Is AI the Future of Recruitment?

To call AI a trend would be inaccurate. Labelling something a trend implies that it’s transitory, that once consumer demand, interest and usefulness wane, what was once widely discussed will be resigned to the annals of history. If anything, AI represents the next iteration of our computational potential. It’s the future. And the present. 

From online self-driving vehicles to chatbots, voice-assisted personal assistants to entertainment and retail platforms, AI has fundamentally changed how we interact with technology, streamlining commercial enhancing processes and enriching our personal lives. 

AI is not on the cusp of breaking into the mainstream, it already is mainstream. Doctors are using AI-powered bots assist with surgery, lowering the risk of infection, blood loss and pain. Classrooms have begun integrating AI-powered bots to assist younger students to develop reading, language learning and social skills – and these are just two examples of how AI is optimising our vocational potential. 

Any recruitment agency determined to provide a lauded service to clients and candidates should be leveraging this technology. Interested in learning how the recruitment sector can use AI to stay one step ahead of the competition? Have a look at these three key applications.

Automated Candidate Resourcing

Identifying the right talent starts with sourcing potential candidates and building a talent pipeline. This can be quite a time-consuming task, even through traditional means. Writing, uploading and managing vacancies on job boards, browsing social media platforms, like LinkedIn, communicating with passive candidates, reviewing existing candidate pools and gathering referrals all take time that can be reduced by utilising AI recruiting techniques. 

With AI recruiters can automate their candidate resourcing processes and simultaneously extend their reach. For instance, it’s been estimated that some AI can analyse more than 300 million social media profiles. Now, we’re not saying that recruiters need to sift through millions of candidates to source the right candidate for a role, but it can’t be denied that the potential scope of AI recruitment is staggering.

Moreover, sourcing automation technology can also send personalised messages to candidates in the recruitment pipeline keeping them engaged and updated – or, in other words, primed for that perfect position that they’ve long hunted for. 

Candidate Matching

Whilst we’re on the topic of sourcing, AI can prove vital to candidate matching. The recruitment industry, not unlike any other sector, has experienced a shift towards a customised candidate experience. Cultivating that personalised experience will allow recruiters to not just pique but hold the attention of the best candidates.

This isn’t anything new. In fact, that tailored experience is something that HR professionals have long believed to be one of the best ways to engage and foster talent in the workplace. If you want to see an example of this, you need only consider how shrewd employers invest heavily in learning and development and build a workplace environment that rewards employees in various ways that reflect the ethos and culture of the company.

As recruitment technology evolves, this emphasis on learning and development has become further customised to meet the opportunities digital innovation has afforded and the bespoke requests of candidates and clients. Processes have been streamlined and communications honed. Resources like time and money have been optimised and remote access to applications achieved. 

AI can also be used to optimise the prospect experience, allowing recruiters to gain key insights into candidate’s professional experience, qualifications, acumen, ethos, even personality. This enables recruiters to create tailored content designed to get attention and build strong relationships with candidates whilst demonstrating a valued customer-centric service.

Candidate Rediscovery

Experienced and trusted recruiters will have collected a vast number of candidate CVs and profiles over many years. After all, the quality of their talent pool is the foundation of their success. However, there is a drawback to having such a wealth of talent to offer clients – sometimes interesting candidates become forgotten, especially if they’ve been dormant for prolonged periods. 

This can prove to be a challenge in today’s competitive market, one where employers often seek candidates with niche skills or specific experience. However, using an AI recruiting approach, agencies can automate candidate screening and identify lesser-known candidates that may just be the perfect fit for a specific role.

Artificial intelligence platforms such as Ideal use can identify past candidates that, despite having a formidable skillset and impressive experience, don’t necessarily jump out to recruiters when they’re looking to source the right candidate for the right role. 

Integrating platforms like Ideal allow recruiters to optimise their processes by saving a great deal of time. According to statistics, 65% of CVs for high volume roles are either discarded or ignored. Surely, to provide a stellar service to clients, recruitment agencies need to have access to more than 35% of their actual talent pool. AI has the potential to help recruiters gain easier access to a wider range of talent, thereby increasing their chances of matching the perfect candidate with the perfect role. 

Bonus: Remote Working 

In today’s commercial market, remote working has never been more accessible or widespread. Additionally, there are instances where remote working is a requisite, for instance, freelancers, developers, social media personalities, even customer service managers and engineers working on site. 

Employers may be faced with no choice but to hire remote workers. This can be down to several factors, such as lack of local talent or budgetary restraints. For a wealth of organisations, remote working is symptomatic of our modern digital commercial landscape.  

Recruiters will benefit greatly from using an AI-powered remote assessment tool to help assess a candidate’s skillset, personality, ethos and whether they’d be a good fit within a specific organisation. Video interviews over Skype of FaceTime are a great way for recruiters to assess a candidate’s suitability for a role prior to inviting them in for a face-to-face interview. If the role that you’re recruiting for is remote, doesn’t it make sense that a video interview is conducted? After all, it may be a mite challenging for candidates to travel across the UK or even overseas for a single interview. 

Is AI the Future of Recruitment?

There is certainly clear evidence that AI recruiting will only grow in the coming years. What’s important to remember is the relentless march of technology. Innovation is inevitable. The potential impact of AI was best summed up by Bill Gates who said that AI is the ‘holy grail’ and that he envisions a future ‘with machines that are just as and more capable than human intelligence.’ 

What cannot be denied is that the recruitment sector is already benefitting from the first iterations of AI technology. Adoption will only increase in the coming years. Perhaps it’s time you need to plan for the future so that you’re not left behind?