A lot of small businesses here aren't advertising positions openly because the volume of application is far too high to sort through. The problem with the AI support is that people can apply to much more with less effort, and they are.
But as you say, it is about the right person for the role, and that requires meeting the people and getting a feel for them. The challenge is (for many positions) is that they are not meeting the right people for the role, they are getting the best applications.
Absolutely. We didn't post anything on Facebook, just hung a few flyers at strategic places that are frequented by our target-workers, and asked some people to let us know if someone was looking. It's basically the same as marketing - you don't want a lot of requests without intent to buy, but get to the right people.