Artificial intelligence (AI) is big business. In fact, according to Gartner, the global value of AI is expected to reach $1.2 trillion this year. AI is rapidly expanding into practically every industry and HR is no exception. In a recent survey, 63% of HR professionals said that AI is already affecting the way that they recruit job candidates and 62% of companies said that they were planning to purchase AI software last year.
This year, we are seeing several trends in AI that are affecting job recruitment. In the following article, we will outline what we think are three of the most important trends.
- Chatbots are playing a bigger role in candidate engagement.
Chatbots are AI software that work on platforms such as text and Facebook Messenger that can provide instant feedback and responses depending on the information that they receive from the user. They are commonly used in marketing, but more and more we are seeing them used to engage candidates during the recruitment process.
By some estimates, almost 60% of millennials have used chatbots and of that number about 70% say that it was a positive experience. It is no wonder then that many employers are turning to recruiting chatbots to help provide candidates with a positive experience. Chatbots are able to provide a surprisingly personalized experience, with some users not even realizing that they are chatting with a computer program rather than a human!
- AI is helping recruiters to source better candidates.
AI will free up hours and hours of human time by sourcing only those candidates with the skills that match the job posting. While there have been programs that have been able to pick out keywords in resumes for some time, new innovations on the horizon voice and video components. These programs will even be able to conduct biometrics analysis in order to determine the authenticity of a job candidate’s responses.
Furthermore, AI tools may be used to source high quality candidates that might not even be looking for a new job, via platforms like social media.
- AI is providing analytics that will help recruiters make better decisions.
Today’s AI powered recruiting tools have the ability to provide and compare candidate metrics that will give the hiring manager or team insight into which candidate(s) will provide the highest value to the company based on a number of factors including the candidate’s skills, growth of the company and even according to current macroeconomic conditions.
While some fear that AI may replace human recruiters, we believe that artificial intelligence is only going to enhance the field. As we move toward a more AI heavy HR industry, recruiters will be doing less of the mundane work such as sifting through stacks of resumes, and will instead focus more on uniquely human skills such as emotional intelligence.