Does your head feel like it’s about to explode 🤯 when you think about how much your TA team structure might need to change? You’re not alone. The shift to AI isn’t just about learning a new tool—it’s about rethinking roles, redesigning workflows, and making decisions that reshape the entire department.

When new recruiting technology was introduced in the past—ATSs, job boards, LinkedIn Recruiter—leaders could buy the tool, train their teams, and carry on. Workflows stayed the same; the tool just made them faster. LLM era AI solutions being evaluated today are different. They don't speed up tasks—they remove them.

That means leaders can’t simply hand licenses to recruiters and expect results. Instead, they must rethink structure, roles, and workflows from the ground up. The best way to begin is through a mapping exercise.

Here’s how to lead your team through a “Current State → Future State” workflow redesign, in the same way a management consultant would structure the work.

Step 1: Frame the Exercise

Before you dive into sticky notes and process charts, set the context. Why: AI interviewing isn’t additive—it’s transformative. If we don’t rethink workflows, we’ll waste money and frustrate people. What: We’re going to map every task today, decide what stays human vs. what moves to AI, and build a new structure around that. How: We’ll use a structured, collaborative exercise. Everyone in TA should see their fingerprints on the future model.

Step 2: Capture the Current State (Today’s Reality)

List every task. Don’t skip small steps—include all the clicks, emails, calendar wrangling, resume reviews, phone screens, and follow-ups. Assign ownership. Write down who owns each task today: TA Pro, coordinator, hiring manager, or other. Sequence the flow. Put tasks in order from sourcing → outreach → screening → scheduling → interviewing → decision. Surface pain points. Mark tasks that are repetitive, inconsistent, or frustrating (“chasing feedback,” “double-booking,” “re-explaining details”). Consultant tip: This part works best with sticky notes on a wall or digital boards like Miro/MURAL. Each task is a card, and the flow becomes visible to everyone.

Step 3: Identify What AI Can Remove or Transform

Now, draw a line between human-value tasks and automation-ready tasks. Ask: Does this require human judgment, persuasion, or relationship-building? (Keep with humans.) Is this repetitive, rules-driven, or consistency-dependent? (Move to AI.) Examples: AI takes first-round interviews, structured note-taking, reminders, scheduling, compliance logging. Humans keep intake alignment, selling the opportunity, personalization, closing candidates, final decision-making.

• Consultant tip: Force a binary choice. If you hedge (“AI could help a little”), you’ll end up layering tools instead of rethinking workflows.

Step 4: Design the Future State

Rebuild the flow. Start from candidate application and walk step by step through how the new system works with AI in the loop. Redefine roles. Ask: What does the TA Pro now spend most of their day doing? What does the hiring manager touch (and not touch)? Do we still need coordinators in the same way? Highlight value shift. Make it clear that TA Pros move from “clicking and scheduling” to “advising and closing.”

• Consultant tip: Create two side-by-side visuals: “Today’s Process” vs. “Future State with AI.” The contrast itself creates the case for change.

Step 5: Stress-Test the Model

Run scenarios. How does this model work for high-volume hiring? For executive searches? For global teams in different time zones? Check compliance. Ensure you can explain to auditors or regulators who asked what, when, and why. Get feedback. Share the draft future state with hiring managers and candidates to pressure-test the experience.

Step 6: Communicate and Redesign Roles

This is the part most leaders skip—but it’s where the change sticks.

Update job descriptions. Remove outdated tasks from TA roles. Add new strategic ones. Set new metrics. Move from measuring “calls made” or “resumes reviewed” to “pipeline health,” “time in funnel,” “candidate NPS,” and “closing ratio.” Invest in training. Help TA Pros become trusted advisors, not process operators.

Conclusion

AI interviewing requires leaders to think like consultants. You don’t just implement a tool—you deconstruct workflows, reassign work, and redesign the structure of your team.

The payoff is huge: TA Pros doing higher-value work, hiring managers spending time only with vetted candidates, and candidates enjoying a fairer, faster experience. Your job as a leader is to help your team see this transformation clearly. Mapping “Current State → Future State” is the bridge between understanding the potential of AI in talent acquisition and actually capturing its value.