The best businesses to buy & automate with AI (Part 3)

This email is Part 3 of a short series covering the best businesses you can buy and scale by automating with AI.

You can read the previous parts here:

• Part 1

• Part 2

Last week, I shared why accounting firms and digital marketing agencies are great businesses to buy that can be heavily automated with AI.

Today, I’m sharing the 3rd big opportunity:

Staffing Agencies

Even in 2025, most staffing agencies are painfully inefficient.

Recruiters spend hours sifting through résumés, playing phone tag with candidates, and trying to match the right person to the right job.

Staffing agencies also handle massive volumes of data and repetitive tasks.

And you know what excels at that kind of work?

AI.

Here’s why staffing agencies are another great bet for businesses you can automate 👇

Recession-resistant: Even during downturns, companies still need to hire.

High-volume business: Staffing agencies deal with thousands of résumés and hundreds of placements - perfect work for AI to take over.

Great multiples: These businesses typically sell between 3-4x cash flow.

Scalable across industries: Once you nail the process, you can expand into different sectors without starting from scratch.

Most staffing agencies are drowning in manual processes that eat up their recruiters' time.

This is where you can step in and revolutionize their operations.

The staffing agency AI playbook

1. Automate résumé screening

AI can analyze thousands of résumés in seconds, matching candidates to job requirements with incredible accuracy.

This means you can screen 100X more résumés in the same time it would take a human to review them manually.

You'll identify qualified candidates faster and eliminate human bias from the screening process.

2. Implement predictive matching

Advanced AI can actually predict which candidates will be most successful in specific roles based on historical placement data.

This dramatically improves your placement success rates, reduces client turnover, and creates a huge competitive advantage.

When you can consistently deliver better hires than your competitors, clients will pay premium rates for your services.

3. Automate candidate outreach

AI can handle initial communication with candidates, schedule interviews, and manage follow-ups without any human intervention.

You can contact way more candidates faster, maintain consistent communication, and free up your recruiters to focus on relationship-building and closing deals.

Additionally…

I've seen private equity companies pay massive multiples for staffing agencies they could modernize with technology.

You can do the same thing on a smaller scale with much better returns.

While traditional staffing agencies are stuck manually processing everything, you'll be running a systematized operation that can handle 10X the volume with the same team…

Leading to faster placements, better matches, happier clients, and higher margins.

We’re just getting started…

On Thursday, I’ll send you the fourth business model where AI can create massive competitive advantages for early adopters.

Until then…

I occasionally come across valuable deals and investment opportunities and share them with subscribers.

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Onward,

— Ben Kelly