Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming industries, and recruitment is no exception. It presents both opportunities and challenges. In this Q&A, two industry experts discuss AI's impact on employer branding, the candidate experience, and the entire recruitment process. As recruiters navigate this changing landscape, they explore how AI can be used effectively while keeping a human-centric approach to hiring.
Meet the experts
Q: How might AI impact a company's employer branding, particularly when it comes to the recruiting process?
Simon Werner-Zankl (SWZ): AI can impact employer branding in both positive and negative ways. On the positive side, it can help write more inclusive job ads, tailor communication, and speed up replies—if used correctly. On the negative side, you might lose your true employer brand. It's important to communicate your authentic brand, the feeling in the office, and your culture. Can AI capture the correct tone in writing job ads, rejection emails, or other communications?
Q: How can AI enhance the candidate experience?
SWZ: Understanding candidate experience is crucial, and gathering feedback from candidates plays a significant role in this process. Organizations might have hundreds, thousands of feedback that can help them understand the experience of their candidates, but how can they make sense of thousands of comments?
At Trustcruit, we analyze all text comments from feedback and categorize them, which helps organizations make sense of large volumes of feedback. For instance, our AI categorizes comments into themes like Diversity & Inclusion, letting organizations focus on specific aspects of candidate experience for improvement. This understanding helps organizations to take actionable steps to improve their candidate experience.
Q: How do you address concerns about AI making the recruitment process less human-centric and authentic?
SWZ: 32.9% of businesses have already replaced some human tasks with AI solutions. So you might assume that the recruitment process today is less human-centric, right? But I am not so sure. It depends on the purpose of using AI. If AI is used in screening, engagement, analytics, and scheduling, then a key outcome is probably time saving. The key question then becomes: What do you do with that time instead? If time is redirected towards things that make the process more human, then AI can potentially contribute positively to a more human-centric approach.
Q: What measures do you have in place to gather feedback from candidates about their AI-driven recruitment experiences?
SWZ: As a survey and feedback tool provider for hundreds of organizations, I can say that very few organizations are collecting feedback on candidates' experiences with AI-driven recruitment processes. In my opinion, most organizations should consider collecting this feedback.
Q: AI-enabled applicants: problem or not?
Samuli Salonen (SS): Over the past year, we've seen a significant increase of AI use in our recruitment processes. Around 12 months ago, only 10% of applications were done with the help of AI. Currently, this figure has risen to 30-40%, and it continues to grow.
This trend has sparked diverse reactions from our customers. Some believe that if candidates use AI to write their CVs or applications, it shows a lack of genuine interest in the job. They argue that candidates that are truly interested would write these documents themselves. On the other hand, others see it as a positive sign, showing that candidates are skilled in using AI; a skill that is required for the job they are applying for.
Regardless of these differing opinions–and whether we want it or not–this is a change that is happening. We need to act accordingly in our recruitment process, especially when screening candidates in the application phase.
Q: How does candidates' use of AI affect recruitment decisions?
SS: Currently, we see candidates mainly using AI in the application phase, with little use in later stages of the recruitment process. Based on this, I suspect that recruitment decisions are primarily affected in the first stage of the process.
Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see what happens when every incoming application includes all the keywords from the role description, and it becomes hard to differentiate candidates. I expect two things to happen because of this:
- Recruiters will focus even more on the background of the candidates, such as their LinkedIn profiles.
- We will see an increase in first-round video interviews where candidates answer a few questions without submitting traditional applications. It will be interesting to see how video avatars might change this if candidates start using them in the future.
Q: What challenges do AI-enabled candidates pose to traditional recruitment methods, and how can they be overcome?
SS: Since AI is still relatively new and most companies are just starting to use it in the recruitment processes, there will be a lot of learnings for organizations.
I think the biggest challenges will be understanding candidates and their skills accurately, and verifying those skills through reference calls. If AI is providing “perfect” answers, it might require more work for recruiters to get to the truth about a candidate’s skills and experience.
It’s already possible to create an AI-generated phone call, so at some point, candidates might give references from people that don’t actually exist. I think this might be a challenge for the whole recruitment process as recruiters try to understand who is a natural person and who is not. As this line becomes blurrier, face-to-face interactions might become even more critical.
Q: How do you ensure fairness and equity in candidate evaluation when AI tools are involved?
SS: Right now, people are making hiring decisions, and these decisions always have some kind of bias. It’s near impossible for a hiring manager or recruiter to be completely free from bias; people tend to hire people similar to themselves.
In that sense, AI has the potential to mitigate some of this bias, as AI may have less inherent bias than humans. But on the other hand, AI systems are trained on material that is not free from bias. For instance, if an AI system has learned that leaders are typically men, it might prioritize applications from males when screening. To keep processes fair, recruiters need to be mindful of which AI tools they are using and how they will use them.
Curious about the future of AI in recruitment? Watch our recording of "Responsible AI in Recruitment" and hear industry experts discuss AI's opportunities, limitations, and ways HR and talent teams can use AI responsibly.
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