AI Recruiting Academy › Module 2: Finding candidates with AI
The short answer
Contact data enrichment means filling in the missing details on a person’s record, such as a work email, personal email, mobile number or current job, from outside data providers. You give the tool a name and company or a profile link, and it returns what its database holds, usually with a verification status.
Enrichment is how a shortlist becomes people you can actually reach. Two rules keep it safe: verify every email before you send, and know where the data came from, because in some places you must tell the person.
What does contact data enrichment add to a record?
| Field | Where it usually comes from | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | The company’s email pattern plus a check against its mail server | Goes dead the day the person leaves |
| Personal email | Databases that link profiles to addresses people used elsewhere | Harder to verify; some candidates dislike being contacted there |
| Mobile number | Data partners and phone number databases | Lowest accuracy and the most legal rules on use |
| Current title and company | Public profiles and company data | Can lag behind a job change by months |
| Company details | Company databases and websites | Headcount and funding can be out of date |
How does an email finder find an address?
For work emails, most finders do two things. First they work out the company’s pattern, such as firstname.lastname@company.com, from addresses they have already seen. Then they check the guessed address against the company’s mail server without sending an email, to see whether the mailbox exists.
That check does not always work. Some companies set their mail server to accept every address, so a real mailbox and a made up one look the same. Finders label these “accept all” or “catch all”, and they are the riskiest results to send to.
Personal emails work differently. They come from databases that have linked a profile to an address, so accuracy depends on how that data was gathered and how fresh it is. Our guides to work email finders and personal email finders compare the main tools.
What is waterfall enrichment?
No single provider has everyone. Waterfall enrichment asks several providers for the same detail one after another, stopping when one returns a result. Hunter describes it as asking multiple providers in turn until one of them has the data.
A waterfall reliably finds more addresses than any one provider alone. What it does not guarantee is accuracy. Later steps in the chain often return lower confidence guesses, and each step can cost credits. So a waterfall should end with verification, and you should know how you are charged when a lookup finds nothing.
Why does contact data go stale?
People change jobs, companies change domains and phone numbers get recycled. A work email that verified last year may bounce today. That matters for two reasons. You waste time on people you cannot reach, and every bounce tells inbox providers you are not managing your list, which hurts the delivery of every other message you send.
Treat enrichment as a snapshot. Recheck addresses that are more than a few months old before a campaign, and recheck everything before a large send. Lesson 5 explains how bounces affect your sender reputation.
What are the legal rules on enriched contact data?
This is a general overview, not legal advice, and Module 4 goes deeper. Three points catch recruiters most often.
Data about people in the EU and UK. When you hold personal data you did not collect from the person, Article 14 of the GDPR says you must tell them who you are, why you have their data and where it came from, at the latest when you first contact them. A short note in your first message covers most of this.
How the data was collected. Data scraped against a platform’s terms can create risk for the buyer as well as the seller. LinkedIn sued the provider Proxycurl in 2025, and the resolution the court entered required it to delete the LinkedIn data it had gathered.
Phone numbers. Calling and texting mobile numbers carries its own rules in many countries, including consent rules for automated texts in the US. Check them before you load numbers into a dialer or texting tool.
What should you ask a contact data vendor?
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Where does your data come from? | Tells you your legal exposure and likely accuracy |
| How often are records refreshed? | Older data means more bounces |
| Do you verify emails, and how do you label accept all domains? | Decides how much you can safely send |
| Am I charged when a lookup finds nothing, or only for verified results? | Changes your real cost per contact |
| How do people opt out of your database? | A vendor with no answer is a risk to you |
| Do you have an API or MCP server? | Lets AI tools enrich for you, as Lesson 5 of Module 1 explains |
How does AI change enrichment?
Enrichment used to be a button you clicked on one profile at a time. Now an AI assistant or sourcing agent can enrich a whole shortlist in one request, choose which provider to try, verify the results and add them to your CRM. Contact data tools are among the most connected in recruiting: in our MCP adoption count, 43 of 101 email finders ship their own MCP server.
That speed cuts both ways. An agent that enriches a thousand profiles overnight can use a month of credits and fill your CRM with unverified addresses. Set a credit limit, enrich only the people you plan to contact, and make verification part of the same step.
Quick answers
Is it legal to find someone’s personal email?
It depends on where the person lives, how the data was collected and how you use it. Using it for a relevant, one to one job conversation, with a clear way to opt out, is the lowest risk use. Buying lists of personal emails for mass sends is the highest.
What is a good email match rate?
It varies by role, country and company size. Test a vendor on a list of people whose emails you already know, and compare verified results, not total results.
Should I verify emails my ATS already has?
Yes, before any campaign to older records. Addresses in an ATS were valid when the person applied, which may be years ago.
Can ChatGPT find email addresses?
Not reliably. A chat assistant without a connected data tool will guess a pattern and may present the guess as fact. Use a finder and a verifier, or connect one to your assistant.