Kate Cracknell speaks to Textkernel’s CEO, Gerard Mulder about Bullhorn’s acquisition of Textkernel, and what this means for the future of the staffing and recruitment industry.
Gerard Mulder, CEO of Textkernel, has over 20 years IT executive experience and is a trail-blazer when it comes to everything AI. His strategic vision and ability to harness the power of AI have propelled Textkernel to the forefront of the recruitment software industry. Amsterdam-based, Textkernel is a global leader in providing cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology solutions to over 2,500 corporate, staffing, government, and HR tech organisations worldwide.
On the 18th of June 2024, Bullhorn, who provide cloud-based software to power the recruitment life cycle and have been at the forefront of the recruitment industry for over 20 years, acquired Textkernel to accelerate its AI strategy. Bullhorn is the industry leader in recruitment AI solutions and Textkernel powers eight of the top 10 staffing agencies worldwide and Fortune 500 companies, and so the acquisition led to being the perfect partnership. A longtime, trusted partner to the staffing and recruitment industry, Textkernel and Bullhorn share a crucial strategic goal: empowering recruiters to digitally transform their business for the future and maximise the use of AI in the industry. This acquisition accelerates their AI strategy and furthers their mission of powering organisations to put the world to work and offers exciting opportunities moving forward.
KC: Gerard, what is the background on the Bullhorn acquisition?
GM: “Well, Bullhorn has been a long-time customer and partner of Textkernel, so we know each other well. Bullhorn saw a lot of synergies between the two companies and the possibility to accelerate each other’s roadmap. Both companies have a very strong focus on developing AI-powered solutions. Textkernel primarily focuses on creating a deeper understanding of the data on people and jobs, and matching their potential. Like Bullhorn, we serve the staffing and recruitment industry, however, we provide solutions to corporates and HR Tech providers with OEM solutions (Original Equipment Manufacturers). We will continue to do that and because of the acquisition we can improve and develop these solutions faster.
So, it makes sense to combine the two companies. Bullhorn has a large amount of data stored, and by joining forces we will give meaning to that data and make it more valuable for our customers.”
KC What is the impact of the acquisition for both Bullhorn and Textkernel?
GM: “The combination of Textkernel and Bullhorn will substantially help organisations solve their talent-sourcing challenges and win new business. Bullhorn is fast-forwarding their roadmap on sourcing and matching. This aligns with the work we’ve been doing on parsing and skills intelligence which focuses on extracting data and as well as understanding the value of skills and the relationship between skills and professions. To put it more simply, we can predict what skills a person may have based on limited information and we can show how a person can develop to a new profession or what other jobs may be relevant or a person could be easily trained for based on skills, which is very relevant to staffing companies, but also to corporates for topics like talent management or internal mobility. Together with Textkernel, Bullhorn unlocks the next generation of sourcing.
But besides this, we’re collecting and adding a significant amount of jobs data, and optimising our Mid-Office and WhatsApp Recruiting solutions for the European market.”
KC It sounds like there is a wonderful synergy between Textkernel and Bullhorn, but do you foresee any immediate changes?
GM: “We are the largest acquisition that Bullhorn has done. So, we’re taking very good care before we take any action. We’re planning things very carefully and doing lots of research. We’re thinking about how both of these companies operate at their best and also, of course, we want to make sure that we serve our combined customer base well.”
KC: What are the long-term benefits of the acquisition for the staffing and recruitment industry as a whole?
GM: “There are a lot of benefits, as previously mentioned, being a part of Bullhorn is ‘data heaven’ for Textkernel. Primarily, what Textkernel has been doing is building AI-powered technology that is often difficult to build for companies that are not focused on this field or can’t build it.
If you look at it from a product perspective, this is one of the main reasons for Bullhorn wanting to acquire us. My question to Bullhorn, when they were in the race to acquire Textkernel, was exactly this: ‘How do you see this moving forward?’ What Bullhorn wants is to supply technology to the wider market and become a broader technology provider with a very strong focus on AI. This is our expertise, so this is the direction we’re taking it and how I think the wider industry will benefit.
Together, we can now do an even better job serving the market than before, because we have access to more data and we can test solutions for our customers much quicker, as we can gather insights fast with Bullhorn’s 10,000+ customers. The technology Textkernel has provided will become better and will speed up our development. And when you think about the combined R&D (Research and Development) spent by Textkernel and Bullhorn now working together, I don’t think there are many companies in our space that invest more and overall the industry will benefit enormously.”
KC: Do you envisage any challenges moving forward?
GM: “I’m a very positive person, and I don’t expect bigger obstacles, other than what we would face otherwise. On the one hand, these challenges are around market conditions, which I do believe will improve, but have been challenging for the staffing industry in the past years. This is slowing down the adoption of technology, because of budget constraints, whilst it is technology and data insights which can benefit the industry as a whole. On the other hand, with the rise of AI, we need to make sure that we continue to apply AI responsibly as we are in a people business. The rapid AI developments make this more difficult, but if anyone in this industry can, it is the combination of Bullhorn and Textkernel.”
KC: How do you foresee the recruitment industry evolving in the next five to 10 years and how will Bullhorn and Textkernel be a part of that evolution?
GM: “Honestly, I think a large part will be just doing what we’ve been doing already, with Textkernel and Bullhorn, and it’s about making the work for recruiters more interesting and more efficient. We will be eliminating manual and time-consuming admin tasks with AI and automation technologies so they can focus on the most important thing, which is the candidate and the customer.
Looking to the future, as we continue to improve these AI technologies in a broader sense of not just matching, but also things like conversational AI and predictive analytics. I think there are many opportunities for companies to apply technology and seize opportunities that they otherwise couldn’t have.
One question I often ask is: ‘Why don’t you place every candidate you source?’ Recruitment and staffing companies know what these candidates want and know what they can do, but typically only place a fraction of the candidates they source. Technology and data insights could help place many more of them and by doing so can lower the costs and make the world of work more efficient whilst improving people’s careers. In the end, that’s what our technology will do, and it’s very necessary to help solve the skills gap in the world. Because even in economically challenging times, there still is a scarcity of candidates and a skills mismatch in the job market. Staffing and recruitment companies play an important role in finding the right people for the right jobs and could also be offering more opportunities for training and development. So, with the right technology, staffing companies can become even more important in the labour market, deepen their relationship with customers and candidates and broaden their talent pools.”
