Artificial intelligence has become an effective recruitment tool, revolutionising the hiring process. Artificial intelligence is gradually creeping into every stage of the recruitment process, from sourcing and interviewing, to verifying references, background checks and determining fair pay.

While marketers have benefited from automation tools such as HubSpot, recruiters have also begun using AI to find and hire candidates. Do recruiters benefit from automating AI-driven recruitment processes? Do automation processes contribute to finding and attracting suitable candidates?

Pro

Saves time

AI can collect and analyze data that allows recruiters to select and shortlist candidates. Some AI tools even enable recruiters to test candidates' skills. For example, LinkedIn offers skills assessments to test a candidate's knowledge of excel, adobe and other aptitudes.

Communicating through AI

If recruiters have a high volume of candidates, it is tedious sending emails and manually following up with them. Therefore, many recruitment companies use chatbots to communicate with candidates and answer their questions.

Cons

Lack of human judgement

Artificial intelligence tools can process and analyze data, but it's challenging to identify soft skills such as personality, character, work ethic, etc. For example, if your company is looking for a resilient person with a sense of urgency for a sales position, the tool probably won't be able to identify these characteristics. Therefore, human judgement is needed to identify a candidate's soft skills.

Is it accurate?

Most artificial intelligence tools are still under development. Candidates can trick an AI tool by using keywords so that the system identifies them as a good candidate for a particular location. Conversely, AI can eliminate good candidates from the database because they don't know how to handle the tool. Overall, the accuracy of AI recruitment tools remains an issue.

Misleading data

Some tools use data from Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to create your profile. However, some candidates don't have social media accounts, and the AI system will demote them.

Misconceptions based on data

Some AI-based tools also use algorithms to predict candidates' personalities, experiences and skills. It is usually data extracted from Facebook profiles, tweets, LinkedIn comments, etc. However, in the case of these tools, if a candidate is applying for a job in technology and does not have technology-related data on their social media profiles, the system will automatically demote them.

To support the argument below, the Antal team researched a few case studies about candidates' and recruiters' views on artificial intelligence usage in the recruitment process.

In conclusion, companies are implementing AI tools to save time and streamline processes. However, technology can have some flaws that will mislead recruiters. Therefore, at Antal, we believe in human connection and encourage human interaction when recruiting candidates, as companies can sense their personality, character and work ethic better than AI tools. At the same time, AI tools can be one-sided. Also, face-to-face interviews give candidates the opportunity to ask questions about the company, career development and salary.

By Georgiana Buzneanu