In light of recent technological developments, millions of people got a chance to personally test all the charms of using AI. With the ChatGPT AI tool, for instance, representatives of various professions like teachers, designers, copywriters, marketers and many more have made their working lives easier and more efficient. Recruiters and HR professionals are also among those professions and enjoy the remarkable transformations AI has brought about in its field. Due to AI-driven technology and different recruitment tools, the hiring process is getting more personalized, less money and time-consuming, and more effective in handling repetitive tasks and high-volume operations.
If AI is so smart and productive, why do we still need recruiters and HR managers in the hiring process? In our article, you’ll learn more about how AI-based tools can upgrade the recruitment process, what both hiring managers and candidates may be expecting from the deep implementation of AI-driven technology shortly, and why AI isn’t able to completely push a human out of the game called talent acquisition process. So let’s delve into details and find out how to use artificial intelligence in recruitment for your own business.
Table of Contents
AI has been developed to endow machines with the ability to perform certain tasks so that some functions and working processes can be automated. For example, it may be challenging and time-consuming for some people to complete tasks requiring processing and analyzing vast volumes of data. Even if they are doing their best and paying 100% attention to a task, people are prone to making mistakes due to human factors. Too much stress, overloads, health issues, or anxiety may often lead our brain astray and, therefore, lose concentration when needed most. AI-powered recruiting software, in its turn, eliminates the likelihood of error occurrence, which means providing better results for a shorter period.
So no, AI in recruitment isn’t a pipe dream but a real workable tool to make an astonishing leap in the recruitment process advancement. Processing significant volumes of data is an integral part of searching for top talent. AI recruiting tools like ATS (applicant tracking system) already simplify the process of relevant resume selection. They screen resumes and pick those that coincide with the position’s requirements. Another AI recruiting software is on its way too. Very soon, we’ll witness how it transforms from a novelty to a traditional tool in the recruiting workflow.
It’s as clear as day that integrating AI-powered technology in recruiting processes has many advantages; moreover, they substantially prevail over the disadvantages. However, we’ll stay objective and look at all the ins and outs of using machine intelligence for recruitment. So, find out how exactly applying AI can play into recruiting teams’ hands.
We have already mentioned that recruiters frequently deal with repetitive and monotonous tasks; in other words, they handle mountains of mechanical work. Apparently, properly inputting information into the database makes a big difference for any company. According to Gartner research, many organizations blame poor data quality for losing about $15 million per year. IBM, in its turn, has concluded that businesses lose about $3.1 trillion annually for the same reason. These numbers don’t look like a joke anymore, do they?
But besides dealing with data input, AI-powered software could successfully complete other time-consuming tasks recruiters face regularly. Here they are:
Specially trained bots will carry out physical interviews, thus saving recruiters’ time and providing equal interview experiences to all candidates. It means the possibility of human biases, including unconscious bias, will be reduced to zero. Human bias is an exceptionally human steak and alien to a machine. So, by using natural language, AI recruiting software will be able to skim candidates’ soft skills and personality traits, thus forming a conclusion regarding their suitability.
All talent acquisition professionals know that concentrating on teams and contributing to their improvement is more effective for overall performance than constantly looking for and hiring new people. With the help of modern AI tools, recruiters can get a deeper analysis of their teams’ characters and trace what elements are missing to achieve better performance rates.
The job market resembles a melting pot nowadays. There are so many talents and job opportunities on the table that a human brain cannot sometimes fully embrace this information, and people lose opportunities. That’s why companies are eager to create a unique candidate pool that will mitigate the time and effort spent sourcing and screening potential candidates. And if we go further, recruiters and companies can cooperate by using AI systems that will automatically reroute candidates from one location to another where their skills are more relevant and needed. It’s a win-win scenario for all the parties: recruiters, candidates, and employers.
Integrating a new employee into the company’s organizational structure is another full-fledged stage of the hiring process. However, onboarding is often standardized as it implies providing the same information about the company. With the help of AI tools like conversational chatbots, companies may offer a 24/7 onboarding service so that new hires can get a response as promptly as possible and as many times as needed without distracting others from their duties.
When trying to hunt the best-qualified candidates, it’s a good idea to think outside the box about engaging with potential but passive candidates too. Here come AI-powered candidate relationship management systems! Such systems can trace when candidates engage with your communications, thus signaling you about the opportune moment to start a discreet chat with them. With the help of such AI-powered insights, recruiters can reduce time-to-hire and cost-per-hire due to interacting with more engaged and interested talents.
Since we’re right in the middle of the AI gold rush, AI in recruiting has also gained its piece of the pie. We’re incredibly excited about the future of AI, but how did it all start? Let’s go some decades back and see how the development of AI tools was unfolding.
The appearance of the first AI recruiting tool on the recruitment stage can hardly be viewed as a success. The innovation belonged to Amazon and was infamously presented in 2014. As one of the main achievements of AI software is an unbiased approach, Amazon was the one who demonstrated the complete opposite. To teach AI, the company used data containing their previous hiring approaches. Unfortunately, their techniques included bias against women, and AI successfully picked them up. The company, of course, called the program off; however, it had already planted a seed of doubt and mistrust of AI recruiting tools.
The next milestone in the AI development history is represented by introducing the keywords approach to screen CVs. It was supposed to be an ideal technique, and it really was for some time until people learned how to trick intelligent software. They put the relevant keywords everywhere if only to make AI notice and pick them. Eventually, recruiters started getting CVs, not regarding their genuine relevance to the position but based on how many relevant keywords the author had added, even without possessing those competencies in reality. The technology required improvement again. Due to implementing ranked retrieval systems later on, AI learned to rank the results based on the context and number of times keywords appear in a document. This approach meant more reasonable search results.
Despite the multiple advantages, AI recruiting tools still have some dark sides to get fine-tuned. For instance, to what extent are people ready to interact with robots at some stages of the interview process? Reading about such cutting-edge technology may be thrilling, but how does it feel when dealing with it face-to-face and acting sincerely with somebody who is literally unreal?
Another concern may be connected with data insufficiency. AI needs to process vast volumes of data to perform on par with human intelligence. The process is called machine learning. If talking about recruitment, we have to provide thousands of CVs to train AI to assess candidates and their resumes as accurately as a human recruiter does it. Furthermore, the variety of synonyms and similar formulations are crucial. It enables the system to pay attention to the right candidate who just described their expertise with a slightly different vocabulary.
Finally, we should remember that even being intelligent, AI is still created by a human and dependent on a human. The wrong approach or malicious intentions can lead to a bad outcome, like adopting some patterns of discriminatory behavior. Beware of any bias existing in your hiring procedure, including a candidate’s age or gender, so that your AI software doesn’t pick them up. Your AI vendor has to assure you that their AI is consistently checked for potential bias manifestations, like hiring graduates only or unmarried females.
We’re only witnessing the rise of AI technology in recruitment. Even though the software is impressively smart and helpful, the best versions are yet to come. So, what changes and trends should we anticipate regarding AI recruitment tools in 2023?
The leading benefit employers and job seekers will receive thanks to AI tools is efficiency. Nobody is interested in lengthy procedures and weeks of the interview process. The more time AI will be able to save, the more demanded and needed it will become. Employers will create a diverse and reliable talent pool by properly organizing data and eliminating mistakes. In contrast, all candidates, passive or active, will become more visible to the recruiting teams. And if somebody still wonders if AI can steal jobs from recruiters, the answer is NO. At this point, AI aims to become a helpful and effective assistant, not a player.
As we can see, AI recruiting tools have just started paving the way in the talent acquisition process. Despite being intelligent, the software performance depends on a human and the data we feed. Therefore, it’s crucial to be cautious and highly responsible when dealing with machine learning, as we’re still the ones who will be handling the consequences. Instead, when managing properly, AI-powered technology can substantially make both recruiters’ and job seekers’ lives easier and more convenient.
