AI for Recruiting is Here, But There's No Need To Worry

Many people are concerned that AI is going to take their job, or somehow make the world a scarier place to live in.  While there may be some cause for concern, especially in the distant future where we have limited predictive powers, AI is mostly going to change the world for the better.

Just like AI has the ability to transform our healthcare, education and transportation systems, this same type of technology is going to have massive impacts on recruiting.  In fact, it’s already changing the lives of thousands of people each day in really positive ways.

To take a deeper look at how AI and machine learning is helping both recruiters and job seekers, I wanted to dive into a few statistics around how AI based recruiting chabots are making a difference in peoples’ lives.

• Robots don’t get bored: Humans don’t want to do repetitive tasks for the majority of the day.  It leads to burnout and attrition.  From the recruiting side of the equation, AI does a lot of the most mundane tasks a recruiter has to perform each day including the HR coordination work of scheduling interviews, as well as the initial boiler plate screens of job seekers.  It’s estimated that using AI saves a recruiter nearly 2 days of their time each week!  This allows recruiters to spend more time with the best fit applicants, and on more strategic long term projects.
• The blackhole: Most people who’ve applied for a job have experienced the dreaded resume blackhole.  They apply for a job, and never hear back 80% of the time on average.  This is frustrating to say the least.  However, employers who are using AI to manage the top of their recruiting funnel respond to every single applicant who applies for a job.  You don’t have to rely on recruiters remembering to send emails to candidates, this communication is simply built into the overall recruiting process.
• Everyone gets a chance: A resume rarely tells the full story of a person and how they’d be a good fit for a job.  It’s just an outdated way to represent a person.  Employers who use chatbots will screen nearly every applicant, and ask them questions that relate specifically to the job they are applying to.  Also, AI screening cuts down on the unconscious bias that can hurt the right candidate’s chances of getting the job.
• Simply better candidate experience: 92% of candidates list themselves as satisfied when automation is applied to recruiting.  Contrast that with 15% of people who have a positive experience before AI.  The difference is due to many of the factors above, in addition to small things, like allowing automation to fill in applicantions faster, schedule interviews more effectively, and give answers to candidate questions on demand.

The Economic Benefits of Using Automation

While many of these benefits aren’t directly related to ROI, they are still important to understand and appreciate.  Also, many of them can in fact be translated into a dollars and cents number that your CFO can appreciate.

For example, decreasing the amount of repetitive work that a recruiter has to do each day means that recruiters stay longer in their jobs.  It also means they have more time to think strategically about the processes they are using to attract and convince job seekers.

Another example here is the removal of the resume black hole.  Virgin found that their candidate experience was so bad, they were losing over $5 million each year as rejected applicants were moving to their competitors.  Getting rid of the resume black hole means that less people feel spiteful towards your employer brand.

While there is no doubt AI will bring some negative change, we should be very excited about the long term benefits.  Lastly, we should all be on the lookout for ways that we can take advantage of this trend right now in the present!