Recruitment firm Hays is using Microsoft Copilot to help its people move faster while retaining human judgement in every selection.
Preparing for a new client call used to take Louisa Eisert most of a working day. She’d research the organisation, consider its problems and work out where Hays could help. With Microsoft Copilot, she says, the first stage of that work can now be done in a few minutes.
“It gives us an email or a script that helps us understand the client’s problems before we speak to them,” says Eisert, Department Head for Automotive at Hays in Germany.
Hays is one of the world’s largest recruitment companies. It employs more than 8,000 people, including around 5,200 recruitment experts, and helped more than 240,000 people find new jobs in its 2026 financial year.
Headquartered in London, Hays also operates across Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific.
For Julia Cames, Chief Marketing Officer at Hays, AI has a clear role. It can help recruiters find information more quickly and spend less time on administration. But decisions about people still require experience, conversation and judgement.
“The value of Hays is AI-powered with the human connection,” she says. “You’re working with a human consultant who knows your market, knows what good talent looks like, and can help you make the right choice.”
By bringing AI into everyday workflows, Hays aims to improve response times, strengthen consultant preparation, and bring richer market insight to customers.
The aim is not to not to replace human judgement, but to give consultants more time for the advisory conversations where they add most value. As Hays expands its use of AI, it says fairness, transparency and human oversight remain central, with safeguards in place to reduce bias and protect personal data.
Building a common foundation
Operating consistently across a large international company depends on systems that can share information accurately and quickly. Cames says Hays has been simplifying a fragmented technology estate and creating a common foundation across the business.
Microsoft 365 Copilot forms part of the company’s broader AI strategy. In its testing of Copilot, 60% of those using Copilot saved up to 2.5 hours a week, according to Cames, and have also seen improvements in the quality of their work.
David Butler-Smith, Senior Change Manager at Hays APAC, helped create a network of around 70 early adopters across the region.
He says recruiters often begin by using Copilot to tidy emails, job adverts and candidate profiles. As confidence grows, they use it as “a thinking partner” for client calls and recorded briefings.
Asking better questions
Eisert uses a set of prompts from Hays’ product innovation team. Before a meeting, Copilot can gather information about a client and suggest questions or discussion points.
It also helps her prepare for technical interviews. Eisert mainly recruits engineers. By sharing a job description with Copilot, she can generate questions that test how well a candidate understands a technical subject and whether they can apply that knowledge in practice.
Eisert has also used Copilot to create a two-month study plan on autonomous driving. That knowledge helps her ask more informed questions.
Butler-Smith sees the same progression across APAC [Asia-Pacific]. Recruitment is fast-moving and driven by sales targets, he says, so consultants have a strong incentive to reduce admin and spend more time with clients and candidates.
Knowing when to check
Eisert and Cames are clear about the limits of the technology.
Eisert says Copilot can provide a useful starting point, but recruiters still need to check its work, adapt its suggestions and apply their own judgement.
“We need to look at the output and process it ourselves,” she says.
Cames makes the same point about candidate screening.
“If you do all of your pre-screening with an AI robot, you are probably going to miss key talent,” she says. “A human has to do that.”
A CV can show qualifications and experience, but it cannot fully reveal how someone communicates, solves problems or works with others. Those qualities only become clear in conversation, Cames believes.
Butler-Smith says AI is making the value of that interaction more visible. Copilot can record notes and structure information, allowing recruiters to focus on the person in front of them. Yet it cannot read body language or replace an experienced consultant’s market knowledge.
“We are a business built on relationship and trust,” he says. “You build relationships by having conversations.”
Skills beyond the CV
AI is also changing what employers value. Some technical tasks can now be completed more quickly, which increases the importance of problem-solving, communication, leadership, and critical thinking.
These qualities are often described as soft skills – a label Cames dislikes. In her view, they are central to high-performing teams. She also expects confidence with AI tools to become a normal requirement in many office-based jobs.
“AI isn’t coming for your job,” she says. “But if you haven’t used AI, you may not get the job.”
Butler-Smith agrees that critical thinking is becoming more important. AI can remove technical and administrative barriers, he says, but the user remains responsible for the decision.
Learning from colleagues
Hays is encouraging adoption through peer learning as well as formal support. In Germany, colleagues join a fortnightly “FrAIday” call to share examples of how they use Copilot. Teams also make time in regular meetings for people to show what they’ve tried.
Across APAC, Butler-Smith’s early-adopter network played a similar role, encouraging experimentation and sharing practical examples.
“There is so much power in colleagues showing you how useful it is,” he says.
With its testing, learning and adoption programmes complete, and both the appetite for and value of AI established, the company is moving to the next stage of its AI journey.
Hays is now adopting the new Microsoft 365 E7 suite, designed for frontier companies. It brings integrated AI tools to a broader cohort, alongside new monitoring and security applications to manage agents.
For Hays, the value of Copilot lies in better conversations and the time it gives back. Recruiters can arrive better prepared, ask more informed questions and spend more of the working day with clients and candidates.
As Butler-Smith puts it, the technology helps remove some of the administrative work “so I can just be a human and do the human stuff that’s important”.