“AI is especially useful for saving a few minutes per task.”

Sounds familiar, right? Wrong. The real miracle lies not in time savings, but in extra work that suddenly gets done – without a new employee being added to the payroll. Imagine this: the same twenty recruiters suddenly produce work that previously took thirty people. How is that possible? In this blog post, I will show how smart tools add piles of invisible AI-FTEs to your team, and which simple calculation you can apply to make 60% more placements.

Wait a minute… why do we focus so much on “saving time”?

We all do it.
We count minutes, throw them in a pile, and say: “Look, AI saves me two hours a day.”

But what are you overlooking?
The work you never did before AI.
Because you simply didn’t have the hands for it.

Meet the AI-FTE

Note: for the rest of this article, I will assume three placements per recruiter per month. That’s the current industry average we received from several agencies.

Imagine a recruiter in the financial sector.
He processes 25 resumes into your own layout in a month.
Manually, that roughly takes 30 minutes per resume.

Now you put a smart tool behind it.
The recruiter clicks, checks, and is done in two minutes.

That one task therefore requires 30 ÷ 2 = 15× less human time.
But the real news?

He can now handle 15 × 25 = 375 resumes. So 350 extra!

Not because he works harder, but because the task no longer consumes a massive amount of time.

That’s 350 × 30 minutes = 10,500 AI-minutes.
Converted: roughly one extra full-timer working invisibly alongside you.

We call that an AI-FTE.
Extra capacity, no additional chairs needed.

But if you can convert 15× as many resumes, do you also make 15× as many placements? Not quite.

In theory, with 375 resumes, you can make about 45 potential placements, simply because an average of eight resumes is needed for one match. But, and here’s the catch, that only works if the rest of your pipeline can keep up that pace. Otherwise, those resumes will pile up like forgotten sneakers in the hallway.

The hard truth: what impact does AI really have?

The 15× only applies if all other steps in your chain are just as fast.
As soon as one link lags behind, it slows down the rest.

So let's run the entire flow through a measuring stick.
I’ll take four everyday tasks and show what happens when you automate them all with smart tools.

1. Converting resumes

Previously: 25 pieces, manual work, 30 minutes per resume.
Now: 375 pieces, 2 minutes per resume.
Gain: one full AI-FTE.
Starting recruiter? They should spend less time on copy-pasting and therefore can put extra energy into sourcing.

2. Gathering job openings

Manually scanning portals took about five minutes per job listing.
With a scraper on steroids, that drops to practically zero.
You suddenly have a continuous stream of leads.

3. Rewriting job listings

Twenty minutes fiddling with tone-of-voice becomes one minute of AI copy-editing.
Factor 20 difference.
Result: every job listing goes live the same afternoon, with variants for LinkedIn, WhatsApp broadcasts, and your own site.

4. Maintaining the database & searching for candidates

Searching terms, filling fields, making mistakes, starting over… twenty hours per placement was not uncommon.
With smart tools that keep your database up-to-date and search for you, that drops to two hours of ‘candidate validation’.
Your sourcing range becomes broader, more relevant, and faster.

When does the chain get stuck?

As soon as one link falters, the whole assembly line falters. It could be anything:

• Market & job openings. Are there even enough assignments to accommodate all those extra candidates?

• Availability of candidates. You can transform a thousand resumes, but without good profiles, the party doesn’t happen.

• Skills of the recruiter. AI helps, but a poor intake or weak pitch stops the machine.

• Back office & administration. Contracts, hour registration, invoicing: does that keep pace as well? If not, the workload will still pile up.

Perhaps the resumes are indeed there in record time, but no one is left to call all the candidates the same day. The extra profiles then gather dust in your ATS like forgotten sneakers in the hallway.

Rest is also productive, by the way. Some recruiters enjoy doing some administration from time to time—simple, repetitive work to clear their heads. A recruiter recently revealed: “Sometimes I make three extra placements per month just by staring at the ceiling for an hour.” Sounds crazy? That mental reset makes the next calling round sharper.

Or imagine that with one click, ten new job openings go online, but rate agreements still have to go through three managers. Without quick approval, the ‘pending approval’ pile happily shifts to tomorrow.

And then there are the warm-blooded tasks: contract negotiations, expectation management, reassuring candidates just before an interview. For now, AI is still on the sidelines.

The result? You could end up with a solid increase (sometimes up to 50% more placements), but only when the market, people, processes, and tools breathe at the same pace.

PS. Do you want to know how to calculate the expected growth in placements? We are temporarily offering a free consultation to work this out! Sign up via https://spadework.ai/contact.

Finally – where will you put your invisible colleague to work?

Picture that busy Monday once more.
Inbox full, phone ringing, targets breathing down your neck.

Before AI, you chose what to leave behind.
After AI, you can get started right away and tackle the tasks that never came onto your radar.

That’s the real advantage.
Not the saved minutes, but the newly found meters.

So, think for a moment:

• Which tasks are eating up your time now?

• Which task do you still put off?

• Which tasks can you already automate with AI today?

• And don’t forget: Which candidates deserve a longer, more relaxed conversation now?

Before you know it, your team of twenty delivers the work of thirty – and there’s not a single extra backrest in the cafeteria.