The pandemic hastened technological transformations in a number of industries. Tools like videoconferencing, platforms for cloud-based collaboration, and similar options existed pre-pandemic, but their use became normalized as workers sought to maintain social distance while still completing core job tasks.
This more-remote world, combined with the refinement of artificial intelligence, offers the opportunity for companies to hire at a truly global scale. Managing a planet’s worth of applications hasn’t been achievable for humans working alone. Humans working with AI, on the other hand, can seek top talent worldwide.
Why AI is essential to global hiring
Remote working options have changed the way both employers and workers think about work. In the wake of the pandemic, 84 percent of employers are focused on using technology to revamp work processes, anticipating that up to 44 percent of the workforce could be moved to remote positions, write Klaus Schwab and Saadia Zahidi at the World Economic Forum.
Being able to work from anywhere in the world gives workers greater flexibility in seeking work roles, employers, and career paths. It also gives employers more options when recruiting. Companies are no longer limited to those willing to relocate to or already residing in the geographic locale of a particular office. Now, employers can look for talent worldwide.
Remote work tools, however, are only one piece of the technological puzzle when it comes to global hiring. Artificial intelligence is an essential part of the process as well.
AI offers the following indispensable capabilities to companies seeking to hire globally:
- AI can analyze massive datasets, including an applicant pool that spans the globe.
- AI can focus on skills and capabilities, rather than using ineffective proxies like educational credentials.
- AI can provide insight into existing applicants and via predictive analytics, can also suggest how a particular candidate might perform on various career paths.
By analyzing large data sets and providing insights, artificial intelligence can serve as a valuable part of a worldwide talent search.
How to incorporate AI as hiring scales
Artificial intelligence opens up the possibility of seeking talent from a worldwide pool of job seekers. Yet AI cannot do the work alone. Perhaps the most important factor in using AI to scale hiring internationally is to use it as one tool among many.
“Machine learning has the potential to effectively tackle difficult problems that other analytical techniques can’t, but it is most powerful as a piece in a technology stack alongside many others,” says Ben Blume, an investment partner at Atomico. Blume says that as a deep tech investor, he’s interested in how AI and related tools are used to solve problems and the responses customers and users have to AI-based products, services, and experiences.
Blume’s perspective indicates that companies seeking to incorporate AI into their hiring process will benefit from treating AI as one tool in the toolbox, accompanied by other technologies and by human expertise and input.
To scale hiring to a global level, AI is essential, but it works best when it is used to inform and support human efforts. Understanding how well AI is working requires assessing its impact on human endeavors and relationships.
AI’s role in a global hiring process is to analyze data, report on patterns in that data, and make predictions. Identifying the best new hire for any given role, however, will always remain the role of the human beings participating in the hiring process.
The best way to incorporate AI into a global hiring process is to do so thoughtfully. “We do think AI is worth the investment, but it requires effective execution to generate significant value, particularly at enterprise scale,” according to McKinsey’s Tara Balakrishnan and fellow researchers. For example, consider questions like:
- What needs to change to scale our hiring globally? What problems may arise?
- What tools can be used to solve those problems? Where is AI the right option?
- How will we implement AI and other tools to scale hiring?
- How will we oversee, measure, and adjust the use of AI in our hiring process?
Artificial intelligence makes a once-impossible task doable for many companies: Finding top talent in a global talent search. When incorporated with human expertise and other tools, AI can do its best work.
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