How can AI Transform Recruiting in the Healthcare Sector?

The UK's health and social care sector is grappling with severe staffing challenges that threaten service delivery.

Healthcare company Cera reports approximately 110,000 vacancies in social care alone, whilst NHS workforce projections indicate potential shortages could reach 360,000 roles by 2036.

Conventional recruitment approaches, characterised by slow processing times, substantial resource demands and dependence on manual candidate screening, are proving inadequate to address the scale of this challenge.

Against this backdrop, Cera, one of the UK's largest home healthcare providers, has turned to artificial intelligence as a potential solution to transform how the sector approaches hiring.

AI-Powered recruitment technology

Cera has developed Ami, an AI recruitment agent now being licenced across the health and care sectors.

According to Cera, Ami conducts interviews with applicants that aim to replicate human interaction, screening candidates for eligibility whilst evaluating qualities including attitude and experience.

Candidates deemed suitable are then scheduled immediately for a second interview with a human recruiter.

The technology's capacity to interview hundreds of thousands of applicants simultaneously represents a capability that no human recruitment team could replicate, potentially addressing the urgent need for scalable hiring solutions.

Following Ami's deployment within its own operations, Cera has recorded notable improvements in recruitment efficiency.

Cera reports screening costs have been reduced by two-thirds, whilst human recruiters utilising Ami save approximately two days of work each week.

The timeframe from application to first interview has decreased from days to seconds, and Cera now extends twice as many job offers for equivalent recruitment marketing expenditure.

Dr Ben Maruthappu, CEO and Founder of Cera, says: "Ami transforms this challenging process, taking the time from application to first interview down from days to seconds, and significantly reducing costs, freeing up valuable human time."

He adds that it is a strong example of how "AI can transform health and care".

Cera reports Ami maintains a 99% candidate satisfaction rate, with fewer than one per cent of applicants requesting to speak with a human recruiter instead.

Research suggests 73% of candidates prefer contact at the moment they apply and this is what Ami provides applicants with.

Addressing the national workforce gap

Following the results Ami has delivered at Cera, the company is now licencing the technology to other health and care organisations to help tackle urgent staffing shortages, from NHS winter pressures to long-term workforce gaps.

Cera says Ami is designed to meet Care Quality Commission requirements and is ready for sector-wide deployment.

Martin Hao, CEO of Ami AI, says: "In a world full of off-the-shelf AIs, Ami's complex architecture, drawing on multiple AI models, makes it extraordinarily reactive, human-like and warm, and we've seen it swiftly builds an exceptional rapport with candidates."

Whilst developed specifically for care, Ami can also be adapted for large-scale frontline workforces in sectors including hospitality, retail, manufacturing and construction, with interest already emerging from major employers globally.

Martin says the technology is designed to be integrated as an actual employee rather than as a tech platform, assisting staff rather than replacing humans.

Through reducing costs, accelerating hiring processes, improving candidate confidence and expanding the available talent pool, Ami could demonstrate how AI-driven recruitment might transform multiple industries facing similar workforce challenges.