This year, there has been a big increase in chatter around AI recruiting. Companies are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to support their hiring needs. But with so many different options and opinions out there, it can be hard to understand what AI recruiting means—and would it could mean for your business and your day-to-day work.
This post answers your basic questions about AI recruiting, so that you can make a knowledgeable decision about whether to consider a solution for hiring with AI.
What is AI recruiting?
AI recruiting is any technology that uses artificial intelligence to support one or more aspects of the recruiting process (intake, sourcing, engagement, scheduling, evaluation, etc.). These tasks can be made more efficient and more accurate with AI recruiting compared to manual efforts and older generations of technology.
For example, an intake meeting between a recruiting lead and the hiring manager is prone to miscommunication. Hiring managers often feel that recruiting business partners do not understand their needs, while the recruiters will say hiring managers don’t explain themselves clearly enough. An AI recruiting tool can offer a common reference point for both individuals, enabling them to do their work together faster and more effectively.
In some cases, AI recruiting can take the place of manual effort. For example, if the AI can automatically locate enough qualified candidates for most roles, then there is less need for recruiters to find talent individually. In other cases, AI supplements individual work to make it better. With AI providing more insight about each candidate, time can be spent more effectively on candidate engagement—perhaps giving a valuable new role to talent acquisition professionals who no longer need to spend all their time scrolling through resumes.
Why would my company need AI recruiting?
Your company needs AI recruiting if it needs to hire or retain staff regularly, and if you’re large enough to have dedicated recruiters. So if you work for a company today, chances are that your company needs AI recruiting.
You may be thinking that “need” is a very strong word—isn’t AI recruiting just an option to consider? The fact is, AI recruiting is quickly moving from a nice-to-have to a must-have because of the value it offers.
Suppose your company takes an average of 45 days from job opening to making the first offer. Your competitor faces the exact same market for talent you do, but if they have AI recruiting, they may only need 30 days to make an offer. Companies with AI recruiting are able to move faster to hire, and their competitors that lack this technology will be left behind in the war for talent.
Who benefits from AI recruiting?
In short, everyone benefits from AI recruiting.
Hiring managers will interview better-fit candidates and, on average, fill their job openings faster. Even if they never interact directly with any AI recruiting technology, hiring managers benefit from it.
Recruiters will source full pipelines of qualified people much faster, so they can spend more of their time engaging, encouraging, and advancing great candidates rather than scrolling through endless lists of resumes, or clicking through tedious workflows. AI doesn’t replace human recruiters—it makes them better.
Human resources will benefit because they can coach employees based on real data regarding skills, career progressions, and opportunities. Internal mobility is enabled in a fundamentally new way.
Not least of all, candidates benefit when companies use AI recruiting. The technology enables these companies to communicate faster and more usefully with candidates. If AI is deployed directly on a career site, candidates can match themselves to their best-fit jobs without frustrating searches or applying to dozens of jobs at once. Candidates from diversity categories can especially benefit from AI recruiting, because this technology removes sources of unconscious bias that impact these candidates negatively.
When should i consider AI recruiting?
There’s no bad time to get started recruiting with AI. Since an AI recruiter will achieve benefits and savings of multiple times its cost, sooner is always better. However, there are specific times when it will make even more sense to consider this technology.
If you can foresee a large expansion in hiring needs a few quarters away, then now is a good time to invest in AI recruiting. You will be ready to scale your hiring when the time comes. If your company has significant university recruiting strategies, then add AI recruiting in time for the campus hiring season.
If your industry is becoming competitive for talent, with companies attracting key staff from other firms, then AI recruiting is a strong response to the competition in your market. You’ll gain a durable leg up on your competitors for attracting, hiring, and retaining the people you need. (If your competitor already has AI recruiting, then your need is indeed urgent.)
When your existing recruiting technology investments are up for renewal, that is an excellent time to consider AI recruiting as the natural evolution of your technology strategy.
Where can i find AI recruiting?
You came to the right place! Eightfold’s Talent Intelligence Platform is the most capable talent solution built on AI. Eightfold supports global enterprise needs, ranging from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of employees. And only Eightfold provides a solution for talent acquisition, CRM, talent experience, talent diversity, and talent management on a single platform.
So do your research, learn about the capabilities of the technologies on offer, and give us a call to learn how you can bring AI recruiting into your company.
