- We’re still in the early days of operationalizing AI in recruiting.
- AI can help personalize a candidate’s experience and transform the role of HR.
- By taking over repeatable tasks, AI enables talent acquisition teams to focus on work that demands human intelligence and personalized interactions.
If AI isn’t helping your organization achieve its strategic goals in talent acquisition, you’re not alone.
That message was evident during the recent webinar, “AI and talent acquisition: From automating tasks to strategic transformation.”
“I think most people have accepted that there’s going to be [a] significant opportunity with the use of artificial intelligence in improving business efficiencies, operational processes, and even things like candidate experience,” said Hung Lee, Editor with Recruiting Brainfood. “But the vast majority of companies have not moved on from acceptance to operationalization.”
I recently joined Lee and Elke Manjet, SVP Talent with UiPath, on this webinar where we agreed that in 2025, business leaders will expect to see significant strides in AI capabilities and organizations that aren’t using AI to its full potential are leaving a lot on the table.
When HR teams use AI, the technology helps identify talent gaps, execute skill-based hiring, streamline communications with applicants and hiring managers, and more.
While integrating the technology, HR leaders must impart the right messages to team members about the benefits of AI and how it’s designed to help them with tasks—not take their jobs.
AI is there to serve and complement us, not to take over. Here are 5 more takeaways I learned from our conversation.
Related content: Watch “AI and talent acquisition: From automating tasks to strategic transformation” on demand now.
Why it’s time to stop dabbling in AI and go full throttle
HR executives know that AI can transform their work, but many lack the time or resources to unlock its full potential.
As professionals, we need to be very fluent with the usage of AI,” said Lee. “We need to stop dipping our toes in and really spend time to get the maximum juice out of that lemon.”
To do that, he said talent acquisition leadership must find bandwidth to experiment with the technology and be prepared for a significant learning curve as they do.
“This is very difficult because we’re all working at 120% maxed-out capacity,” said Lee. “We’re driving the car 100 mph down the freeway, and we’ve got to swap out all the tires.”
Lee said it’s essential to negotiate with business leaders so that they understand there will be disruptions, but the benefits will soon outweigh the bumps in the road. And when those benefits kick in, it’s time to keep negotiating.
“I can go to my boss and say, ‘Hey, I’ve just saved your hiring managers 5,000 hours of time this year—that translates into this amount of money,” said Lee.
Those funds can then be invested in other vital areas, such as improving employee engagement.
Transparency is key in an organization’s AI journey
Effective change management will be essential as AI takes on broader roles so that employees understand what the technology can and can’t do.
I believe there’s a misconception that AI can solve all these problems—but it really only learns what it’s been fed. It’s a leader’s responsibility to make sure that people actually appreciate what those limits and risks can be.
At the same time, Manjet said that while it’s important to communicate AI’s benefits to team members (i.e., that these tools can take over repetitive tasks), leaders should emphasize that employees aren’t at risk of losing their jobs to AI.
However, they could risk losing their jobs to people who know how to work well with AI. “I think we need to be prepared for constant reskilling,” she said.
Lee said that in the future, more organizations could even create leadership positions focused primarily on AI, such as chief automation officer roles.
“A chief automation officer’s responsibilities could overlap with aspects of the work of the people team, such as understanding how people work and understanding what the job specs are,” he said.
It could be a career path for a TA or HR executive.
Related content: Learn how Eaton, a global power management company, transformed its hiring process with AI.
AI will transform the hiring process—and HR’s role in it
HR teams can rely on AI to carry out time-consuming tasks that help keep job applicants and internal staff informed and engaged. Some of those duties may include sending interview prep materials to applicants and hiring managers, seeking feedback after interviews, updating candidates on the process, writing letters, and more.
“I think technology is infinite,” said Manjet. “It’s on us to really define where we want to leverage it and what part of the job we still owe our customers.”
With those rote responsibilities removed, HR teams can focus on duties that demand human intelligence and personalized interactions.
I envision a future where recruiters act more like career counselors, able to engage in more advisory conversations. This is an opportunity to really redefine the role of the recruiter to professionalize it, regulate it, and lend more compliance around it.
Existing data could be key to finding top talent
Publicly posted jobs invite waves of applicants using AI to search for open positions.
“Anybody who’s posted a job in the last 12 months will tell you they get inundated with applications now,” said Lee.
It’s a lot of work, and Lee believes that in the future, businesses will move away from external hiring and become more creative. AI will play an important role in that.
For example, AI can sort through candidates previously vetted by a hiring manager or recruiter or even identify skills in current employees whose skills fit the role in question.
“We have accumulated huge amounts of data that’s just sitting here,” said Lee. “AI can reactivate that data and find a rich source of candidates.”
Transformation is a long game
While AI has game-changing potential, the strategic impact won’t be immediate. Both AI and humans must learn and train extensively to set up a system that best serves an organization’s needs, including its job requirements.
“Make sure that people understand it’s a journey,” said Manjet.
She added that organizations should define their goals and then monitor and measure their progress, making adjustments as needed.
“Everybody needs to contribute to a certain extent for a while until it really yields the outcome that we want,” said Manjet. “The world won’t be better overnight.”
Watch “AI and talent acquisition: From automating tasks to strategic transformation” on demand now.
