18 Sep Latest Blog

AI in Recruitment

Artificial intelligence is in its infancy in the recruitment industry but there is no doubt that its popularity is rising.

To ignore such a huge technological advancement would be unwise – and likely futile. It’s a hot topic and is something to consider in future planning in our sector.

Many candidates, who don’t use a recruitment consultant, might use it as a springboard for what to include in a CV, however, we would always recommend asking an expert to take a look before you submit it for a vacancy.

If you are very unsure about where to start with a CV, it is risky to rely upon a robot without any human element or expert advice.

Our director Simon Wills can see the potential benefits of adopting AI into the recruitment process and plans to investigate the subject further at the upcoming Recrutiment Agency Expo next month.

He said: “Sourcing activity could certainly be automated a lot with AI, rather than trawling the internet manually, as it’s a time consuming process.

“There will already be AI out there to trawl CV databases to look for keywords or key skills. You can do it to a certain extent but it’s a bit hit and miss.”

His concern is that AI wouldn’t think outside the box and consider potential candidates that don’t obviously meet the key criteria but could be a worthwhile suggestion nonetheless.

Simon said: “If AI is sourcing a candidate, is it the right candidate? The concern for me would be are they missing anything and how do we identify if they are missing anything? I still think human input is important.”

Artificial Intelligence can easily and readily search for a specific keyword and find suitable candidates, but it might have missed an inconspicuous option. A person is more likely to come across a potential candidate and say it’s not exactly what I’m looking for but I’m not tunnel focussed and this person has a number of vital or transferrable skills that might be exactly the combination for success.

Artificial intelligence doesn’t have that skill. Also, as soon as a candidate has been sourced, the recruitment process relies upon the interjection of a person.

“AI can’t take over the role of the consultant and the way that they engage with the client,” said Simon. “Eventually it will probably do everything but my own impression, at the moment, is that it will do a part of the process but it hasn’t replaced the need for a dedicated recruitment consultant.

“It’s amazing that you can put in a broad search term and get all this incredible information at the touch of a button, but we have to go through it with a fine tooth comb to make sure it hits the mark.”

If you need help finding a job or sourcing a new employee, contact Wills Consultants today on 01536 512202.