Navigating the AI revolution in recruitment
8 November 2023
Artificial Intelligence has become a favourite media buzzword that dominates headlines and raises concerns about job security, data privacy, and the risks of social manipulation. With dystopian and utopian scenarios both being speculated, should we be excited or worried about AI in recruitment?
The answer is not straightforward. AI in recruitment presents both opportunities and challenges. AI has the potential to revolutionise the recruitment process by improving efficiency, reducing bias, and aiding employers in making more informed decisions. As technology advances, here at CJA, we continue to explore its potential.
As processing speeds improve, AI-driven algorithms can scan through CVs, assess candidates’ qualifications, and predict their suitability for a role more effectively each year. However, evaluating candidates is more complex than merely matching keywords and qualifications. Transferable skills, behaviours, and cultural fit all require human judgment and emotional intelligence, areas where AI is currently limited.
One area that particularly interests us is the potential to mitigate unconscious bias. Our in-house assessment tools already remove personal identifiers, but can AI completely eliminate all bias? Machine assessments, devoid of emotion and mental and physical fatigue, offer the potential for 24/7 consistency. However, AI algorithms are only as good as the data they are trained on, and if the training data is biased, existing inequalities and biases may be perpetuated further.
In our employer marketing and career website service, we are exploring AI chatbots and their potential to enhance the candidate experience by providing real-time support and interaction. Naturally, there are concerns about how much candidates want the recruitment process to be dehumanised. While society has accepted self-service machines at the checkout (some more reluctantly than others), do we really want to engage with machines for something as important as the next step in our careers?
Like many businesses, we are embracing AI in our day-to-day operations to enhance efficiency, but we are also taking a measured approach to ensure ethical and practical challenges are not overlooked. For now, we look forward to this article becoming outdated.
If you are interested in harnessing technology for your recruitment processes, employer brand strategies, and recruitment advertising activities, please contact us today.