AI and Recruiters: 30x Faster or 30x Better?

The AI revolution is in full swing. Everyone is aware of it – some are excited by its potential, others are wary of its implications, and a few choose to ignore it. In many industries, especially in recruitment, professionals stand at a crucial juncture: Will AI merely enhance our existing tasks, or can we utilize it to significantly uplift the caliber of our work?

Two Paths Ahead for AI-Enhanced Recruiters

Othamar Gama Filho , in a recent talk, highlighted the rapid advancements in AI. He pointed out two distinct trajectories recruiters could embark upon:

• Acceleration: Essentially, doing what they've always done but at a speed unheard of before—imagine accomplishing daily tasks 30 times faster!
• Augmentation: Leveraging the efficiency AI brings to make candidate interactions exponentially better.

The pull of acceleration is tempting. When new tools automate and simplify our tasks, it's only natural to want to scale up what we're already doing. Other departments are already doing it, and it's evident in the onslaught of pseudo-personalized sales emails flooding our inboxes—a result of automation just for acceleration.

Beyond Speed: The Quest for Quality

Yet, while speed is impressive, the essence of recruitment lies in genuine human interaction. Think about writing: AI can certainly assist you in drafting articles more quickly. However, the true potential emerges when you take the time saved by AI to enhance an article with in-depth research or additional engaging content. This mindset should resonate with recruiters: it's not about communicating with more candidates faster (spamming??), but about communicating better in the most impactful way.

The Hyper-Personalization Myth

As recruiters, we pride ourselves on our unique touch—our distinct voice, style, and tone—that makes our candidates feel valued. The hyper-personalization promise offered by many vendors is to give people the ability to do this on a grand scale, but there's a catch. At this moment in time, what vendors call hyper-personalization is adding a snippet of text of a publicly available fact about that person to an email. Think about all the sales emails you’ve gotten recently when your college football team is playing. Or, in some cases, “stalker-personalization.” “Hi there! I see you visited our page 5 times already”.

If every recruiter uses the same tool and sends the same "personalized" emails, the uniqueness and effectiveness of these tools will fade quickly. You don't want to be that recruiter whose outreach feels automated and insincere. Artificial Intelligence can already do this all by itself.

Rewiring the Recruiting Mindset?

The rapid evolution of AI pushes us to reflect: Is our goal to do more in less time, or to use the time AI affords us to do better? Embracing the latter ensures a sustainable and meaningful future for recruiters. The true essence of a recruiter's role isn't about speed but about fostering genuine connections. It’s essential that while we innovate, we ensure our human essence remains irreplaceable. AI should be our tool, not our identity.

As we stand at this technological crossroads, let's choose the path that augments our abilities, enriches our interactions, and emphasizes our unique human touch. The promise of AI is immense; harness it wisely; harness it to elevate the human side of recruiting.

AI Gave You Free Time? Let's Use More AI to Fill It!

Gama Filho suggests using a few AI tools and engagement strategies to keep recruiters on the 30x Better Path while still leveraging the new technology:

Good: Convert the Job Description into an AI-created Slide Show

Using ChatGPT and an AI slide show tool to dynamically turn job descriptions into engaging slideshows, offering candidates a fresh perspective and adding your personality and branding to what was just boring text.

Better: Convert the AI-created presentation into an AI-created video of the presentation.?

Videos engage candidates both visually and audibly, especially if you are targeting a younger generation. It makes the content more memorable and the role easier to comprehend.