Why Artificial Intelligence Will Disrupt the Recruiting Industry

While authors and directors of the past have been imagining what life might look like in 2016 for some time, many of their premonitions have not yet arrived. We may be missing out on some of the more extravagant promises of books and movies, but technology is now beginning to advance in some areas we may not have expected. What if a robot found you your dream job? With advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), robotic head hunting just may be the way of the future.

How Does It Work?

In the realm of popular culture, there have been many imagined futures that paint a not-so-friendly picture of artificial intelligence. Fortunately for recruiters, this particular kind of AI is more interested in finding you your next employee of the month, rather than shooting for world domination. Job recruiting websites have long been used by both employers and hopeful employees in an effort to streamline the hiring process. The days of opening the newspaper to the “help wanted” page are all but behind us.

From job postings to job applications, in order to find a job or the right employee, we are most likely to take to the internet. Many people have found success with current recruiting sites, like Monster or LinkedIn, but the future of artificial intelligence and job recruitment will do away with older algorithms that operate solely on one platform or the other to help employers search for candidates across the vastness of the internet.

According to the Cronian Group, the potential of using AI in the recruiting process is best for large companies and could radically alter the hiring process. Despite having a top-notch HR team, any large company can easily get overwhelmed trying to pick the best candidate for an open position. With so much to consider in every applicant, stacking them all up against each other can make for a difficult compare and contrast process. This is where AI arrives to smooth the rough edges. The Cronian Group describes a few of the ways AI can simplify hiring:

• “possibility to create complex filters just with a few clicks
• gives you the chance to create reports in real time that can help you better understand the recruitment possibilities in the market you are operating
• create reports for your clients in order to transparentize the recruitment process”

Up until recently, not many advancements have been made in the realm of online job recruitment. Sites that require job-hunters to create profiles have many pitfalls. Primarily, if they fall into an inactive state. Employers searching through these sites may have to wade through tons of outdated profiles of people that may not even be looking for employment anymore. Another issue with these sites is their reliance on labeling skills in very finite ways. Maybe you studied business in college, but some of your strongest skills lie in social media and communications work. Having to choose between areas of focus can make it difficult for you to cross-promote yourself across fields of expertise. In turn, it can limit employers in their search for the perfect hire.

The new recruitment site Connectifier hopes to remedy this issue. According to Tech Crunch, Connectifier helps employers find job-hunters by creating collaborative profiles with information gathered across a person’s entire internet foot-print. This ensures that all information remains up-to-date. It also allows for a prospective employee’s various skills to be combined in one central location. Have you published popular blog posts? Start an active social media group? These kinds of activities can be pulled together and included in a complex profile that is more dynamic and thorough than your average resumé.

The Downside of AI for Recruiting

While AI advancements can make many of our daily tasks easier, it can also leave us feeling a little lacking at times. AI job recruiting can and will take a lot of the grunt work out of searching for new hires to fill open positions. No more tedious browsing through job boards or sifting through a never-ending stack of resumés. Unfortunately, it can also take away some of the personableness of the hiring process. AI can search across the ether and consolidate candidates based on numerous filters of criteria, but it can’t exactly numerate something like a personality. Fast-paced jobs need quick thinkers. Repetitive work requires a meticulous worker with an eye for detail. These are not qualities that online AI recruitment can currently quantify for an employer.

On the flipside, AI might be able to reveal more about a hopeful new employee than they might want. Since the AI recruitment technologies being developed now rely on pulling information on a person from all over the internet, social media content is up for grabs. This means that job-hunters have to be on their best social media behavior when looking for work. Access to this content might be considered handy by employers, but the system isn’t perfect. It can be easy to misinterpret content shared on these kinds of sites. However, for those who aren’t savvy with their social media presence, it can be easy to post content that will obviously alienate them from employers. So think twice before posting too many pictures of last weekend’s party or extreme political choice. Whether or not those images are actually indicative of your personality is irrelevant to a robot.

Future of Recruitment

Is AI the next logical step in job recruitment? It just may be. Like any new development, there are kinks to work out and shortcomings to be considered. But so far, many agree that AI is the best way to complete the hiring process of the future. CEO of The Adler Group and best-selling author, Lou Adler, is a big believer. In a post on LinkedIn, he writes, “Properly executed, artificial intelligence offers great promise for raising the overall talent level of a company while providing people with more intrinsically motivating and satisfying jobs and careers.” We may still be waiting on flying cars, but the future of AI-powered hiring might be here to stay.

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Photo credit: Alex B / CC BY-SA 2.0