AI in Hiring and Recruiting: 5 Important Things You Need to Know
The way in which human resource (HR) departments, specifically recruiters and hiring managers, work on a day-to-day basis has changed dramatically thanks in large part to artificial intelligence (AI). AI has become an increasingly common part of everyday life, whether it’s providing personalized content recommendations on streaming and social platforms, or suggesting the quickest routes in mobile navigation apps. It also has applications across a slew of industries, including retail, transportation, healthcare, and manufacturing.
HR departments, meanwhile, are using AI and other tools to handle tedious and time-consuming tasks so that recruiters and hiring managers can spend more face-to-face time with qualified candidates. These tools can be particularly beneficial to short-staffed HR departments and are likely to become commonplace soon.
Here’s a look at how HR departments are using AI, with insight on its potential, limitations, and future in recruiting and hiring.
Types of AI Tools and How They’re Used
AI software can help HR departments relieve administrative burden by quickly scanning and sorting through resumes for keywords, phrases, or other markers that might signify a candidate is a good fit for their organization. AI tools can also help recruiters identify and reach out to passive candidates — those who aren’t actively looking for a new job, but who would be interested in the right opportunity if it presented itself. By analyzing professional profiles on sites like LinkedIn, AI can predict which people would be open to such opportunities.
When deployed correctly, AI also removes possible human bias, as these tools can be programmed to ignore candidate age, race, and gender. Moreover, AI tools can automate a variety of other tasks, including scheduling interviews and sending emails. AI-powered chatbots can also help new hires become acclimated to the organization more quickly by immediately answering any questions they might have.
Companies That Utilize AI in Hiring Decisions
More than half of all HR leaders in the United States utilize predictive algorithms to inform hiring decisions, while AI software is even more prevalent among large corporations. According to Jobscan, 99 percent of Fortune 500 companies use an ATS to filter and track job candidates. Major companies like Nike, Intel, and Wayfair use an outbound recruiting platform to prospect and hire candidates. LG, Vodafone, Amazon, Unilever, and Microsoft are among the other notable companies to use AI-powered recruiting software.
According to LinkedIn, which plans to roll out the AI-powered Recruiter 2024 platform in the near future, the AI recruitment industry captured a global market size of $590.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 6.17 percent until 2030.
How to Maintain the Human Element
Although one of the benefits to using AI in recruiting is to eliminate bias, it’s incumbent upon organizations using the technology to ensure it works as it should. That’s why Amazon, Microsoft, Unilever, and other companies partnered with the Center for Industry Self-Regulation (CISR) to adopt a set of protocols and principles for transparency in AI-based recruiting and hiring. There have been issues and concerns in the past. Amazon, according to a 2018 Reuters report, was among the first major corporations to attempt to automate hiring in the 2010s but found issues with how the software rated candidates for software developer positions. Those who are opposed to AI in recruiting believe that the technology could learn and exacerbate implicit bias.
“In trying to remove bias, we actually sometimes can have the opposite impact and amplify it,” notes Josh Millet, CEO of the software company Criteria, speaking to CNBC.
That is why it’s crucial for HR departments to have humans oversee the recruiting process. They may not have to do the otherwise tedious and mundane tasks they were once expected to do, but they should regularly interact with AI software vendors to ensure they’re making efforts to reduce bias and understand how they collect and protect data. Before using AI, it’s important for HR teams to create transparent and ethical policies in regard to how the technology will be used.
Public Opinion
While the majority of companies are either already using AI or plan to incorporate it into their hiring decisions in the future, public opinion isn’t as uniform. In a December 2022 Pew Research Center survey involving 11,004 American adults, 71 percent of respondents were against AI being used to make final hiring decisions, while only 12 percent of respondents believed AI will benefit more than it will hurt workers. Some 32 percent of respondents said the technology will hurt more than help workers.
These statistics should not discourage creators of AI-powered HR tools, however. Instead, they should use this data to inform the development of their technologies. Taking people’s concerns about AI seriously can enable developers to create tools that actually benefit recruiters and HR staff. In addition, understanding common misgivings about AI can help marketers craft more resonant messaging that eases these qualms.
The Future of AI in Recruiting and Hiring
Beyond the promise of eliminating bias, AI, which is constantly evolving, will continue to support HR departments by improving the overall hiring funnel and optimizing budgets. Rather than replacing humans, the real value of AI is in supporting humans — by taking care of mundane tasks and those that involve processing large amounts of data, AI can free up recruiters and HR staff to focus on the parts of their job that demand the human touch.
