What is Indeed Talent Scout?

Talent Scout is an AI recruiting assistant that combines insights from your job post with data from your active applicant pool to provide support for finding, matching and engaging with candidates while keeping you in control of all hiring decisions.

Talent Scout is designed to be intuitive and conversational. You can interact with it using natural language, much like you would with a human recruiter, through a chat-style interface. With integration capabilities across select applicant tracking systems (ATS) and Indeed products, Talent Scout supports you with real-time insights to strengthen your hiring strategy.

You can ask Talent Scout questions about your job post, your applicants or the candidate market and it responds with relevant candidates, insight or next steps based on your job post and Indeed data. It’s designed to help you understand who to focus on and what to do next as you move candidates through your hiring process.

How Indeed Talent Scout works

Talent Scout learns from employer feedback and ongoing use and continuously improves in real time to surface strong candidate matches and give recommendations for optimizing job performance and next best actions. This leads to personalized insights you can use to inform and strengthen your hiring strategy.

Powered by Indeed’s 20 years of hiring data, Talent Scout draws from insights across millions of jobs on Indeed, along with searchable job seeker profiles. It’s built to work within your existing hiring approach, so you can access it in your ATS, Indeed hiring tools or wherever you already manage your candidates.

If you use a compatible ATS, you can access Talent Scout directly within your platform. ATS integration points include:

• Workable
• isolved Talent Acquisition (formerly ApplicantPro)
• Workday via Chrome extension (coming soon)
• Jobs posted on Indeed

Key philosophy

Indeed’s overarching commitment is to ensure that AI amplifies human potential, reduces inequalities in hiring and benefits job seekers, employers and society at large. Indeed’s responsible AI strategy is designed to enhance, not replace, the human element in hiring.

Talent Scout was developed in close collaboration with Indeed’s Responsible AI team, which supports more effective, equitable and fair decision-making.

Here’s how this philosophy shows up in Talent Scout:

• AI-driven support complements your expertise by helping you surface quality candidates and reduce time spent on manual screening.
• Talent Scout can help your hiring team save time by providing useful information while keeping you in control of every hiring decision.
• Talent Scout offers insights powered by hiring data to help inform decisions at each stage of your recruiting workflow.
• Talent Scout acts as a partner throughout sourcing, matching and engagement tasks to support your hiring goals.

Core features of Indeed Talent Scout

Talent Scout helps employers find candidates, review applicants and take next steps throughout hiring. Here’s how the tool makes it easier to source, match and reach out to candidates.

Candidate matching*

Top matches

Talent Scouthelps you understand your candidate needs and search your entire talent pipeline. It delivers a list of top candidates along with explanations of why each person may be a strong fit for your open role. You can invite candidates to apply* directly through the tool to help you move promising prospects into your hiring process.

You interact with Talent Scout using natural language, which allows you to refine searches and adjust match criteria as you go. In addition to searching and sorting your existing applicants, Talent Scout provides access to Indeed’s vast talent pool so you can identify prospective candidates who may meet your requirements and invite them to apply*.

Match criteria and calibration

Talent Scout can help you align on the criteria used to match candidates with your job requirements, making it easier to focus on the skills and experience that matter most. You can refine Talent Scout’s matching by uploading intake notes or sample resumes, which give the tool additional context about the role. You can also view a match summary that shows how each candidate compares to your job requirements, giving you a clear understanding of their relevant experience and skills.

The technology uses natural language to refine the match profile and dynamically learns as your team interacts with it. This ongoing calibration supports a clearer understanding of candidate fit and helps you identify strong prospects more efficiently.

Talent Scout also makes it easy to find how candidates within your ATS align with the criteria you’ve set, so you can quickly identify top applicants and decide who to contact next.

*Only available with Premium Sponsored Jobs or a Smart Sourcing subscription

Job optimization

Job content optimization

Talent Scout offers job content optimization to help you strengthen your listings and attract quality candidates. As you develop a job post, the tool can surface data-driven suggestions for improving job titles, descriptions, salary and benefits based on your role and location. These recommendations can help your posting stand out so it can reach more job seekers with relevant experience and skills.

When communicating with Talent Scout, you can ask questions to understand how to improve a job listing or learn how your posting is performing on Indeed. For example, you could ask Talent Scout:

• How can I improve this job post?
• What are the top keywords to use for this role?
• Is my job currently visible on Indeed?
• How is this job performing?
• Why are my applies so low?

Hiring insights

Powered by Indeed Hiring Insights, Talent Scout provides data-driven hiring information that helps you to improve your overall strategy. You can use these insights to find how similar roles are performing, compare compensation expectations and understand where you may have opportunities to stand out from the competition.

When a job is not performing as expected, Talent Scout can highlight potential problem areas so you can make informed adjustments to strengthen your results.

To tap into deeper insights, you might ask questions like:

• How many active job seekers are there for my open role?
• What’s the salary benchmark for this role?
• Who else is hiring for this position?

Candidate communication and engagement

Messaging and interview scheduling

Talent Scout supports candidate communication by helping you reach out to multiple prospects at once. Instead of writing the same message repeatedly, the tool generates personalized outreach you can edit and send in bulk*. When you want to invite someone to apply*, AI-generated messaging gives you a starting point so you can focus on tailoring the tone and details.

Once candidates are engaged, Talent Scout helps manage interview scheduling by sending invitations that list available times. This makes coordination simpler and helps move conversations forward without long email threads or multiple follow-ups.

For assistance with messaging and managing candidate outreach, you can try asking Talent Scout questions like:

• Give me a summary of my outreach activity.
• How many people accepted my invites to apply for my role?
• Show me the interviews scheduled for this week.
• Show me the interview details for this candidate.

*Only available with Premium Sponsored Jobs or a Smart Sourcing subscription

Providing actionable next steps to candidates

Talent Scout can offer clear suggestions on what to do next at different stages of your hiring workflow. By providing next steps, Talent Scout can share clear suggestions to help move candidates through your hiring process, whether it’s reaching out, requesting more information or preparing for an interview.

Talent Scout offers a similar level of direction for improving job performance. The tool provides real-time insights to help you optimize your postings so you can take timely steps that may improve visibility and attract stronger applicants.

Save time with AI support

Billing and invoicing

Talent Scout can also help you save time by handling questions about billing and invoicing. Instead of searching through records, you can ask the tool for details about recent invoices to get quick answers when you need them.

For more clarity, consider asking Talent Scout:

• Tell me about my last invoice.
• What was the total due on my invoice?

Who is Indeed Talent Scout for?

Indeed Talent Scout can support employers with a wide range of hiring needs. If you want to make hires quickly without compromising quality, the tool can help you focus on candidates who match your requirements so you can quickly move forward with confidence.

When applicant volume is high, Talent Scout can help surface the strongest matches. When applicant volume is low, it can help you reach out to the right people and start meaningful conversations.

If you’re unsure how a job is performing compared to similar roles, Talent Scout can point you toward benchmarks so you know what to expect. It can also offer suggestions for refining a posting if you’re not attracting the candidates you need.

For teams trying to find quality candidates at scale, especially for hard-to-fill or specialized roles, Talent Scout provides support designed to help you adjust your approach and improve your hiring results.

Industry-specific applications

Talent Scout can adapt to different hiring needs by letting you refine match criteria as you learn more about a role. You can provide additional context, upload intake notes or sample resumes and give feedback on suggested matches so the tool understands what you’re looking for. As you continue to interact with Talent Scout, it learns from these adjustments to better reflect your hiring preferences over time.

This approach can be especially helpful when you have specialized hiring needs. For example:

• Healthcare organizations filling specialized positions
• Technology companies seeking skilled professionals
• Organizations looking to scale hiring rapidly and responsibly

How to use Indeed Talent Scout as an employer

You can begin using Talent Scout in just a few steps.

Step 1: Access Talent Scout

You can access Talent Scout in different ways depending on your current hiring setup and the tools your team uses.

• Through your ATS: If you use isolved Talent Acquisition (formerly ApplicantPro) or Workable, access Talent Scout directly within your ATS platform.
• Via Chrome extension: For Workday users, download the Chrome extension to use Talent Scout while working in your browser (coming soon).
• On Indeed: Use Talent Scout directly on Indeed.com for jobs posted directly on the platform.

Step 2: Start a conversation

When you open Talent Scout, you can type questions or descriptions the same way you would speak to a recruiter. For example, you might start by describing the role and the type of skills that matter most. As the conversation continues, you can explain your job requirements, must-have skills and any preferences that could help shape the search.

If you already have notes from a hiring manager or previous candidates, you can upload intake notes or sample resumes. This information helps Talent Scout understand the role more clearly and begin tailoring matches to what you’re looking for.

Step 3: Review candidates

Talent Scout offers several ways to help you review matches and decide where to focus.

• Review top applicants: You can review a list of top applicants that Talent Scout identifies based on your match criteria.
• Explore top matches: You can view prospective candidates from Indeed’s talent pool and invite them to apply*.
• Understand match summaries: Each profile includes an explanation of why a candidate may be a good fit for your role.
• Compare candidates: You can discover how candidates stack up against your job requirements to help you move forward with your review.

*Only available with Premium Sponsored Jobs or a Smart Sourcing subscription

Step 4: Refine your search

As you review suggested matches, you can respond with what worked and what didn’t. For example, you might note when a skill is missing or when a candidate looks especially promising. Based on what you see, you can adjust match criteria and clarify which qualifications matter most.

Over time, Talent Scout learns from your feedback and begins to reflect your preferences more accurately. You can refine job requirements or expand search parameters as your understanding of the role evolves, helping you stay aligned with your hiring goals as the conversation continues.

Step 5: Engage with candidates

Once you identify candidates you want to contact, you can ask Talent Scout to generate personalized messages to start the conversation. You can then edit the language to reflect your tone and add any details specific to the role or your organization. When you’re ready, you can send bulk invitations to apply so multiple candidates hear from you at once.*

If someone shows interest, you can follow up by scheduling interview invitations with available times listed. This helps you coordinate next steps efficiently.

*Only available with Premium Sponsored Jobs or a Smart Sourcing subscription

Step 6: Optimize your job posting

Talent Scout can offer job content optimization insights that highlight areas to adjust. For example, you might find suggestions for improving a job title or rewriting part of a description so it aligns more closely with what candidates are searching for.

You can also update salary ranges and benefits based on market data and apply competitive insights if similar roles are drawing more attention.

Step 7: Take action on insights

As information comes in, Talent Scout shows which steps you can take next. This includes providing direction on how to move people through your pipeline. This is coupled with suggested updates that support better job listing performance.

By checking hiring insights and market intelligence through Talent Scout, you can decide whether to refine targeting, adjust requirements or explore different outreach options based on real-time data.

Step 8: Iterate and improve

Over time, you can return to Talent Scout as roles shift or new priorities come up and continue the conversation. When a match looks helpful or doesn’t quite fit, you can give feedback so the tool understands your preferences more clearly.

You can also check performance metrics to review which approaches are working and where you might adjust. By revisiting these details regularly, you can keep your hiring approach aligned with current needs.

Key benefits of Indeed Talent Scout

By helping handle time-consuming tasks like finding candidates, matching and drafting outreach, Talent Scout frees up time so you can focus on interviewing and making hiring decisions. If you’re exploring tools that incorporate AI for recruiting, the following are a few ways Talent Scout can support your workflow.

1. Ask Talent Scout. Get quality matches instantly

You can start a conversation with Talent Scout and describe what you need in a candidate. From there, Talent Scout draws from millions of sourceable profiles to show people who may align with your role. You get a list of candidates who are the closest match to your job requirements who you can invite to apply*.

*Only available with Premium Sponsored Jobs or a Smart Sourcing subscription

2. Hiring intelligence that fits your workflow

You can access Talent Scout through Indeed or select ATS platforms. If you use isolved People Cloud, isolved Talent Acquisition (formerly ApplicantPro) or Workable, you can open Talent Scout directly within your platform. If you use Workday, you can access Talent Scout with a Google Chrome extension in your browser (coming soon).

3. Insights to win top talent

Talent Scout can help you understand how your job compares in the current market. You can look at job-specific insights on compensation, benefits and other details to understand what similar roles are offering. If a posting needs refinement, you can review job content optimization suggestions to make titles and descriptions more appealing to the candidates you want to reach.

You can also explore competitive insights to discover how other employers are hiring for similar roles or find patterns that may help you fill specialized or hard-to-fill roles with more confidence.

4. Scale hiring, not headcount

Talent Scout is built on 20 years of hiring data and insights to help assist your hiring efforts without increasing internal staffing.

Using this data and insights, Talent Scout can help you draft personalized outreach while you focus on interviewing and moving candidates forward. It supports time-consuming steps like finding candidates, matching and outreach so you can spend more of your attention on making hiring decisions.

Frequently asked questions about Indeed Talent Scout

Is Talent Scout available in my country?

Currently, Indeed Talent Scout is exclusively available for jobs and accounts in the United States. Indeed is working to expand services and will notify users when support for new countries is added.

How much does Talent Scout cost?

Talent Scout is available through Indeed and integrated ATS partners. Some features, like contacting prospects from Indeed’s talent pool, require a Smart Sourcing subscription or Premium Sponsored Jobs. Contact Indeed for specific pricing details.

What’s the difference between reviewing applicants and sourcing candidates?

Talent Scout can help employers review and organize your existing applicants who have already applied to your job. Employers can also use Talent Scout to search Indeed’s broader talent pool to find prospective candidates who match your criteria. With a Smart Sourcing subscription or Premium Sponsored Jobs you can invite them to apply.

Does Talent Scout make hiring decisions for me?

No. Talent Scout is designed to support and augment your expertise, not replace human judgment. It provides insights, surfaces matches and helps draft communications, but you remain in control of all hiring decisions.

Can Talent Scout help with job postings?

Yes. Talent Scout provides job content optimization insights, including suggestions for improving job titles, descriptions, salary ranges and benefits to attract the right candidates.

What kind of market insights does Talent Scout provide?

Powered by Indeed Hiring Insights, Talent Scout offers market intelligence including salary benchmarks, competitive insights, hiring trends from 24 million jobs on Indeed and actionable insights to help you stand out in the competition for talent.

Can Talent Scout send messages to candidates on my behalf?

Talent Scout generates personalized messages that you can edit and approve before sending. You control all communications, but Talent Scout handles the heavy lifting of drafting customized outreach.

Can I send messages to multiple candidates at once?

Yes, with a Professional Smart Sourcing plan, Talent Scout supports bulk messaging, allowing you to reach out to multiple quality candidates efficiently while maintaining personalization.

Is candidate information kept secure?

Yes. Indeed follows industry-standard security practices to protect candidate information. Talent Scout operates within Indeed’s secure platform and integrated ATS systems.