> This is the markdown version of https://www.classet.ai/blog/ai-recruiting-roi > Learn more at https://www.classet.ai ![Low-poly balance scale with a small stack of blocks on one side and a taller stack on the other](/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fblog%2Fai-recruiting-roi.png&w=3840&q=75) # Recruiting ROI: The AI Screening Business Case Your CFO Will Sign A copy-and-paste business case for AI screening in hourly and skilled trades hiring. Lead with vacancy cost and lost candidates, put recruiter hours second, and run a 30-day pilot that proves it. [![Paul Jones](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.basehub.com%2Fe0b5701f%2F6599306507912123f90f150a8bfaaf6c%2Fscreenshot-2026-01-28-at-10.53.16-am.png%3Fwidth%3D100%26height%3D100%26quality%3D100&w=96&q=75) Paul JonesHead of Growth at Classet ](/blog/authors/paul-jones) September 21, 2026 AI Recruiting, Guides & Insights You've shortlisted the AI screening vendors, and now the CFO wants a number. Most TA leaders open that memo with recruiter hours saved, the one line a CFO will cross out, because nobody's salary goes away when phone screens move to software. Open instead with money the business already loses: seats sitting empty while applicants wait for a callback, and applicants who take another job before anyone calls. **Quick answer:** To prove recruiting ROI on an AI screening platform, build the case on five lines: vacancy days recovered, applicants no longer lost to slow response, agency spend avoided, recruiter hours recovered, and platform cost. Lead with the three cash lines and label recruiter hours as capacity, since a CFO won't count them unless a cost goes away. Then run a 30-day pilot against a pre-launch baseline so the memo reports your own numbers. ## Why do CFOs discount "hours saved"? A CFO discounts "hours saved" because hours saved don't cut an expense. Suppose your recruiters spend 125 fewer hours a month on phone screens. Payroll stays the same, so the CFO reads the line as a soft benefit and values it at zero. The ROI lines a CFO accepts are the ones that change revenue or remove a bill: output lost while a frontline seat sits empty, applicants you paid to attract and then lost to a competitor who called first, and agency premiums you pay to cover the gap. SHRM's [2025 Benchmarking Report](https://www.shrm.org/about/press-room/shrm-releases-2025-benchmarking-reports--how-does-your-organizat) puts the average nonexecutive cost per hire at $5,475, and it found that screening and interviewing each take 8 to 9 days on average. The screening stage is where AI takes days out, and your vacancy cost adds up on each of those days. Recruiter hours still belong in the memo, lower down and labeled as capacity. ## What goes in an AI recruiting ROI business case? An AI recruiting ROI business case has five lines, and each needs a formula your finance team can check. Use your own inputs. The numbers below are an example for a 30-location employer hiring about 40 hourly workers a month, not Classet customer results. Line Formula Example inputs Monthly 1\. Vacancy days recovered hires/month × days cut × daily value per seat 40 × 5 days × $66 $13,200 2\. Agency spend avoided temp hours avoided × (agency bill rate − your loaded wage) 2 seats × 160 hrs × $8 $2,560 3\. Applicants not lost to slow response job ad spend × % fewer applicants needed per hire $6,000 × 15% $900 4\. Recruiter hours (capacity) applicants × minutes saved ÷ 60 × loaded hourly rate 300 × 25 min × $52/hr $6,500 5\. Platform cost your quote ATS-integrated from $1,995 −$1,995 The $66 per seat-day is the warehouse default in our [cost of vacancy calculator](/blog/cost-of-vacancy-calculator), which builds daily value from margin instead of revenue per employee. Plug in your own role there. The $52 recruiter rate comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: the [May 2025 OEWS median](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes131071.htm) for human resources specialists (the category that includes recruiters) is $36.51 an hour. BLS [employer compensation data](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm) shows wages make up 70.0% of private-industry compensation, and $36.51 ÷ 0.70 comes to about $52 loaded. ## How much does slow response cost you in candidates? Slow response costs you a large share of the applicants you already paid for. In Classet's data, hires drop 50 to 70% for every day an employer waits to respond, and 64% of candidates apply after hours, when no recruiter is at a desk. An hourly applicant who applies at 9 PM on a Tuesday and hears back Thursday afternoon has had two days to say yes to someone else. Fewer lost applicants means you need fewer applicants per hire, and the CFO sees that in your job ad spend. Take the 15% in the example as a placeholder, not a promise. Replace it with a real figure from your pilot: how many applicants you needed per hire before and after launch. Goodsmith's co-founder described the effect of response speed this way: > "If we engage quickly, 96% show up for interviews." — Erich Kleine, Goodsmith ## Where does agency and temp spend fit? Agency and temp spend is the easiest line for a CFO to verify, because it already arrives as an invoice. If you cover open hourly shifts with agency temps while your own reqs sit open, each week you take off time-to-fill is a week you stop paying the agency premium on that seat. Skip national markup benchmarks here, since published ranges swing widely by role and region. Pull the last three months of agency invoices and subtract what the same hour costs when your own employee works it. That gap, times the temp hours you expect to avoid, is line 2. If you don't use agencies, drop the line. ## What does the platform actually cost? Classet publishes its [pricing](/pricing), so line 5 doesn't need a sales call to estimate: - Starter costs $249 a month billed annually ($349 month-to-month) and includes 50 completed interviews, with $5 per interview after that. - Scale costs $999 a month billed annually ($1,399 month-to-month) and includes 250 completed interviews, with $4 per interview after that. At 300 completed interviews a month, Scale runs $1,199. - ATS-integrated plans start at $1,995 a month, scoped to your volume and ATS in a discovery call. Your first 20 completed interviews are free. The example uses the $1,995 starting price because a 30-location employer usually wants results written back to its ATS. At that price, the three cash lines still total $16,660 a month, more than eight times the cost, before the memo counts a single recruiter hour. ## What should you not claim to a CFO? Leave these out of the memo, because each one gives finance a reason to throw out the whole case: - **Stacked costs.** Vacancy cost, cost per hire, and turnover cost overlap. Adding them together double-counts. - **Lines that don't move.** Background checks, drug screens, and ATS licenses cost the same after launch. Our breakdown of [where AI screening cuts recruiting costs](/blog/ai-screening-recruiting-costs) lists the lines that stay flat. - **Turnover savings at day 30.** Early turnover takes two quarters to read reliably. - **Revenue per employee as daily value.** It assumes a new warehouse hire produces what your top salesperson does. ## How do you run a 30-day pilot that produces the numbers? A 30-day pilot proves AI recruiting ROI when you capture a baseline before launch and compare the same metrics after. Pick one or two high-volume roles at a few locations, and pull these numbers for the 60 days before you start: 1. Median hours from application to first contact 2. Applicants per hire 3. Days-to-fill, from application to accepted offer 4. Interview show rate 5. Recruiter hours per week on first-round screens, logged for two weeks rather than estimated 6. Agency temp hours billed on those roles Then launch. Joy, Classet's AI phone interviewer, calls applicants within minutes of applying, 24/7, asks your must-have questions, and leaves a summary, recording, and transcript for your team. Your recruiters decide who moves forward. At day 30, rerun the same six numbers and swap them into the five-line table. The ATS-integrated version typically takes two to three weeks to set up, so start the clock at go-live, not at signature. Oil Stop & Happy's Car Wash hires across 30 locations. Here's how Ben Enns, their Head of People, described the capacity line: ![Happy's Car Wash logo](/_next/image?url=%2Fcustomer-logos%2Fhappys-car-wash.png&w=256&q=75)retail > Classet returned at least 60% of my week. Before, I was spending nights and weekends reviewing applications — now I get to focus on the people who matter. ![Ben Enns](/_next/image?url=%2Fcustomer-logos%2Favatars%2Fben-enns.png&w=96&q=75) Ben Enns Head of People at Happy's Car Wash The [full case study](/blog/case-study-oil-stop-and-happys-car-wash) covers what they did with that time, including a 99% fill rate. ## Frequently Asked Questions How do I prove ROI on an AI recruiting platform to my CFO? Build a five-line case: vacancy days recovered, applicants no longer lost to slow response, agency spend avoided, recruiter hours recovered, and platform cost. Lead with the three cash lines, label recruiter hours as capacity, and show every formula with your own inputs. Then run a 30-day pilot on one or two roles against a 60-day baseline so the memo reports measured results instead of vendor averages. What's the ROI of using AI to screen hourly applicants versus doing it manually? Manual screening of hourly applicants costs about 30 minutes of recruiter time per applicant once you count voicemails and callbacks. Reviewing a completed AI phone screen takes about five. At a $52 loaded recruiter rate, 300 applicants a month is roughly $6,500 in recovered capacity, against a platform cost of $1,199 on Classet's Scale plan at that volume. The bigger return comes from speed, because Classet's data shows hires drop 50 to 70% for every day an employer waits to respond. What is the cost of manual candidate screening? Manual candidate screening costs recruiter time plus the applicants lost while they wait for a callback. At the BLS median wage for HR specialists, about $52 an hour loaded, 30 minutes per applicant comes to about $26 in labor each. The lost applicants cost more, because you paid to attract them and the seat stays empty. How does AI screening cost compare to a recruiter? Classet's Scale plan costs $999 a month billed annually for 250 completed interviews. Screening 250 applicants by hand at 30 minutes each takes 125 recruiter hours, about $6,500 at a $52 loaded rate. The recruiter stays; AI screening takes the first-round calls so they can spend the time on interviews, offers, and hiring managers. ## Key Points - CFOs value "hours saved" at zero unless a cost goes away, so lead with vacancy days, lost applicants, and agency spend. - Show every line as a formula with labeled inputs, using margin-based daily value per seat. - A loaded recruiter hour costs about $52, based on BLS wage and compensation data. - Capture six baseline metrics before a 30-day pilot and rerun them at day 30. ## Next Steps If you want pilot numbers for your own roles, [book a demo](/demo). We'll set Joy up on one of your open roles, you'll hear the calls, and we'll help you capture the baseline so your day-30 memo runs on your data. [![Paul Jones](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.basehub.com%2Fe0b5701f%2F6599306507912123f90f150a8bfaaf6c%2Fscreenshot-2026-01-28-at-10.53.16-am.png%3Fwidth%3D100%26height%3D100%26quality%3D100&w=128&q=75) Paul Jones Head of Growth at Classet Paul comes from an operator background running an Alpine-owned company, and brings firsthand experience with the hiring challenges Classet was built to solve. He's driven by a belief that the right technology can make meaningful work more accessible. ](/blog/authors/paul-jones) Follow Classet in Google Add classet.ai as a preferred source and our hiring research is more likely to show up in your Top Stories and AI Overviews. 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