How AI Can Help Recruiter Efficiency, But Will Not Replace Them

In an age where technology is constantly evolving, the timeless debate of man versus machine continues to be a prominent issue. However, for recruiters, this dilemma has never been more crucial as they grapple with the pressing question: will artificial intelligence ultimately take over the recruitment process and render human involvement obsolete? 

The reality is that, AI is not going away. Instead of fearing it, let’s embrace it and learn how to utilize it. AI can absolutely enhance the recruitment process, but the threat of total replacement is minimal. Great recruiters leverage technology to help them be better recruiters and know that there is no real risk of being replaced by the tools meant to tackle the heavy lift of recruiting. Even the tools themselves know that they will not replace humans completely. 

When ChatGPT was asked if AI will replace recruiters, the returned output confirmed that “AI is not likely to replace recruiters entirely, as recruitment requires a human touch and decision-making skills that are difficult to replicate with AI.” And that “while AI is likely to continue playing an increasingly important role in the recruitment process, it is unlikely to completely replace human recruiters in the near future.” ChatGPT continues on to indicate that 

“Recruiters provide a level of personalization and relationship-building that AI cannot currently match. Additionally, AI algorithms may have inherent biases that could negatively impact the recruitment process, such as gender or racial bias. Human recruiters can help mitigate these biases by being aware of them and working to ensure that all candidates are given a fair and equal opportunity”.

Now that we've put our fears of total replacement to rest, let's explore the amazing ways AI is partnering with recruiters to transform the recruiting industry! From screening candidates to scheduling interviews and analyzing resumes, AI is already making recruiters' lives easier, which in turn is giving the recruiters more time to focus on enhancing the candidate experience. Which is what should have always been their focus.

Streamline processes with your knowledge of business needs and AI’s speed

Recruiters are able to truly grasp the intricacies of a role, its impact on the business, and align with the hiring manager's expectations to ensure the best candidate is chosen. While AI technology may not possess the unique understanding of business needs that recruiters have, it can still provide valuable support in the hiring process. When AI technology is integrated into the recruitment process, it can assist recruiters in sourcing and identifying potential candidates. With the help of AI, recruiters can target a larger pool of candidates and streamline the recruitment process, while still relying on their unique human perspective to make the final decision. Therefore, the collaboration between AI and human recruiters can lead to a more effective and efficient hiring process that benefits both employers and job seekers.

Have time to focus on candidate experience

In this age of layoffs and cuts to Talent Acquisition teams, most recruiters are being inundated with applicants that can be daunting to review. AI can help to streamline processes and make them more efficient, allowing recruiters to prioritize the candidate experience. AI can help sort through the mountains of applications filling your pipeline and identify candidates who match specific job requirements. Covey just launched their AI co-pilot Scout, which does just that. Vijay Mani, CEO and Co-Founder of Covey, says, 

"AI can never replace a recruiter, but it can make recruiting (and a recruiter's life) much better! Thoughtfully using AI can help talent teams create the leverage they need to shed all the mundane and manual tasks - and spend their time where it's most valuable - building authentic relationships with candidates."

Less of that tedious admin work? Count us in! 

Opening lines of communication

Just as recruiters are faced with reviewing countless applications, candidates are equally overwhelmed with the number of applications, interviews, and disappointments they often face while job hunting. The frustration is magnified further when the candidate has been laid off and is out of work, urgently needing employment to maintain their life. This stress and frustration cannot be addressed by AI. Humans have the ability to relate to candidates with empathy and treat them like human beings, like people, not just like applicants. Being met by a human who can relate to the struggle they are facing can be the difference between a positive and negative candidate experience for the candidate. However, while it is unlikely that AI will ever be able to truly replicate the human touch that a recruiter brings to the process, it can help ensure an equitable experience for all. With AI, follow-up messages and even unfortunate rejection messages can be automated to ensure that candidates receive feedback and follow-up, eliminating the current trend of ghosting. After all, even when it isn’t the feedback they were hoping for, candidates still want and deserve feedback, and status updates about the role, and AI can help deliver. 

Creative problem-solving

As recruiters, we may be asked to recruit for roles outside our niche and scope of understanding. AI can be leveraged to help recruiters understand the intricacies of the role and help create the framework for the search. By quickly being able to gain knowledge about the role specifics, recruiters can get to work in finding the candidates. Additionally, when used in creative ways, AI can be used to help recruiters draft job descriptions, create email/inMail outreach messages, create questions for intake calls and interviews, provide alternative job titles as well as competitor companies to target in sourcing efforts, and can even create Boolean search strings. All of these things allow recruiters to get to work on the human pieces of the process and not get bogged down in the small details. 

Remaining current, constantly learning, and leveraging tools, is what great recruiters naturally do. AI is another example of this, and in no way should be seen as a threat to the industry or to those who have chosen recruiting as their career. We have an incredible opportunity to harness the power of AI to help us become even more powerful recruiters, the future awaits, and humans will win now with the help of machines.