#260 - ChenMed's Jeff Battinus on Agentic AI Recruiting, and the 78% Who Chose the AI Interview

Featuring Jeff Battinus, VP of Talent Attraction and Selection, ChenMed, and Yaniv Shimoni, Co-Founder, Take2

Disclosure: Take2 is a sponsor of The ASHHRA Podcast.

Twenty-two years in healthcare recruiting, and Jeff Battinus says his career is changing in front of his face. He joins Bo with Take2 co-founder Yaniv Shimoni to separate real agentic AI from the version that is a sticker on an old process.

🤖 Agent or Bumper Sticker

Battinus's test is blunt. Most of the big vendors, he argues, bolted AI onto applicant tracking systems that were already stacked on top of the fax machine and the Rolodex. A real agent executes on your behalf around the clock. A wrapper hands you recommendations and waits.

Action: Peel one layer. Ask a vendor what the agent does without a human starting it.

📊 What the Interview Data Shows

Chicago Booth and Erasmus researchers ran a field experiment with 70,000 applicants. Roughly 78% chose a voice AI interview over a human recruiter, and the AI-screened candidates were likelier to get offers and still be there at 30 days. Take2 reports 57% of the applicants it interviews start outside business hours.

Key Takeaway: Candidates are voting with the clock. Nobody staffs a recruiter at 11pm.

🩺 Where the Savings Land

At Dental Care Alliance, across 141 brands, Battinus says the interview module alone returned seven figures he pushed back toward patient care. His framing throughout is access, not efficiency: unlock the constraint, get a clinician in front of a patient faster.

HR Risk: Systems moving at this pace recruit from your labor pool, and they reach the offer letter first.

⚡ What Comes Next

Take2 is building pre-boarding agents for license verification, background checks, and forms, with a personal agent assigned to each new hire. Battinus predicts recruiting is 90% automated inside five years, with the human kept for the sell and the hiring-manager relationship.

Action: His parting line is the sharpest in the episode. If talent acquisition does not do this, finance will do it for you.

Shimoni's close is the gentler version. Adoption is not required today. Curiosity is.