Automation has impacted recruiting for quite some time. However, the next several years may bring recruiting’s biggest shift in decades, thanks to the evolution of generative AI and the increasing adoption of conversational AI, which may prove pivotal for recruiting teams and staffing firms.
Here’s how generative AI has already changed recruiting, how it’s evolving, and which AI applications recruiters can start adopting now. We’ll also share how organizations can prepare for the transformations and greater recruiting efficiencies promised by conversational AI.
Here are the topline benefits recruiters have reaped from AI, how those benefits came about, and where the future of AI and recruiting is heading.
Generative AI has been a game changer for recruiting
Core metrics like cost per hire, time to hire, redeployment (for staffing firms), and candidate satisfaction have been drastically improved by AI over the past five or so years, as it reduces mundane, repetitive tasks and frees recruiters to focus instead on 1:1 communication and relationship building. For instance, researchers from Gartner recently found that 64% of the HR professionals they surveyed reported decreased times to fill roles thanks to generative AI.
Early days of AI and automation in tech recruiting
The overall interest in adopting automation and generative AI sprung in large part from a desire to increase efficiency among recruiting teams, as a LinkedIn survey back in 2018 suggested.
Tech recruiters in particular tended to be early adopters of AI and automation. They saw the potential impact these technologies could have on day-to-day operations, since they were oftentimes surrounded by technical talent deploying these same technologies internally in different applications.
And it quickly became clear for early adopters that layering generative AI with automation would have profound impacts on the candidate experience. AI and automation (offered via simple, intuitive UI) allowed recruiting teams to address or entirely eliminate pressing candidate complaints—specifically slow responses from recruiters and limited communication.
The first “real” interactions many recruiters had with AI and automation were with seemingly simple yet impactful email automation (and later, text message automation). Another powerful and early application of generative AI in recruiting focused on the ROI enhancement of tech stacks. Specifically, many recruiters used AI to improve the health of the candidate data in their ATSs, as well as their ability to send relevant job openings to candidates. By applying AI and automation in these ways, many organizations saw improvements in core metrics like cost per hire, time to hire and, for staffing firms, redeployment.
The generative AI “future” is now
Generative AI’s recent rapid improvements promise even greater efficiency and ROI for recruiters. The future of generative AI is right now, and AI’s most powerful applications have evolved to include targeted job matching, prescreening, scheduling, FAQs, and job descriptions. While new, innovative platforms and tools frequently enter the market, we’ve included links to some of the platforms and tools we know are currently offering these cutting-edge generative AI capabilities.
Job matching
The right AI tools will regularly comb through your database to match new job postings or reqs directly to candidates, reducing job board spend, time to hire, and cost per hire. What’s more, AI and automation can send candidates who’ve applied an instant email with additional job matches they may be a fit for—this will be particularly powerful for staffing firms. Platforms like Pymetrics and Zoho currently offer this functionality.Prescreening
Job seekers apply to 13 positions at a time on average (according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics), leaving recruiters with a deluge of applications to sift through. But with technical talent in such high demand, time is of the essence. Getting time with talent for prescreens can take days, and top talent will often be snagged in the interim. That’s why eliminating or accelerating certain steps of the hiring process is essential, regardless of the day and time.
With AI-powered prescreening, candidates who apply after business hours can get “instant” responses, avoiding the back-and-forth of coordinating meetings and then going through a prescreen. Generative AI can ask candidates predetermined questions right after they apply and politely inform candidates if they’re not a good fit. Platforms such as Phenom and HireVue offer this kind of functionality.Scheduling
But, if a candidate is a fit, generative AI can then schedule an interview directly to your recruiters’ calendars. No back and forth messaging and attempts to sync calendars required. AI-powered rescreening and scheduling can take place within minutes of someone applying, 24/7, 365 days a year. Platforms such as Paradox and Bullhorn currently offer this functionality.FAQs
AI can enable “smart” FAQs that use natural language processing to understand a variety of terms and sentence structures to accurately and instantly answer candidate questions. These FAQs can answer questions about specific jobs and job requirements and even recommend jobs based on criteria. Platforms like iCIMS and Sense offer this functionality.Job descriptions
By analyzing industry trends, “learning” your company culture, and understanding specific job requirements, your technology platform can mobilize AI to generate engaging job descriptions and postings that are more likely to convert visitors into candidates eager to apply. Solutions from Workable and Jasper offer this functionality.
Conversational AI coupled with generative AI will be just as pivotal
Generative AI continues to evolve and offer more ways to empower recruiters to operate efficiently while building stronger relationships with talent. With that in mind, we predict that the next AI-powered transformation in tech recruiting will come from the combination of conversational AI with generative AI.
The main difference between conversational AI and generative AI is that the latter can produce multiple types of content in response to a query or prompt (for example, ChatGPT offering an answer to a math problem or a joke). Meanwhile, conversational AI provides answers to specific human questions, often along a particular topic (for example, a customer-service chatbot recognizing a human question about a service or problem and responding with a specific answer).
Conversational AI applications in recruiting could work much like highly advanced versions of the AI chatbots we see now (which read inputs and generate predetermined responses based on those inputs). These applications could tremendously impact prescreening, job matching, and scheduling. Tech candidates who engage with recruitment applications of this technology may even be able to have a conversation with the digital persona of an employer’s brand.
These hyper-charged recruiting chatbots might be able to conduct human-like conversations and perhaps pick up on non-verbal cues (think, facial expressions and gestures via video), all while exhibiting empathy, reasoning, and trust. Next-generation interactions will be designed to make candidates feel like they are having a dialogue with something that knows how to help them rather than just going through the motions with a simple chatbot.
Benefits of conversational AI in tech recruiting
Conversational AI will change the game for recruiter efficiency, interviews, and scalability.
Conversational AI won’t just continue to improve candidate experience with frictionless experiences (everyone has experience with a chatbot just not getting it); it will likely serve as a central hub for your recruiting team. This means your recruiters will be able to interact with conversational AI to ask it to help with tasks (without specific input), to answer questions about certain candidates, and more.
With conversational AI at the hub and generative AI continuing to improve efficiency, we anticipate that organizations will increasingly consolidate their point solutions, turning to platforms that offer multiple functionalities all in one place (rather than relying on multiple platforms at a time). This will streamline efficiency and costs across the board and go a long way in creating better experiences for both recruiting teams and technical talent.
In terms of candidate experience, conversational AI may soon be able to conduct virtual interviews, which can remove the burden of high volumes of early interviews from recruiters and allow them to concentrate on strong-fit talent. As we mentioned before, conversational AI solutions may be able to react in real-time during interviews and show empathy. And post-interview, conversational AI could measure candidate performance and provide assessments to recruiters so they can make the best choice on whom to move forward with. Conversational AI could also be able to use certain criteria to help quickly filter out ineligible candidates.
These and other conversational AI applications will help enterprise organizations and staffing firms scale their efforts significantly. Recruiters can vet more and more candidates in less and less time so they can ensure talent receives the exceptional experiences that strengthen employer brands.
The corners that shouldn’t be cut
AI has proven game-changing for recruiting and the future is both bright and exciting for technical recruiters. That said, it’s critical for AI developers and recruiters and their organizations to prioritize ethics, and ensure that applications of AI in recruiting eliminate bias and provide a fair and efficient experience for everyone.
Whether you are a seasoned AI adopter or venturing into AI for the first time, we hope we’ve equipped you with the insights you need to take the future of tech recruiting and AI by storm. If you haven’t yet, check out the rest of our Future of Tech Recruiting series: we have entries on the evolution of skills-based recruiting, the “workplace,” and recruitment marketing.