Artificial Intelligence in Talent Acquisition and HR

Following back up on our recent poll for AI in Talent Acquisition/HR, the majority of you voted that AI needs more time to develop. Although a close second was that AI can help now, highlighting that potentially the level of proven AI/automation available can help streamline processes and shorten time spent on more administrative tasks. Let's unpack that for a minute.

Specifically for talent acquisition, we've seen developments for a while around interview scheduling and candidate matching to searches or job descriptions. You could argue that up to 50% of a recruiter's time is spent on sourcing candidates for open positions, and automating those tasks could lead to more efficiency in TA. According to LinkedIn's Future of Recruiting report, "74% of recruiting experts believe Generative AI will automate repetitive tasks to prioritize strategic TA work, and 67% believe AI will make it faster/easier to source candidates."

The divergence comes in several areas.? First, (in my experience) many companies are over-promising and underdelivering.? If a system is clunky, over-complicated, or not designed as expected, recruiters tend to abandon anything they feel becomes a time-wasting exercise in favor of habitual proven methods.? Secondly, some of the technology is expensive and many companies still don’t view talent acquisition as a strategic partner, making investment in those departments difficult.? Lastly, we come into the “bias” in the system.? One of those was highlighted by the FTC back in April of 2021, stating how “AI can produce and reinforce discrimination and that AI tools can reflect biases of its developers that lead to faulty and potentially illegal outcomes.”? Furthermore, citing design flaws, inaccuracy, and commercial surveillance incentives (Article ).

So where do we land with this (outside of the 6% of respondents who believe an AI Terminator is coming ??)??The truth tends to lie somewhere in the middle as seen in the poll.?Yes, we are years if not decades away from fully automated AI taking over more of TA and HR functions, and I believe we will never be able to remove the “Human” from Human Resources.?At the end of the day HR is in the people business and people are a company’s most valuable resource. Technology needs more time to develop and if we recognize the errors and course correct accordingly, AI could become a valuable tool for HR functions.?For now, simplifying and automating more administrative/time consuming tasks seems to be the accepted use case until the technology, value, and price point progress to a trusted level for wider adoption.