Like in almost all areas of work, rapidly rising adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is deeply changing the recruitment and sourcing industry. As the world turns toward greater automation and digitization, a process given added impetus by Covid-19, the adoption of AI has acquired irrevocable momentum.
A transformation in how talent is identified and recruited by organizations is underway. The digitization and automation of many traditional role shave proven inevitable. All this is fundamentally redrawing the structural contours of the workforce and flows of productivity. As much as 30% of work hours will be under automation soon and generative AI will be a significant factor.
AI is an overarching term for a set of technologies involved in recasting the way our industry works. Let us examine those that will create the most impact in the immediate future:
Machine learning. Based on algorithms that keep continuously learning from data to create a progressively sophisticated data-driven process of decision-making and prediction.
Natural language processing (NLP). Refers to technology that enables computers to precisely comprehend, accurately interpret and self-generate human language.
Robotic process automation (RPA). Automates repetitive tasks with far greater precision and speed than hitherto done manually.
Big data. Analyzes and mines insights from large datasets, aiding informed decision-making.
Generative AI. Analyzes very large-scale datasets and creates original self-generated content.
Deep learning. A field of machine learning that virtually follows the architecture of human neural networks.
What will be the implications of the fast-spreading adoption of AI in our industry? A number of unpredictable variables, both technological and social, make definite conclusions hard, but there are some things we can assume are most likely to happen:
- Already, 73% of staffing organizations use AI; machine learning and NLP are the most widely used — it will become even more widely and near-universally adopted.
- Generative AI and NLP are venturing to automate domain expert and creative roles.
- Productivity will see a quantum jump with AI and help make up for declining labor availability, but it will cause redundancies that will need comprehensive reskilling.
The areas where AI will see immediate practical application:
Sourcing automation. Tools discover and connect with candidates, review résumés and generate searchable databases.
Relationship management of candidates. The organization of candidate data and communication with them will be highly automated.
Assessment of candidates. AI assesses diverse individual technical and other skills, enhancing the overall quality of candidates identified.
Matching jobs. The current methods of matching jobs and candidates including keyword searches will be vastly improved.
Chatbots. AI-driven bots now have the ability to engage meaningfully with, respond intelligently to and understand human candidates.
Posting job descriptions. The use of NLP programs will enable more effective and bias-free job postings.
Programmatic job ad planning. Now the media distribution and ad budget allocation of job ads can be made optimal with AI.
Predictive analytics. AI-generated predictions can empower proactive planning of workforces.
The technical and social impact of AI is an area where the future is unfolding rapidly, but there are some informed guesses we can make about it. AI could have an impact on diversity as AI-driven systems can inherit the biases of their human creators — we need to be vigilant to protect fairness. Data privacy will be another challenge; collection of all personal data must comply with the statutory framework. AI implementation will almost certainly bring up some legal and ethical issues, so enlightened policies and regulatory safeguards must be put in place as it evolves.
So one can say when evaluating AI products, we can consider how they integrate, how scalable they are, how easy to use are they and, most importantly, if all ethical standards are met. Addressing any built-in biases, safeguarding data privacy and adhering to ethical norms is key to harnessing the potential of AI responsibly.
We at Artech are believers and evangelists of AI in staffing and recruitment. Our imaginations are fired by its potential and endless possibilities. We are eager to engage in a meaningful discussion on this fascinating technology.