The Pros and Cons of Using AI for Recruitment

It seems like artificial intelligence is really having its moment across many industries, including recruitment.

Recruitment is an important process for any business, and just like everything else to do with technology, AI is being used within the process of recruitment for several reasons. From improving scheduling to accelerating resume screening. AI tools can save teams a lot of time and energy, which is better focused elsewhere.

Pros of AI in Recruitment

There are plenty of advantages that come from using AI as part of your recruitment process. Here are a few of those reasons why it’s worth incorporating into this part of the business.

Efficiency and speed

AI excels at high-volume tasks where humans struggle to keep up. Like scanning resumes for keywords and qualifications. The use of AI can be great for helping reduce the time-to-hire process and streamlining efforts to save even more resources internally.

Improving scheduling

AI chatbots and assistants help to reduce back-and-forth communication, which allows for faster interview scheduling. That’s important when time is limited and therefore needs to be utilized effectively.

Proactive sourcing

AI is a great technology when it comes to identifying passive candidates and finding the qualified individuals who have not formally applied.

Data-driven decision making

AI provides much insight into helping reduce human unconscious bias in its initial stages of recruitment. It also helps with the improvement of candidate matching.

Cons of AI in Recruitment

There are some disadvantages to AI in recruitment, though, that are important to identify and consider before incorporating this technology into your recruitment drives.

Lack of personal touch

Whilst AI is pretty clever, an over-reliance on the technology will make the recruitment process feel a little cold and robotic. That can damage the brand if you’re not careful, so it’s imperative that there are still human interactions and touchpoints happening throughout the process.

Algorithmic bias

While AI helps remove human bias, it can often perpetuate existing bias if it's being trained on historical data that reflects past hiring prejudices.

That’s why it’s imperative to ensure that the algorithm isn’t being trained on too much historical data that tells the same story of hiring talent.

Missed talent

Talking of talent, it’s sometimes the case that AI will filter out some qualified candidates, or may have a non-traditional background, or use unconventional CV formatting.

While AI can be great at combing through resumes, it’s a good idea to go through the ones they rejected, if only briefly. That way, you can spot any that may have fallen through the net and are worth taking into the next stage of the recruitment process.

High implementation costs

Integrating AI tools will require a substantial investment in software, as well as data management and training. Therefore, it’s good to have investment ready for this transition so that the full effort is made for implementing AI correctly into recruitment.

The most effective recruitment strategies are those that utilize a hybrid approach. AI is great for administrative tasks and those preliminary screenings. Human recruiters can then be used in assessing the cultural fit of hires, their emotional intelligence, and ultimately making the final decision.

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