How AI is changing recruitment

It’s hard to have a conversation these days without AI being mentioned. Its impact is being felt by every industry, including recruitment. From automations to data processing to job matching, AI is slowly being built into every function and in 10years’ time, the industry will look unrecognisable to today.

Like all major changes, there are advantages and disadvantages.

For firms looking to invest in their AI technology, it’s key to look at both sides and make a judgement call before embracing AI wholeheartedly. That’s because the heart of recruitment is people, and however we build our tech stack we need to ensure people, and the human touch, is still felt by clients and candidates.

AI isn’t new to recruitment

Nowhere is the impact of technology more apparent than in recruitment.

Gone are the days of ‘bashing the phones’, call targets and spamming CVs. Instead, over the last 25 years AI has slowly worked its way into recruiters’ daily lives.

In fact, around 65% of recruiters are already using AI in some form in their recruitment process.

It might feel like AI is a new technology but it’s existed in the recruitment industry since the early 2000s with applicant tracking systems and keyword-based CV screening. That then turned into candidate ranking, more sophisticated searches which could understand context, skills and experience level. Over the years, technology has developed and become more accurate, fuelling its use in the industry.

That brings us to today. AI’s evolution has sped up, new developments are happening, what feels like every day, and that naturally will change recruitment. That can feel like a daunting development, but only if we let the tech take over.

AI has the power to streamline work, to maximise our time and to make our lives easier because it’s clear that AI is here to stay and those that don’t keep up, will fall to the wayside.

​What are the benefits of AI in recruitment?

The benefits of using AI in recruitment are seemingly endless, depending on who you listen to.

Let’s look at some statistics to see how AI can benefit recruitment firms:

• Increasing recruiter efficiency by up to three times

• 89% of recruiters say that AI decreases their average time to hire

By automating or streamlining processes, recruiters are able to focus on the relationship side of their role and the strategic side rather than trawling databases, uploading information and reading endless CVs.

Potential pitfalls of AI in recruitment

There’s a saying that if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

On the surface AI seems like a brilliant tool which can do a recruiter’s job effortlessly. It’s still a developing technology, and the increase in its use in the workplace will have drawbacks, whether we’re aware of them yet or not.

The biggest pitfall that comes with the use of AI in recruitment is losing the nuances of human communication.
Recruitment is all about people and relationships, 67% of candidates think that AI tools lack a human touch.

When you consider 52% of candidates would decline an attractive offer if they had a negative recruitment experience you have to consider the use and prevalence of AI in that time. AI can automate the timeline, providing information and key updates, but firms that rely solely on AI to try and build those connections are going to struggle with their conversion rates.

Recruiters are already using AI for the first interview stage or to match CVs with jobs. While this can be helpful in some ways, the full process can’t be handled by AI alone.
Say a candidate has taken a career break, but prior to that worked in a similar role with the right experience. AI might dismiss that candidate because they aren’t currently working. It sounds like a small oversight but without human intervention, exceptional candidates could be overlooked.

There’s also an environmental impact that comes with AI tools. By 2027, AI is projected to consume 85-134 TWk of electricity which is comparable to a small country’s annual usage. Any firm that’s rooted in sustainability and ESG needs to consider how it’s justifying or offsetting its AI use.

We also have to acknowledge the ethical issues around AI.

In recruitment we’re handling personal information which means any AI tool needs to have due diligence to check its security and access. Implementing an AI use policy for all employees stipulating what tools can be used and in what circumstances will help this. As without guidelines in place firms might fall foul of employees using open source tools and jeopardising data security.

Your AI tool is only as good as the source material it was trained on. If that material contained a certain bias then it’s likely your system will apply the same bias.
In 2021, the city of New York passed a bill requiring companies to conduct bias audits on AI tools. The EU has followed suit and next year the EU AI Act will come into effect which categorises AI as high-risk and requires compliance to prevent harm. Firms will have legal responsibilities to ensure their AI systems are bias free.

The future is people not process

As the future becomes more reliant on AI and technology, human relationships are going to become more important than ever. As a function which is built on connections, recruitment is ideally placed to lead the way in bringing together AI and the human touch.

People buy from people, and that won’t change. Where AI will come into its own is as a tool to smooth the process. The true market experts who know their candidates and clients inside out is what will make the great recruitment consultants stand out from the average ones.

There’s no doubt that the use of AI is going to continue to increase in the industry and make recruiters more productive, but soft skills are still going to be important for success.
Is the future AI? Absolutely. As the technology develops and integrates more into everyday tasks we’ll continue to capitalise on AI and its efficiencies, but that’s all about process. It’s about systems, automations and data. When it comes to personal relationships, AI will never be as good as a person.

A tool, not a replacement

There’s no denying the impact that AI has already had on the recruitment industry, automations and tools allowing recruiters to search and match candidates all rely on AI and machine learning. Over the next few years, we’re going to see this develop, both in terms of its accuracy but also in terms of its ability to do more.

We should all be embracing these changes, daunting though they might seem. AI will reduce the time to hire, it’ll speed up job descriptions, emails and assessments. It’ll also be able to improve the candidate experience by scheduling interviews, sending confirmations, follow-ups and requesting information.

The biggest point to keep in mind with AI is whether it’s improving or taking away from both the client and candidate experience. Just because the tool exists it doesn’t mean we should use it.
Clients and candidates want to talk to an expert, they want to feel listened to, supported and they want to build relationships. That’s what makes recruitment agencies unique – our ability to forge, maintain and recall relationships.

When we lose our human touch, we’ll see a decline in our output. AI is a tool, an important one, but it’s not a replacement for people and for any firm looking at their AI use right now, that’s the key message to walk away with.

AI will change the recruitment industry further, but our people is what will determine our success, not our tech stack.​