We are relying on AI in our everyday life more, and more each day. From transportation, and communication to managing our “smart homes”, as a society we heavily rely on AI.

Our world is changing through AI, with tools like ChatGPT revolutionizing communication, we are seeing limitations coupled with great possibilities to enhance human capabilities.

Researchers, scholars, consumers, businesses, and tech sectors' integration of AI is increasing as we collectively navigate how to optimize it while being mindful of the ethics surrounding its use. 

At the Sourcery, we are seeing this impact of AI tools when it comes to recruiting.

As recently as a year ago, an enticing job posting would yield hundreds, sometimes thousands of applications. However, as we shift to a qualified candidate-driven market, the number of applicants decreases as the battle for qualified talent is on the rise. 

Now, more than ever before, recruitment teams are looking for ways to increase their efficiency to source talent, which entails the implementation of AI tools for many recruiters to navigate the evolving market.

No matter how effective the AI recruiting tool is, it doesn't replace the human judgment that recruiting requires. Rather, when integrated thoughtfully, the tools augment the recruiter's existing process and expedite the experience for all stakeholders.

What is AI recruiting?

AI recruiting is the use of artificial intelligence in the talent acquisition process. AI tools today can help you screen candidates,  manage communication and even interview and assess candidates.  With a wide variety of applications available, recruiting teams can now manage larger pipelines and potentially hire faster and without bias. 

Are AI tools the solution for recruiting? Pros and Cons.

There are many benefits of applying AI tools in your recruiting process but it also comes with challenges. Let's start with the pros.

1. AI tools in recruiting can help speed up the recruiting process. 

In a qualified candidate driven market - it's not easy to have a  steady stream of top tier candidates waiting for you to review their application or get through a lengthy interview process. If your recruiting process isn’t time efficient, you risk losing a great candidate to a competitor. AI-powered video interviewing technology like HireVue, for example, provides live and on demand video interviewing and integrates seamlessly with your ATS.

2. AI tools in recruiting can help increase your candidate pipeline.

With traditional methods of recruiting, nearly 50% of a recruiter’s time is spent on sourcing alone. Although sourcing candidates is a vital part of recruiting, it leads to requisitions staying open longer and hiring teams having limited candidate pools.

Leveraging AI tools such as Fetcher.ai, recruiters can automate most of the sourcing process and narrow down the candidate pool as well as free recruiters to focus on nurturing relationships, engaging top-tier candidates, and partner with hiring managers on their search.

When a company is having a tough time sourcing top-tier candidates it is the point within the recruitment process that leads to requisitions staying open longer and hiring teams having limited candidate pools. As our President at the Sourcery, Matt Abbott says, “time kills all deals.” We know that lags in a pipeline are costly, they create poor candidate experiences and leave companies understaffed longer.

Traditionally, nearly 50% of a recruiter’s time is spent sourcing, sometimes, even more, depending on how niche the role is. There is no doubt that sourcing qualified talent is a vital part of the recruitment process because it is critical to finding the right fit for both the candidate and the company. As the market competition for talent increases, sourcing creativity is essential. 

Leveraging AI tools, like Fetcher, is proving to be pivotal as we navigate recruitment in our ever-evolving economy. Fetcher is a start-up that is changing the sourcing landscape through its sourcing automation platform, managed by its team of internal experts that reduces time spent manually sourcing and provides recruiters with more time to focus on the human aspect of recruiting. 

Guided by the internal team at Fetcher, the AI learns what recruiters are looking for by incorporating recruiter feedback to build their pipeline with qualified prospects, faster. It's an innovative example of the exciting potential when machine learning is combined with human intelligence to support recruiting. By providing recruiters with more time to engage top-tier talent, and nurture relationships with candidates they can utilize their expertise to support hiring managers to achieve their goals and stay competitive. 

3. AI tools in recruiting can help reduce bias and improve candidate experience

Whether we are aware of it or not, we all have biases. Unconscious bias can easily permeate the recruiting process and can cause hiring managers to miss out on excellent candidates.

To avoid a lack of diversity in your pipeline, training your recruiters and hiring managers is not enough. AI tools in recruiting can help you standardize interviews to ensure your interview process is inclusive and fair for all candidates.

The benefits of implementing AI tools and machine learning in your recruiting process is evident, but it also comes with challenges. Let’s review a few.

1. AI tools in recruiting can learn biases 

AI tools require a large amount of data to learn how to screen candidates as accurately as a recruiter would. Although AI tools have proven to reduce bias in the recruiting process, AI tools can also learn human biases.

By extracting insights and patterns from large sets of data, AI tools can make predictions based on that data analysis. This is what powers AI recruiting but also what can create algorithms and create biases. By observing patterns in resumes submitted to a company, AI tools can gather that information and teach itself whether male or female candidates are preferable for certain roles.

2. AI tools aren’t always accurate

AI tools can only function when you feed them data, so if you have incorrect or insufficient data, it may not be accurate enough for your recruiting process. If a candidate uses a different keyword to describe a skill, and the AI tool doesn’t have enough data to understand if the skill is transferable, it may miss a qualified candidate.

3. AI tools may negatively impact the candidate experience

While AI tools have the ability to answer frequently asked questions via chat, a recruiter still needs to build a solid and authentic relationship with the candidate. However, AI tools can help recruiters build that relationship by automating and taking care of other tasks that don’t need that personal touch point. Allowing recruiters to get back to doing what they love: creating a relationship with candidates and matching them to the perfect role and company.

How to enhance your recruiting strategy by combining AI and traditional recruiting methods

Here at The Sourcery, we embrace advancements in technology especially when they have a big impact on recruiting, but we also know how important it is to have a dedicated team to manage the candidate experience from start to finish. When we eliminate the human aspect at an early stage, are companies missing out on “hidden gems” that would otherwise fall through the cracks? 

Leveraging AI tools to enhance recruiting by automating parts of the recruiting workflow definitely helps our team work more efficiently but we believe a holistic blend of a recruiter’s experience and knowledge about a client in conjunction with the right AI tools will result in matching the best candidates to the role in addition to making sure candidates are engaged and excited about the company’s mission and vision.

Start Using AI tools with a Knowledgeable  Recruiting Team Today

For most companies, the pros will most definitely outweigh the cons for using AI tools in the recruiting process. However, they may not have the time or team to implement the processes to make the crucial hires they need today . The Sourcery allows you to save time and get more value from On-Demand Recruiting. We are one of the only recruiting specialists who offer a 100% dedicated team to each role, and use marketing and sales best practices to promote your company and offer a great candidate experience.

If you’re interested in learning more about how our AI recruiting tools paired with a great recruiting team can help you start hiring, schedule a call today!

References: 

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/implications-chatgpt-human-capability-agenda-dave-ulrich/?trackingId=VQcwTWqPQRyjGEtZKAxSXQ%3D%3D
• https://www.marktechpost.com/2022/06/09/this-new-york-based-startup-fetcher-is-providing-an-ai-powered-sourcing-platform-designed-to-automate-the-recruitment-process/
• https://www.fetcher.ai/about 
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/implications-chatgpt-human-capability-agenda-dave-ulrich/?trackingId=VQcwTWqPQRyjGEtZKAxSXQ%3D%3D