 25:04Daniel Kelly: Sitting on top of everything, and it just looks, you know, cheap. That's one really good way we found it to work. You're still giving an authentic message. You're still putting real trucks out there, but you are elevating the ad a little bit. Now you could have done the exact same thing in Photoshop like most designers did for years, but this just takes a lot shorter time.

25:04 - 25:32Daniel Kelly: You know? And what that allows us to do is it allows us to to test our creative in a lot more rapid manner. We're able to, spin up a lot more creative at one time, images and videos alike, and we're able to test it to see what it... What, you know, potential drivers are engaging with and then optimize towards the goal of of more hires based on the creative that works. And

25:33 - 26:05Ginger Craddock: I love that practical tip of how brands can be authentic to who they are and yet use the AI tools in a thoughtful way that don't look like the noise out there. And so authenticity. I think our culture as a whole is hungry for authenticity. There's... There continues to be a lot of noise.

26:05 - 26:39Ginger Craddock: And so I don't think it's one or the other. The... I like to think of it in the context of AI, artificial intelligence, and AI, authentic individual. And I think there's a way to blend the two that tell the authentic individual story, builds authentic individual relationships. And so thinking about the driver experience and the recruiter experience.

26:41 - 27:25Ginger Craddock: At the end of the day, from the ad creative videos, still messages, text that go out with those ad ad copy, at the end of the day, a recruiter still owns the relationship, and and a driver wants to know the authentic culture of the carrier that they are evaluating. They wanna know the authentic details of that job. They don't want smoke and mirrors and they know how they wanna drive. They know what kind of freight they wanna haul. And we're seeing drivers able to vet carriers in a way that they haven't been able to in the past.

27:25 - 28:26Ginger Craddock: You know, they're they're using the technology too to vet carriers. And so as they're doing that, they're looking for that authenticity and the truth about the carrier. And so the alignment from the messaging and it being authentic to the brand, it flows right into the recruiter still owning that relationship. So whether it's talk to text or voice AI, it needs to sound authentic to that carrier so that then it creates this unified authentic experience for the driver where they're getting to know that carrier and there's not something out of alignment. So thinking about the recruiter owning the relationship, where should AI handle the interaction and where does human judgment, empathy, and relationship building become essential?

28:31 - 28:41Daniel Kelly: You know, I... Yeah. Obviously obviously, you don't want an AI just actually making the hire for you. Right? You don't want the AI to make that final decision.

28:42 - 28:57Daniel Kelly: I think the AI is... It's really good at the pre qualifying stage, really kind of filtering out individuals who just don't have the qualifications. Right? They don't have the CDL. They...

28:58 - 29:19Daniel Kelly: That's the big one. But other... They don't have the years of experience, things like that. That's information that can easily be collected over that AI agent phone call and, you know, that can go into your flow into your ATS, and the human recruiter never has to, has to has to call. What else is hands off for the agent?

29:24 - 29:28Daniel Kelly: I think that's... Yeah, I think I think that's that's the biggest thing.

29:29 - 29:40Ginger Craddock: And so thinking along those lines, how do we design technology that makes recruiters more effective rather than removing them from the process?

29:41 - 30:16Daniel Kelly: Yeah. So I think I think a big piece of this is just transparency for both the driver and the recruiter. Like, we need to make sure the recruiters can see all the interactions that drivers have had with the AI agents so they they can correct misinformation. They can get a good context for what's already been shared with the driver and so on. But on the same side, make sure that the drivers have that same visibility as well, that they're always talking...

30:16 - 30:21Daniel Kelly: You know, they know they're talking to an AI agent versus they're talking to a human and things like that.

30:22 - 31:00Ginger Craddock: I love that. So nobody wants to feel tricked. They wanna feel helped. And if they're able to use the technology in the way that they're comfortable with, they feel helped, and they know what they're using. And then I really hear you on the recruiters are then able to scan and look at what communication has gone back and forth and then kind of layer in the secret sauce or the hooks that individual recruiters know work well for attracting the right drivers to their carrier.

31:01 - 31:21Ginger Craddock: And so as we connect the dots between marketing and conversations and hiring outcomes, Daniel, what happens when the information collected by AI assistants, advertising campaigns, and applicant tracking systems begin working together.

31:23 - 31:27Daniel Kelly: You just get things done faster. Plain and simple.

31:29 - 31:38Ginger Craddock: Absolutely. And so as we get things done faster, how could that change the way that fleets understand recruiting performance?

31:43 - 32:12Daniel Kelly: That is interesting. So I I definitely think you could have... If you've got recordings, you've got transcripts of all the calls that your recruiters have had with potential drivers. There's definitely... You know, there's room there to have all that evaluated by an AI agent, not just for the sake of asking what drivers care about, but also asking how are my recruiters doing?

32:12 - 32:18Daniel Kelly: What issues are they having? Right? Not just what issues are the drivers having. That's totally possible.

32:19 - 32:48Ginger Craddock: Well, and what I hear in that example is you can use it as a coachable tool or how to improve recruiter conversations. Love that. Think about all the effort that I've put into learning to be a better listener and a better communicator. Know it's a lifelong process and how even in self development and team development we can use it as a tool in real time with real time conversations. I love that.

32:48 - 33:00Ginger Craddock: The educator in me loves everything about that. So, Daniel, looking ahead, what's the biggest opportunity that we're still underestimating?

33:02 - 33:30Daniel Kelly: I think the biggest opportunity is more automation in terms of in terms of getting the context into a central place. A lot of us are still working out of systems. They're so not talking to each other. Right? I think there's so much room for improvement and getting the whole pipeline from, you know, from interest to to to a higher to even the termination.

33:30 - 33:51Daniel Kelly: I think there's still... There's just so much opportunity for all of that to all that to to be known by a single agent who can therefore then use that context to make smarter decisions across the business for you. I just don't think we're there yet.

33:52 - 34:26Ginger Craddock: So what I'm hearing is there's lots of different pieces communicating and giving data. But if someone that's building and connecting connecting these technologies, unpack a little bit more for me. What do you believe will fundamentally change about driver recruiting over the next two to three years? I I think it's in this nuance that you're teasing out here, something in the connectedness. Share a little bit more with me about that.

34:26 - 34:42Daniel Kelly: Yeah. Just... I mean, kinda going back to what we talked about in the very beginning, like, is is king. Right? And if the model has the right context, it's going to be able to put out some really trustworthy results.

34:43 - 34:50Daniel Kelly: The thing is sometimes that context is not just, hey. What is my job description? What does my pay look like? What is... You know, what do my benefits look like?

34:50 - 35:03Daniel Kelly: What are the requirements? That's that's a piece of it. But there's also all of the historical stuff like who have I hired for this position before? Which of the drivers, did well in this position? Which turned over quickly?

35:04 - 35:37Daniel Kelly: When that kind of data all comes together and an agent can access it successfully, what it practically looks like, I don't know. What it's going to mean is it's going to be efficiency galore. It's going to make so many bouncing back and forth issues and indecisive decisions that you make on intuition, you know, instead of data. It's going to make those kinds of decisions a whole lot simpler.

35:39 - 35:53Ginger Craddock: Absolutely. And so it gives simplicity, clarity, and it just gives a a lift to productivity. So now we're gonna pivot to the the rapid fire section of our conversation. Are you ready, Daniel?

35:54 - 35:55Daniel Kelly: Yeah. Let's hear it.

35:55 - 35:59Ginger Craddock: Alright. Let's go rapid fire. AI or human instinct?

35:59 - 36:00Daniel Kelly: Human instinct most of the time.

36:00 - 36:07Ginger Craddock: So next one, rapid fire. Speed to lead or quality of conversation.

36:09 - 36:10Daniel Kelly: Speed to lead.

36:11 - 36:14Ginger Craddock: Chatbot or voice assistant?

36:16 - 36:19Daniel Kelly: Voice assistant. Nobody likes chatbots.

36:20 - 36:23Ginger Craddock: Automation or personalization?

36:25 - 36:27Daniel Kelly: Great when they're mixed together.

36:28 - 36:40Ginger Craddock: See, you you make your own rules too. Yes. Automation and personalization blended together for the win. So, Daniel, more leads or better conversion?

36:42 - 36:47Daniel Kelly: Definitely better conversions. That's... Yeah. That's what we optimize here at

36:47 - 36:57Ginger Craddock: Hire Truckers all day. All day long. And that improves the bottom line and every... The work experience, everything. Better conversions.

36:57 - 37:05Ginger Craddock: So what's one recruiting task AI should take off a recruiter's plate today?

37:08 - 37:12Daniel Kelly: Tedious data collection from from the driver.

37:13 - 37:19Ginger Craddock: What's one recruiting decision AI should never make alone?

37:21 - 37:26Daniel Kelly: Definitely the the actual hire. Right? Or or on the opposite side of that, the termination.

37:28 - 37:34Ginger Craddock: Agreed. What's the biggest missed opportunity for fleets not using AI?

37:39 - 37:58Daniel Kelly: The the opportunity to have all that data collected and then just finding these new ways of using it. That's what I love about AI. It's once you have the data collected in a way that's manageable, you you just... It's so much easier to find those efficiencies.

38:00 - 38:37Ginger Craddock: Agreed. And find the efficiencies. And then my frame has been to create a better human experience for the person doing the work and create a better human experience for the person that we're working on behalf of, the recruiter, the safety team, like the ops team, the business side of the industry. Like, it is about creating a better individual work experience no matter where we are in the trucking industry and really in any industry in the world. And so I...

38:37 - 38:57Ginger Craddock: That's that's been kinda my frame. It's still people centric, people service oriented, and I think that's the the positive side of AI. So what's one thing recruiters should stop doing manually?

38:58 - 39:04Daniel Kelly: One thing they should stop doing... Stop stop answering those phone calls after hours. Go home. Be with your families.

39:05 - 39:28Ginger Craddock: Yes. Because we high value purposeful lives that are built around the things that we manage most and so yes, yes, yes. Stop answering those phones after hours. There is a way to create a good driver experience and sustainability for our recruiters and their quality of life. Last one.

39:29 - 39:34Ginger Craddock: Daniel, what excites you most about the future of AI in driver recruiting?

39:37 - 39:53Daniel Kelly: That is just so unknown. I've been learning things throughout my career, and, now I feel like I'm I'm having to learn new things faster, than ever. So, yeah, I'm just really excited for what the future is gonna bring.

39:54 - 40:04Ginger Craddock: I agree. And I'm having a ball. I hope you're having as much fun as I am. It's a delightful time to be alive. So, Daniel, closing question for you.

40:05 - 40:20Ginger Craddock: For a fleet executive listening today who knows that AI needs to be a part of their recruiting strategy, but they're not sure where to begin, What's the first practical step that you would encourage them to take?

40:24 - 40:42Daniel Kelly: Number one, don't think AI is gonna solve all your problems. Number two, don't think you have to do all AI all at once. You're not going to just do all the things. Right? But number three is start somewhere with one thing.

40:42 - 41:00Daniel Kelly: Right? And I think that that's something that we at the Hire Truckers team can can help you with because we've already got a little experience with it. So, I do encourage you. If this is something you wanna add to your stack, head on over to hiretruckers.com. There's a contact form there.

41:00 - 41:14Daniel Kelly: You can schedule a strategy meeting with us. But we've already been around the block a few times on this, and we found that one thing several times at this point. So we have multiple things in our arsenal that I think we can help you with.

41:15 - 41:56Ginger Craddock: Absolutely. And, Daniel, I think one of the most important takeaways from today's conversation is that AI isn't about replacing the recruiter. It's about giving recruiters more time to do what people do best, and that is build relationships, exercise judgment, and make better hiring decisions. To technology, it should help us respond faster, understand drivers better, and create more personal recruiting experience at scale. Because at the end of the day, it's not about generating more leads.

41:56 - 42:32Ginger Craddock: It's about turning the right opportunities into the right hires and that's where technology and human connection, that's how they they work together. That's why Daniel answered that blended question in the rapid fire. Daniel, thank you for sharing your perspective and thank you for helping us think differently about what's possible. So if you'd like to connect with us, go to hiretruckers.com. Daniel, that form that they can fill out there, just one click, that button is?

42:32 - 42:44Daniel Kelly: Yeah. So you're gonna go to hiretruckers.com. And right there, as you first visit the page, there's this nice big green button, schedule a strategy call. Click on that, and we'll get you slotted in.

42:44 - 43:00Ginger Craddock: Yeah. So thank you so much. Until next time, subscribe, follow along, become a part of the conversation because together, we are elevating this industry, and thank you for being a part of the conversation.

43:01 - 43:02Daniel Kelly: Thanks so much for having me, Ginger.