There is a lot of chatter around AI, ranging from excitement over the possibilities and trepidation over the challenges–or even dangers–it may pose to society. If you currently use AI in your recruitment agency, or are looking to incorporate a recruitment automation tool using artificial intelligence into your tech stack, you've come to the right place. We've put together the eight most important facts to take into account when it comes to AI in the staffing industry.
Eight key facts on AI in Staffing
1. 39% of staffing tasks are projected to be replaced by AI
Staffing is an industry rich with opportunities for automation, one of the main reasons why so many tasks can be handled by AI technology. For example, AI is well-suited to sort through hundreds or even thousands of candidate resumes. The same thing goes for low-value tasks like responding to routine questions that frequently come up for candidates–a chatbot can easily respond to that outreach. One of the other trends to take into account is that many jobs and tasks will be augmented by artificial intelligence. That means that AI will support the recruiter either by partially or fully completing work, requiring the recruiter to either finish or check the job.
2. Emphasis on skills-based hiring will only grow
Automation is only going to increase, necessarily leading to evolutions in the demands placed upon employees and candidates. One significant trend in recruiting is skills-based hiring, in which recruiters focus more on candidates having certain skills, rather than having a strong focus on education or other aspects of the person's background. This approach helps to single out the candidates who not only have required skills, but can also think critically and problem solve creatively–two tasks which are still beyond AI's capabilities.
3. Generative AI use will only grow
Generative AI has gained worldwide attention with the arrival of ChatGPT. There are many contexts in which recruiters need to produce text, such as nurturing a candidate, writing a job description, or even drafting marketing materials. Generative AI will become more and more ubiquitous as recruiters utilize the tools to create a first draft quickly, which they can then refine.
4. Bias may be reduced
Unconscious bias is a thorny and complex topic for recruiters, as it can be difficult to identify and even more difficult to eliminate. Even when AI is involved! Just take the example of Amazon, which built its own AI-powered tool to evaluate candidates. The tool was trained on previous hiring history at Amazon and eventually revealed a strong bias towards male candidates for technical positions like developers. With that being said, there is still great potential for AI tools to minimize bias if developed properly.
5. Candidate pools will finally be leveraged
Storing candidate information is all well and good–the trick is being able to search it easily and successfully. This is the type of problem AI excels at solving: sorting and analyzing large amounts of data to provide recommendations. Talent rediscovery software can automatically search your candidate pool whenever a new position opens, and give the best recommendations based on your data and information listed in publicly available sources, like LinkedIn.
6. Compliance will evolve
The abilities of AI to search and analyze data leads to a whole new set of legal considerations. For example, some recruiting agents now use AI software to examine video recording of candidate interviews. Certain tools, like Empower by Ringover, can even transcribe calls for sentiment analysis. This type of technology leads to many questions, like whether the candidate should be notified they are being recorded for analysis, or if it's permissible for the data to be stored. New laws have already taken effect regarding the use of AI in recruitment, and it's just the beginning.
Try Empower for Free!7. Predictive analytics will become more useful
As companies establish a pattern of use with AI technology, the algorithms will be able to predict future staffing needs and trends. This type of information will help staffing agencies better position themselves to serve their clients, maximizing efficiency and profitability.
8. Continuous improvement thanks to data analysis
Now that recruitment agencies use business software so regularly and for so many aspects of the hiring pipeline, immense amounts of data are collected constantly. Once artificial intelligence is in use, this data can be used at scale, rather than for simple searches or record keeping. The technology will pinpoint bottlenecks, provide guidance on optimization opportunities, and generally support iteration of processes for continuous improvement.
AI in Staffing FAQ
How is AI used in the staffing industry?
The main use of AI in staffing is to automate aspects of the recruitment process. This is possible because AI technology can leverage mass amounts of data for analysis and learning. With the necessary information and computing power, AI can then perform tasks such as candidate sourcing, matching, automated job posting, optimization of job ad posting, and even engage with candidates via chatbot to respond to questions during the recruitment process.
What is the future of AI in recruitment?
Artificial intelligence has many applications when it comes to AI in recruitment. The top trends for the future include:
- Increasingly advanced chabots
- Automated onboarding
- Optimized candidate matching
- Reduced unconscious bias
- Improved employee engagement
What is an AI recruitment tool?
There are many types of AI recruitment tools, but they are mainly automated recruiting tools meant to handle repetitive or data-intensive aspects of the recruitment process. The most common uses of AI recruitment tools include:
- Candidate screening
- Candidate sourcing
- Interviewing tools
- Candidate engagement (such as chatbots)
- Onboarding
How will AI affect employees?
Many employees are concerned that the rapid deployment of AI in recruiting will lead to job loss. And they are not wrong, as positions that consist of repetitive work, especially jobs involving data collection, summary, input, and simple writing tasks are likely to be handled by AI in the near future.
However, AI is still not capable of critical thinking, problem solving, relationship building, and many other complex tasks. This type of position will likely grow in importance as AI automates menial and time-consuming tasks, leading to new opportunities.
Bibliography
- https://www2.staffingindustry.com/Editorial/Daily-News/AI-could-bring-9-increase-in-workers-on-assignment-Collaboration-in-Gig-Economy-gets-rolling-66878
- https://www.thestaffingstream.com/2023/10/30/will-ai-take-your-job-or-make-you-better-at-it-a-peek-into-the-future/
- https://www2.staffingindustry.com/Editorial/IT-Staffing-Report/May-4-2023/Generative-AI-bringing-changes-to-how-firms-hire-developers
- https://legalnodes.com/article/ai-in-hr-compliance-risks
- https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1MK0AG/
