Hiring platform Greenhouse has agreed to acquire Ezra AI Labs, a startup focused on conversational, voice-based AI interviewing. The deal is set to close later this quarter and signals a shift in how talent acquisition (TA) can address the surge of AI-assisted job applications and the cacophony making it harder to discern candidate signals and fill reqs.

Applications per recruiter on its platform have jumped 412% since 2023, according to Greenhouse. At the same time, fewer than 7% of applicants receive an interview. Recruiters are facing a daunting challenge: more candidates than ever, but less clarity on who’s actually qualified.

“Fundamentally, people want to make the process work. Candidates want jobs. Companies want to make hires, and AI can be a great tool to make all that happen. AI is not the problem in and of itself, but the tools that people have been given haven’t been up to the task,” Greenhouse’s cofounder and CEO, Daniel Chait, said.

Candidates can use AI to optimize résumés and applications. Companies can then deploy AI to filter them. The resulting dynamic is noisier, less trustworthy system where strong candidates can be missed entirely.

For more on the acquisition, and Greenhouse’s aims to address signal challenges in hiring, keep reading here.—AD

Job openings decreased slightly in March, but hiring went up, suggesting employers are bringing on new workers at a faster clip than they were last year.

The number of open jobs fell slightly in March, coming in at 6.9 million, according to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Quits and layoffs were flat, at 3.2 million and 1.9 million, respectively.

At the same time, hires went up to 5.6 million, an increase of 655,000 from February, when the hiring rate dipped to 3.1%, the lowest level since April 2020.

March’s hiring rebound shows that “employers are becoming more direct and streamlined about the hiring process,” Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist with ZipRecruiter, said. They’re gaining more clarity around what they’re hiring for, how quickly they want to hire, and how many people they want to hire, she explained.

For more on what HR needs to know about the latest JOLTS data, keep reading here.—CV

We’re talking about AI again. But wait! Don’t leave. This isn’t about another tech company.

This time we’re focusing on nurses. Around the country, as AI implementation grows in hospitals, so do RNs’ concerns about new technology encroaching on their ability to deliver care.

While AI tools have promised saved time, better illness detection, and burnout reduction, the National Nurses United (NNU), a union representing 225,000+ RNs nationwide, insists “hands-on work of caring for other people cannot and should not ever be automated,” according to its Nurses and Patients’ Bill of Rights.

So they’re fighting back the way nurses do best: through contract negotiations. Nurses in California and North Carolina spoke with Healthcare Brew about how they’re using their bargaining power to help regulate AI in the hospitals they work in.

For more on how nurses are setting rules about AI in their contracts, keep reading on Healthcare Brew.—CM

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