Nowadays, there are few individuals whom AI would not influence. It can be present whether we are speaking about personal or professional life. The same applies to the majority of organizations across fields and industries.
The Dynamic Field of Talent Acquisition
Recruitment is a critical discipline in finding, attracting, and engaging talents for companies. It is a very dynamic field that is constantly evolving, and we think the creativity of different recruiters is crucial. They must continually develop various ways to attract and find valuable candidates and compete against other employers in the labor market.
Finding and onboarding a suitable candidate is preceded and accompanied by many everyday activities. While distinct, the recruitment process and hiring stage are interconnected. The recruitment process focuses on attracting and identifying qualified candidates, while the hiring stage involves extending an offer, negotiating terms, and successfully onboarding the chosen candidate. Usually, it takes a lot of work to define where one process ends and the other one begins. Both are pretty dependent on each other.
AI for Recruiting: How Does It Help?
In terms of hiring and recruitment, many different AI tools can be used to increase effectiveness, streamline, and partially automate processes.
Implementing AI in the everyday recruitment process is inevitable to keep up with current market trends and to remain competitive.
Researching the Market
At the beginning of each new recruitment process, AI can quickly help with market research and define which areas would be an excellent target to source candidates based on role requirements and salary range. It saves a lot of time compared to manually searching for this information.
Writing Job Descriptions
AI can be helpful in the preparation of appealing job descriptions. It can save time when the recruiter has a less creative day of the week/month. Here comes the first disadvantage that should be pointed out. If the purely AI-created job description is copied and pasted and posted to different job portals, it can be identified as originating from AI, which may put it at a disadvantage in terms of searchability. That would be a very unwanted outcome as one of the goals of organizations is to be as visible as possible on the internet and social networks. Not to mention the fact that the origin of the text may also be identified by candidates. Therefore, we consider using AI for job description creation as a good source of inspiration. We believe the human factor still plays a vital role in maintaining originality.
Sourcing the Candidates
Another way to use different AI tools in the recruitment process is for sourcing candidates. There are multiple tools that can help with sourcing candidates available on the internet, either free of charge or paid. Including a number of tools that can help recruiters with messaging candidates in terms of writing a suitable text based on the platform where candidates are being contacted and customizing messages based on candidates’ experience stated in their resumes or online profiles.
And More…
There is a never-ending list of activities that can be replaced or at least made more accessible by AI tools. The recruitment landscape is constantly evolving with new tools offering advanced features, allowing them to match candidate resumes to job descriptions, identify potential suitability by analyzing resumes and social media profiles, and automate communication by sending follow-up messages at various stages of the hiring process. Some AI tools offer complex solutions, combining more features into one tool, prioritizing user-friendliness and even integrating with popular enterprise tools like Slack, etc.
From the recruiter’s perspective, AI tools can save a lot of time spent on manual tasks and can buy more time to focus on activities where the human factor cannot be replaced. Usage of different AI tools should lead to the increasing effectiveness of recruitment teams, and allow them to handle much more extensive workload. Another potential benefit for organizations is cost efficiency when implemented responsibly.
The Flip Side: How Candidates Can Use AI
During the hiring process, HR recruiters are not the only ones trying to make their lives easier using AI. While AI usage for candidates is still evolving, there are already cases where social media profiles and resumes, including profile photos, are suspected to be AI-generated.
It could make it more difficult for recruiters to evaluate a candidate’s qualifications, experience, and suitability for a specific role. Suppose a candidate uses one of the AI tools for their self-presentation in any written form. In that case, it masks the possible shortcomings in their writing and can also embellish their professional experience. As the AI models continuously learn and improve their skills based on different inputs from users, it becomes harder and harder to define if a human or AI created the material.
There are also rumors of some cases where candidates have used the AI tool to develop prescreening tasks or even used AI to cheat during technical interviews. Fortunately, if a candidate doesn’t have the skills for the job and is trying to compensate for this lack of knowledge by using AI, it will always show up sooner or later. In more fortunate cases, this would be discovered before the candidate gets onboarded to the organization and could cause financial or contract losses.
How AI Experience Could Potentially Change Candidate CV Trends in the Future
AI skills will likely be in demand for candidates in the labor market. Companies in different industries, not only in the IT field, have already started to implement different AI tools to make their work more efficient. Based on that, it could be expected that once these companies are looking for new employees, they will add AI-related skills as a requirement to the job description, and candidates’ profiles could be assessed with an emphasis on AI skills.
Currently, candidates do not often state their AI experience, even if they have it. However, it is believed that this will change very soon. We could expect to see CVs that will highlight the AI experience connected to different roles. Speaking about the CVs of IT specialists, we are expecting to see projects described from different AI angles. Quantifiable results are a key benefit of AI, allowing candidates to add metrics to their CVs. For example, a candidate could state: “Increased efficiency by 20% through implementation of the XX tool” or “Saved 10% of worker time by utilizing the XXX tool.”
So, Will AI Replace Recruiters?
We have covered multiple areas of hiring where AI can significantly help or can even replace manual human work. Yet, there are still activities that AI cannot replace. Recruiting and hiring candidates is not only about exchanging exact information and facts. Key roles require soft skills and alignment with company culture, necessitating the sharing of personal opinions to evaluate if potential candidates would fit into your organization and the team in terms of personality. Last but not least, it is crucial to build relationships with candidates throughout the whole process, and this is something that AI cannot replace. It’s no coincidence that recruitment and hiring are part of the Human Resources field. For now, the human touch is the key, and we hope it will always be, no matter how AI develops. Let’s see how long it will take for AI to get to a level where it can think, express, feel, and freely perceive emotions.
In conclusion, we all have the freedom to use AI tools that make our lives easier. We hope, for those who have read this far, that AI will continue to be a powerful tool. It should automate manual tasks, freeing us to focus on skill development and innovation, not become a crutch for idleness. For those interested in learning more about AI implementation, we recommend exploring case studies that showcase how these tools have boosted efficiency in various projects.
Klara Krizova
IT Recruitment Team Lead
Klara leads First Line Software’s IT recruitment initiatives. Her goal is to attract, find, and onboard talented candidates to join the company’s teams and work on exciting projects.
She collaborates directly with hiring managers and delivery directors daily to ensure successful hiring and provide candidates with the best possible interview experience.
Her team is currently focused on implementing various AI tools to increase the efficiency of First Line Software’s recruitment processes.
Clinovera
