Recruiters turn to AI in quest to find the perfect connection

{"text":[[{"start":7.05,"text":"Speak to recruiters about what makes their job truly worthwhile, and many talk about the satisfaction of knowing they have paired the right candidate with the right job, leaving everyone happy."}],[{"start":18.9,"text":"But in the AI era, finding that perfect connection is proving challenging. Against the backdrop of a cooling labour market, the ease of making applications — from putting together a CV to optimising a cover letter to meet specific criteria — has fuelled what Daniel Chait, chief executive of hiring platform Greenhouse, calls an “AI doom loop”. "}],[{"start":39.9,"text":"Companies are being inundated with applications — recent research from Greenhouse found applications per job have more than doubled since 2022 — but are constrained in their ability to distinguish between high-quality candidates and AI slop. “There’s less and less signal,” he says. "}],[{"start":57.95,"text":"Candidates, meanwhile, face the challenge of trying to tailor their applications to meet the (often opaque) requirements of the AI-driven filtering tools being used by the recruiters. "}],[{"start":68.10000000000001,"text":"Despite the difficulties, recruiters say the use of AI has several advantages. Bryan Ackermann, head of AI strategy at recruitment firm Korn Ferry, says automating the mechanics of recruitment is essential to “clear the decks for those human moments” — when the recruiter lands on the most promising candidate. However he adds that “we are not believers that AI is going to take [the whole process] from first touch to the first day”."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":93.5,"text":"Scott McGuckin, vice-president of global talent acquisition at US tech group Cisco, claims AI has had a “transformative effect” on his team, “free[ing] up time for more strategic and creative work, and enabl[ing] recruiters to better support the business.”"}],[{"start":109.25,"text":"While large language models have been used to match candidates with job openings for several years, generative AI has further enhanced the process for some recruiters. Korn Ferry uses the technology to gather industry information and create long lists of candidates. Recruitment agency Robert Half has developed its own tool called AI Recommended Talent to produce shortlists, which it says are very successful at highlighting promising candidates. Its other generative AI tool, AI Recommended Clients, is used to bring newly registered candidates to market. "}],[{"start":140.2,"text":"Many organisations are using AI from the very start of the hiring process, often to write job descriptions or create assessments, according to a survey from BCG. "}],[{"start":150.1,"text":"Recruiters at Cisco, for instance, use the company’s internal AI tool CircuIT to generate first drafts of job descriptions and receive recommendations on assessment processes based on the requirements of the role for which they are hiring."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":163.9,"text":"Once the applications are in, hiring teams are using AI to filter the candidates. British supercar maker McLaren, for example, introduced Microsoft tools in September to support screening for its graduate scheme. “With more than 21,000 applications received, it was essential to adopt an efficient and consistent approach to streamline the initial selection,” the company says."}],[{"start":186.8,"text":"And after the initial application stage, AI is increasingly being used in interviews. Eightfold, which develops AI tools for recruiters, rolled out AI Interviewer last year, an agent that conducts technical interviews to supplement knockout-stage interviews conducted by humans."}],[{"start":205.70000000000002,"text":"Staffing company Randstad launched its own AI chatbots to conduct screening interviews last year — it runs one in India that can communicate with local talent in the country’s 30-plus languages. "}],[{"start":217.9,"text":"There is a limit to the extent to which AI can feature in the recruitment process — the EU AI Act ensures the technology cannot be used to make hiring decisions, for example. "}],[{"start":227.85,"text":"But legislation aside, many believe in the fundamental value of human judgement. “No AI model can find personality,” says Matt Weston, senior managing director for the UK and Ireland at Robert Half. “You’ve got to take the skill sets and qualifications and marry [them] up with the human aspect. That’s what defines a truly successful placement.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":248.9,"text":"Indeed, executive-level recruiters, who are less likely to face issues of volume, maintain a largely human process. Paul Blant, chief executive of London-based Finatal, which specialises in C-suite hiring across private equity-backed industries, describes recruitment for them as “a 95 per cent human judgement kind of process”. "}],[{"start":269.4,"text":"Martin de Weerdt, chief information officer at Randstad, believes AI is an opportunity to “re-personalise” recruitment. The company uses AI to stay in touch with people on its database and facilitate meaningful conversation between recruiters and candidates. “Staffing companies can now show an interest again at a scale that would have been humanly impossible.” "}],[{"start":289.45,"text":"Chait of Greenhouse, however, thinks the impact of AI over the long term could be far more radical. “With AI, [hiring] is open for total re-imagination,” he says. “What shows up at the front door of a company doesn’t have to be a résumé . . . but your job-seeking agent that knows you, where you’ve worked and what you’re interested in doing next.” Likewise, on the company side, “it’s an agent . . . it’ll know for this opening, what are the important criteria? Who’d be great at this job?”"}],[{"start":316.15,"text":"He adds: “You’ve got this future where you have agentic candidates and agentic hiring managers trying to find each other and tell each other a story with human beings at the centre of it.”"}],[{"start":333.1,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1777877380_2121.mp3"}