Using AI in the Hiring Process

Call it what you want — an algorithm or next-generation robot — but the next stage of hiring technology is artificial intelligence for HR. AI in the recruitment process will be the next trendy asset, saving companies countless dollars and hours sifting through online applications and wasted interviews.

Candidates have questions about AI’s efficacy in choosing quality talent because there isn’t much awareness of how these programs operate. Will your next hiring decision come down to an AI and if so, how did it come to that conclusion?

How Could AI Help Recruitment?

AI in the recruitment process could streamline all business operations. It questions candidates based on keywords and geography, analyzing job profiles like LinkedIn and Indeed with intelligent scans. The algorithm may require more effort for job applicants to curate their profiles, but it helps companies and job seekers find candidates and careers with more alignment in goals and mindsets.

Many sectors suffer from a talent deficit and businesses can’t afford to waste time repeatedly interviewing every candidate with high hopes. The beauty of AI in the recruitment process is eliminating human biases. It can review job profiles with blunt objectivity, increasing the likelihood that incoming talent will be diverse.

Predictive analysis is one of AI’s most prominent boons for companies. For recruitment, it could learn how specific qualifications and educational and job histories equate to success. Though this is a long-term benefit organizations wouldn’t capitalize on for potentially years, educating a system like this may lead to some of the most successful, tenured employees in a business. Around 40% of teams have complications finding the right talent to prime for management roles and using AI could alleviate that plight.

What Are the Drawbacks?

AI promises accurate judgment during its review process. However, it’s equally liable to express bias and false assumptions as humans. Companies experiment with AI programs, editing them to serve their hiring purposes, yet they could ask AI questions they don’t know how to solve accurately.

Based on a person’s profile, what is their personality? How well would they work in a team? AI can try to source these answers, but because few standards and regulations exist to monitor oversight and accuracy, the tools could perpetuate as many dangerous judgments as humans. Analysts can also curate AI data sets to include unintentional biases, so even though AI has the capability not to judge books by their covers, it can if that’s how it’s programmed.

Another concern is applicant experience. An AI could scan a job profile on LinkedIn and send an automated message suggesting they should apply because they’re an ideal fit for the job. Though it sent the message with good intentions, candidates could become disenchanted by suspected scams and inauthentic inquiries. When a person’s entire life could change from a single DM, would the applicant really want to talk to an AI?

What’s the Future of AI in Hiring?

The best way to solidify AI’s relevance in hiring is to fix its image. Controversies abound about AI hiring tools because they could discriminate or attempt to quantify employee qualities that shouldn’t be quantifiable.

Eventually, AI will be better at making connections between varying qualifications than humans could perceive. Are people with certain degrees better leaders? How likely is it that a candidate will be level-headed or a team player based on their community involvement against their college GPA?

Instead of focusing on AI applications for hiring, there may be a greater focus on artificial intelligence in HR for onboarding. Streamlining paperwork and storing data — reducing the number of meetings an incoming employee has to allot time for to fill out paperwork — could happen via email and automation. These resources save departments thousands of hours and reduce human error, as programs could verify information relevance and accuracy. The next step would be to employ AI to guide recruits through training.

Should AI Be Used for Recruiting?

Every budding technology reveals dreams of efficiency and automation — if it were perfect. However, businesses using AI for hiring should understand the technology is flawed and will continue to be for some time as humans unravel the complexities of AI. It’s up to each company to determine if the pros outweigh the cons and if their programs have enough accuracy to employ ethically.