Recruitment Firms Adopt AI Technology to Enhance Efficiency and Candidate Pool
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Recruitment companies are adopting generative artificial intelligence technology to find candidates and improve efficiency, a strategy to cope with the cooling job market.
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Chief Innovation Officer at global recruitment firm ManpowerGroup, professor of business psychology, and recruitment technology expert, stated: 'With the talent market remaining tight, companies are struggling to find the right people to fill positions. In this regard, AI is highly beneficial: it enables recruiters to source talent from broader and more unconventional places, identifying more candidates by screening and scanning millions of job applications.'
Image credit: AI-generated image, licensed by MidjourneyThe efforts of recruitment firms to find more candidates stem from the decline in permanent positions, which has impacted their fee-based revenue. Like other recruitment companies, Robert Walters, operating in 31 countries, has faced challenges in fees in the UK and other regions. CEO Toby Fowlston mentioned that they are utilizing advancements in AI to increase job applications and reach a wider pool of potential candidates.
Their recently launched AI-based Adify software can evaluate and write job advertisements to attract people from diverse backgrounds. The company claims this helps employers enhance team diversity. A pilot project of Adify resulted in a '23% increase in female applicants' and a 'significant' rise in overall applications due to modifications in job ad language.
Denis Machuel, CEO of competitor Adecco, noted that AI is helping recruiters 'make better choices' and speed up the hiring process. He said, 'This is great because it allows recruiters to focus on what matters most: interactions with clients and candidates.' Machuel believes chatbots can engage in 'human-like conversations' with job seekers, while AI handles 'background work,' freeing up recruiters to build relationships with employers and candidates. Adecco not only creates job ads 'in seconds' but also uses AI to compile candidate shortlists and identify key skills. In 2021, the company acquired QAPA, France's second-largest digital workforce solutions provider, for €65 million. QAPA uses AI and cloud infrastructure to match candidates with job openings.
Technology is also aiding job seekers. Adecco's AI-powered 'resume builder tool' can generate resumes from verbal instructions. The company also announced a partnership with Microsoft to create a generative AI-based career platform that assesses candidates' skills and provides tailored career advice.
Recruiters and their clients are preparing for the emergence of new roles and the demand for more technical expertise. Machuel believes that positions like 'prompt engineers' will 'flourish' in the future. However, a recent report by Adecco shows that those at the forefront of innovation are the most convinced of the importance of human skills in the workplace. In a survey of 30,000 employees across 23 countries, 67% of tech workers believe that the 'human touch' plays a more significant role than artificial intelligence. The survey results indicate that emotional intelligence, empathy, active listening, and interpersonal skills are the human traits most difficult to replace.
However, Chamorro-Premuzic points out that the risks associated with adopting AI technology, such as 'dehumanized recruitment' and cyberattacks, are 'real ethical concerns.' He notes, 'If you train AI on garbage data, it will provide you with garbage insights and recommendations. If you teach AI to replicate human preferences, it will copy and amplify human biases and unfairness. Inequality may increase.'
Recruitment firms expect this to lead to increased demand for new skills. Fowlston states that over the next five to ten years, as AI develops, 'technical roles' and specific technical skills within the tech sector will be in demand. He also notes the impact on legal and HR departments. He believes, 'Ensuring that technology is ethical and produces the right responses and outcomes will require some legal hiring.'
Fowlston anticipates changes in HR teams as well, 'because if you automate certain roles, it will affect job descriptions, recruitment methods, talent attraction, and the transfer of potential within the organization.' He says, 'There are people in our organization who were previously recruiters, then became product specialists... and then transitioned into strictly product-driven roles.'