“You aren’t being replaced by AI, you’re being replaced by a person who knows how to use AI.”
I heard this recently from a colleague and was immediately struck by the simple truth of it. Sensational headlines are everywhere when it comes to Artificial Intelligence, especially the idea that it’s going to take all our jobs. In reality, I think this statement is much more the truth. AI is not coming for your job; it’s coming to your job. Learning how to adopt and benefit from the assistance and efficiencies that AI offers will be the key to remaining relevant and having a successful career.
Let’s look at my own industry – staffing and recruiting – as an example. I am much more interested in how AI can help us do a better job than I am worried it’s going to replace us. What does AI have to offer when it comes to the hiring process?
Turns out a lot!
According to AI itself, lol, it “offers benefits like increased efficiency, faster time-to-hire, and improved candidate experience.” It can help with:
- Job descriptions
- Candidate sourcing
- Applicant screening
- Interviews
- Skills assessments
- Onboarding
- Bias control
- Predictive Analytics
That’s an impressive list!
It could include even more, but it’s a good sample that shows the breadth of where AI can make a difference. AI can review resumes and determine which ones match the selected job criteria much more quickly than a person. It can also scan a candidate’s online presence to get a more robust picture of their capabilities and experience, an even more time-consuming endeavor for a single recruiter. Thanks also to AI, candidates can easily apply to jobs and open positions routinely garner hundreds of applicants, so using AI tools or agents in sourcing and screening candidates can be a tremendous time saver.
Tasks that are laborious and repetitive are obvious targets for AI, and anything that can cut time and aggravation from the process is welcome by everyone. Time-to-hire may be an industry term but candidates feel the pain too. Candidate experience is a hot topic because it matters. From the moment a candidate reads your job description and looks at your website, they are forming an opinion and beginning a relationship with your company. AI that makes the process easier will enhance the experience, which ups the odds that your preferred candidates will eventually accept your offer. I’m also intrigued by the promise of AI in predictive analytics. Being able to use data from past company experience to manage your workforce, like planning for hiring needs or identifying trends, can be a strategic advantage.
Honestly, it’s hard not to be excited by the AI tools that we’re already using, and benefitting from, as well as by what’s to come as AI moves out of its early stages and gains in sophistication and capabilities. But should recruiters also be worried? Is AI going to take my job?
The key is to remember that AI is not human. There are critically important parts of the hiring process that a machine, no matter how smart or loaded with data it is, simply can’t do. It can’t be empathetic or explain your company culture, or develop a true relationship with a candidate, one built on trust. People don’t trust machines, they trust people. It can’t recognize a hidden gem, or a potential misstep. Recruiters make genuine connections with both the people they are hiring for, and the candidates they are trying to place. AI is a tool that a skilled recruiter can use to free up more time to build a true rapport with a candidate or to deeply understand a company’s culture and mission.
As I mentioned, candidates crave authenticity these days, a struggle for AI. Common sense, intuition, and adaptability are human qualities not easily replicated by feeding data into an LLM. Negotiating salary, terms, and conditions? Not a strong suit for AI either, lol. This is why AI is a tool that can help a recruiter, a lot, but not replace them. The key is recognizing that AI can help best with tedious, time consuming, repetitive tasks, not the parts of the process that require nuanced judgment, adaptability and a personal, human touch.
AI is a tremendous tool that can create efficiencies and improvements that benefit both employer and employee, but there we will always need a human at the heart of the process.