A after I: Why AI Won’t Replace Recruiters
Balancing Automation, Bias, and the Human Touch for a Future-Ready Workforce
Over the past few years, one question has floated to the surface in the hiring world: what role will AI serve, and will it have a positive impact? Well, that depends on who you talk to. If you poll some folks in the C-suites, the prospect of AI joining their workforce feels beneficial — more automation, more streamlined processes, and less overhead. But other folks are sounding the alarm on AI, especially recruiters. With layoffs, job replacement, and the amped intelligence of the artificial systems that have premiered in the sector, it can feel like someone pulled a page from the script of the next Terminator movie. But if you asked us, it feels like the true answer lies somewhere in the middle — AI isn’t coming for your job, but it’s also not a one-size-fits-all solution. So how can a recruiter use AI effectively while still protecting their career? Let’s talk about it:
Don’t Confuse Automation for Amalgamation
Though more than 85% of HR professionals believe that AI will replace parts of the recruiting process, the word “part” is incredibly important there. So let’s take a deep breath. It can be easy to give yourself over to the fear-inducing idea of AI taking over (or at the very least being your new co-worker), and while it is true that jobs are being consolidated across the board from IKEA to Google to Turnitin.com (yeah, that one boggles our brain, too), the future of AI is more about combining AI efficiency with human authenticity. When it comes to the hiring process, around 79% of recruiters believe that people won’t have to be involved in the recruitment process in the near future, but 56% of candidates think that the final hiring decision should always be done by humans. And while only 31% of respondents would agree that AI should decide if they should get a job, that number jumps to 75% if there’s a human presence involved. Frankly, it’s clear that though you may be able to automate parts of the process, at the end of the day, you’re still communicating with another human, and turns out we humans like human contact — who knew? The future isn’t complete automation, but amalgamation, a combo of both. So instead of fretting over being fully replaced and avoiding AI at all costs, it would serve recruiters well to figure out what parts of their own job (read: the boring parts) could be given to AI, freeing them up to do more fun (human) stuff.
AI Isn’t Inherently Unbiased
While there are ways for AI to be used to help cultivate a hiring slate that’s diverse and free of biases, this isn’t always the case. After all, generative AI pulls from the system it was created in. So imagine a developer who unconsciously allows their own bias to seep into the formation of a tool or system — that same bias would continue through the AI and potentially be misconstrued as hiring protocol, filtering out certain candidates. Take Amazon, for instance: its algorithm used the CVs submitted to the company over a ten-year period to learn how to spot the best candidates. Given the low proportion of women working in the company, as in most technology companies, the algorithm quickly spotted male dominance and thought it was a factor in success. This is just another example of how human oversight is needed in order to keep AI just as ethical as it is efficient.
Embracing Change Is Embracing Progress
The world of AI is growing and evolving every day. As a recruiter, ignoring it is a surefire way to ensure you’ll be left behind. But learning about what AI can offer (and more importantly, learning to spot when it’s only being used as a gimmick) is the best way to explore how it fits in with your workflow and how you can put guardrails on your AI experience, as opposed to feeling like you’re trying to conquer a major learning curve. Learning new AI skills, discovering new applications, and experimenting with what works for you are just a few of the ways to see how to make AI work for you.
Speaking of new tools to check out — TC recently came across Profile.com, a service that touts the tagline: “make AI your co-pilot.”
Their mission is to make the world's professional data reliable, searchable, and accessible to everyone—starting with the recruitment industry. A typical recruiter will spend hours daily manually vetting candidates across multiple platforms, especially for more technical roles. With Profile.com a recruiter can input a prompt such as “recommend rails engineers that have fintech SaaS experience ideally at pre-Series B startups. Prioritize profiles that show examples of their actual work and contributions They must have experience with Hotwire and ideally be based in San Francisco.” and in seconds their tool will auto-evaluate and rank potential candidates across 20+ platforms including Linkedin, GitHub & Behance.
They are currently in beta but are accepting a limited number of design partners, and you can apply for next month's cohort.
It Helps to Be Soft
AI also has the tendency to miss soft skills or things that aren’t front-and-center on a resume. Company culture and knowing how employees will slot in with a company don’t always compute or come across in the black-and-white of a resume, so it's up to recruiters to sell companies on prospective employees. While every applicant might have experience in Java, maybe your candidate is the only one who likes the same cup of Java the CEO does. Though it sounds small, those individual quirks are what make us human (read: employable), and this is where recruiters really shine. It’s up to them to see the person behind the resume, not just the list of qualifications on a page.
Profile.com - An AI company on a mission to make the world's professional data reliable, searchable, and accessible to everyone—starting with the recruitment industry.