When you hear “AI” and “recruiting” together, you probably start picturing a human-like robot interviewing someone or one of those chatbots that pop-up on websites. As impersonal or strange as that may seem, AI has proven to be quite useful in the recruiting world, but we’ll be looking at both perspectives.

In the past couple of years, researchers have found dozens of ways to apply AI to the field of recruiting. These include using AI to source or match candidates to jobs, reviewing resumes and spotting keywords, or even eliminating phone screens for recruiters.

However, some recruiters might be concerned that this will be a risk to their job, and though that may be a real worry, they can’t deny how seamless AI would make the tedious processes in recruiting.

Let’s dive right into both sides of the argument.

If recruiters automate the screening of resumes, they lose the chance of bias. Sometimes candidates won’t get hired based on the recruiter’s feelings towards a name, race, or gender. These factors have nothing to do with the candidate’s qualifications. But with AI that bias is eliminated. We have seen in some cases, though, that the AI tool exclusively looks at just one type of candidate, which can limit diversity on the team because it’s finding “similar” or the “same” person. But, nonetheless, we’ve heard of tools such as Textio that scan large amounts of data to indicate words that might cause a negative response to ads or job postings because the words indicate an obvious bias towards gender, age, or ethnic group. We guess that it depends on the AI tool, and what exactly it’s asked to look at and how it’s filtered.

When we think about how candidates get matched to a job, we think recruiters are the key to making that happen. But, apps such as Wonolo actually align job seekers with positions. The recruiters have been removed from this aspect of the process. This works by creating a profile for the jobseeker, including a detailed list of skills and experiences, background check, and photo. Some people may think that removing recruiters takes personality and quality out of the process, but it’s an interesting use of technology as it saves a lot of time and resources too.

As mentioned, AI can also be used for job postings. Certain apps use data to come up with the optimal time and place for your ad to be posted. A tool such as this could lead to more placements or client-work because ads would reach a broader audience. However, using a third party to post ads can sometimes minimize how “broad” of an audience you reach. We have found that posting job descriptions on LI, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and our website directly have benefited us more than using tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer. But, the convenience of these tools is unmatched. So we guess it depends on whether you’re trying to save time to get some results or spending lots of time to get more results. 

Let’s discuss those interview “chatbots. They save recruiters time on pre-screening, which can be helpful if you’re a big company. Instead of having to do the video or phone call yourself, the chatbot would ask the candidate open-ended questions (via text conversation) while capturing the whole interview on video. The bot analyzes the answers, determining if the candidate will move forward to the next stage of the recruiting process. As far as automation goes, this is pretty incredible and could be revolutionary, if used right. A large company could use this technology to perform hundreds of interviews, saving them time, money, and resources. But, is it worth it? Losing out on the human touch in the recruiting process may be detrimental to the company’s culture. Definitely something you would want to think about before you consider implementing a chatbot.

All in all, we agree that AI could alter the future of recruiting. It’s hard to say whether it would change the process for good or for worse. But, like every other revolutionary technological tool, there are pros and cons. Robots can’t replace the ability to seek out the right cultural fit for an organization and create friendly, authentic touchpoints but people cannot eliminate all of their subconscious or conscious bias. 

Perhaps, you decide you want the best of both worlds or you’ll pick one or the other. Either way, we’ll let you decide what’s best for your staffing firm.