Recruitment has long been a market ripe for
revolution, as any hiring manager knows only too well. Already struggling to
identify real quality amid a deluge of data, AI has now turbocharged the
challenges: applications per vacancy have surged 239% since ChatGPT launched in
2022, according to software firm Greenhouse, and technology can only partially
solve the problem, while creating entire new ones around bias and candidate
experience.
Online job giant Indeed believes it can drag the market towards a better future, and ride out a volatile economic outlook some commentators fear could turn into an industry-wide crisis. But AI is, in the overarching vision of CMO James Whitemore, “a catalyst, not the compass”, a tool to unite the business behind key outcomes—candidates getting the right jobs and employers finding the right people—rather than focusing simply on brand awareness or top of funnel.
“Operating a two-sided marketplace changes how we plan and execute,” says
Whitemore, who joined the business in June 2025. “Brand, performance, product
and sales can’t operate as separate motions. Brand builds trust and intent,
performance captures demand, and product experiences convert that intent into
hiring outcomes. Our role in marketing is to shorten the distance from
discovery to hire.”
Indeed is synonymous with online recruitment,
but in fact remains a relative insurgent. Founded in 2004 as a deliberately
lean start-up, it grew under the radar to vanquish rivals such as Monster.com
and achieve huge scale. In 2012, it was taken over by Recruit, a Japanese
multinational that had its roots in print recruitment ads and wanted a digital
pivot (it later purchased Glassdoor). Today, Indeed, which Recruit says
operates autonomously, has an 11,000-strong workforce and a presence in 60
countries, claiming to find 27 people new jobs every minute through its pile-’em-high
approach to job boards.
Its marketing strategy has matured
significantly over its history. Initially transactional, since around 2019 the
business has placed greater emphasis on brand (unsurprisingly, given it is in a
search-based market where differentiation is tricky) and also made a determined
investment in the Indeed Hiring Lab, a source of PR material and content
marketing on the global job market which utilises the firm’s “key
differentiator”, millions of data points on job outcomes and hiring needs.
'Every dollar supports stronger matches across the marketplace'
Tapping Whitemore for the top job was an
instructive move in that context. The Brit began his marketing career at IBM in
London more than 30 years ago before joining an early wave of marketers to
cross the Atlantic for the burgeoning US tech industry, holding multiple roles
at SaaS, storage and telecoms firms, most recently cloud business Celigo. He
joined Indeed the same month as Hisayuki Idekoba returned as CEO after six
years in a board role.
One of Whitemore’s first tasks was to launch a
US campaign featuring LeBron James, one of a range of recent TV slots that have
emphasised narrative over brand values. “We’re leaning into product-led
storytelling that demonstrates real outcomes, investing in education-driven
content that helps people make better decisions, and thinking in terms of
lifecycle engagement rather than one-off campaigns,” he says. “We’ve also
rebalanced spend toward channels and experiences that drive measurable
connection and long-term engagement, ensuring every dollar supports stronger
matches across the marketplace.
“Over the past year, we’ve shifted more
investment and storytelling toward moments where intent is highest—owned
experiences, high-trust partners, and performance channels—while building
tighter bridges between brand and demand so discovery turns into action
faster.”
In APAC specifically, where jobseekers are
“highly mobile and digital-first”, that means a focus on localisation, new
partnerships and “creating experiences that feel relevant to the realities of
work” (interestingly, Indeed recently claimed one in six new job postings in
Singapore referenced AI tools, the highest proportion in any of its markets,
making the country a testbed for changing recruitment priorities).But AI is also shifting internal marketing
workflows, “clearing out a lot of the busywork” to focus on creative and
strategic thinking. “We’re using AI to sharpen audience segmentation,
accelerate creative testing, personalise experiences and enable skills-first
matching so the right opportunity reaches the right person at the right moment.
But the point isn’t to make everything hyper-efficient just for the sake of it.
It’s to make the work more meaningful.”
AI should create meaningful connections, not just surface job listings
Indeed is keen not to be a me-too in the AI race and Whitemore says it isn’t “reacting to AI as a trend”.
It’s been using the technology in products for 20 years, he adds, and now has more than 100 AI features embedded, mostly focused on jobseeker-facing prep tools and admin reduction for hiring managers. It says its Interview ‘On Demand’ function, aimed at connecting particularly strong candidates with keen employers, arranges a conversation on average 28 minutes after an application has been sent.
Whitemore’s pitch is to keep humans at the
heart of the process. “AI should create meaningful connections, not just
surface job listings. By understanding skills more deeply, spotting natural
career pathways, and highlighting the strongest fits, we’re improving match
quality across the labour market and helping both sides move with clarity and
efficiency.”
At an economy-wide level, Indeed has said it
doesn’t expect many roles to be fully “revolutionised” by AI and has previously
claimed pandemic over-hiring is a bigger factor than technology in mass
lay-offs (though it hasn’t been immune itself, making 1,600 global redundancies
last year, the third successive year of four-figure culls).
“Across APAC,” says Whitemore, “hiring is
becoming more focused on specific, high-impact skills. Employees aren’t making
large cuts, but they’re not hiring at scale either, which makes the market feel
stable overall while being harder for people trying to move into new roles.
This is a moment to align hiring and upskills with the skills that matter most,
and to be clearer about the roles you truly need.”
For Indeed, the next step appears to be
alignment with OpenAI. The business in February announced a partnership to
allow users (initially in the US only) to launch a job search from a ChatGPT
prompt and connect their Indeed profile to the app to make personalised
recommendations.
While Whitemore won’t be drawn on how
significant a move that could become, it seems a prudent one. Indeed, like all
intermediaries, risks disintermediate when agentic AI allows users to set
virtual job-seeking hares running without being confined to an individual
platform or channel. The risk here isn’t immediately obvious: with 300 million
users each month, Indeed has grown at a consistently impressive rate and saw
third-quarter 2025 revenues up 5.2% year on year, while pencilling in a more
modest uplift for the full year. But its fortunes are inextricably linked to
the hiring slowdown in the wider economy, which is only just getting started,
according to most forecasts, and a profound shift in agency spend towards
direct channels rather than job aggregators.
Its shares have been under pressure. And
that’s without mentioning the L word: LinkedIn was late to the jobs party but
has now overtaken Indeed by revenue if not by active jobseekers, thanks to its
inbuilt captive audience and network effect. It’s prompting Indeed to emphasise
revenue from paid services over the quantity of roles. “We’re focusing less on
volume alone and more on relevance, ensuring candidates discover roles aligned
with their skills,” says Whitemore. “Simultaneously, we are helping employers
connect with talent that is more likely to be a good match.”
To make matters more complicated, the LinkedIn CMO Whitemore is head-to-head with is his own predecessor, Jessica Jensen. But he clearly believes his holistic vision of Indeed’s marketing is ready for a rapidly changing world.
“Jobseekers want clarity, transparency, and personalised guidance as they navigate their careers. Employers are under pressure to hire efficiently, strengthen their employer brand and compete for high-quality talent. Marketing has to do more than generate awareness; it has to create understanding and trust.”
Source: Campaign Asia-Pacific
