Will AI Replace Recruiters?

I love AI, I use it every single day.

It makes me more efficient, it makes me better at my job, but is it coming to take my job completely?

In a word, no.

AI can already filter CVs, source candidates, message candidates, provide shortlists, book interviews, provide feedback, answer candidate and hiring manager questions, it can basically do a large chunk of what a recruiter does each day.

But does it do it well? Will it ever be able to do it as well as a human recruiter?

Well that depends on a few things, the capability of the human recruiter and the types of roles you’re recruiting.

If you’re hiring 40 people to work in a warehouse or a call centre, AI can pretty much do most of the legwork for you and do it well. Some companies have implemented this really well. This frees up the recruiter to focus on partnering with their stakeholders, or working on roles that require a more human touch.

So when we talk about the human touch, what am I talking about?

Let’s start with hiring managers. A lot of hiring managers don’t know what they want, or if they do, they can’t articulate it. A really good recruiter will ask the right questions to understand exactly what the manager needs and wants, sure the hiring manager can throw a Job Description into an AI platform, but we’ve all seen the quality of job descriptions!

Can AI extract the unique selling points of the role from the hiring manager, the real reasons WHY a candidate would leave their current role and join this team? Beyond boilerplate corporate reasons, I don’t see it, this type of insight only really comes from a conversation.

If AI can’t extract those reasons, how can it write highly engaging job adverts or messages that will resonate with the target audience? It’s going to be difficult right?

And whilst we’re on the subject of hiring managers, are we assuming that all hiring managers will self serve? Most won’t self serve with the ATS to raise a requisition or book interviews, are we expecting AI to solve this? Are we expecting that hiring managers hey won’t need conversations with a human about the candidates on the shortlist, about their role or advice throughout the  process?

How about candidates? Will AI be able to prepare candidates for their interview? Will it be able to give them some background and insight into the personality of their interviewer?

Deciding to take a new job is a massive deal, it’s not like buying a pair of jeans online that you can return if you decide you don’t like them. Good recruiters have conversations with candidates, help them to decide whether to take an offer or not, answer their questions with empathy.

Are our hiring processes set up right for our target audience and the needs of the business? AI can identify bottle necks, it can probably even tell you how to fix them, but can it influence on a human level to convince the key stakeholders that it needs to change?

For these reasons, plus a fair few others, I don’t see AI completely replacing recruiters.

If you’re a recruiter who simply administers a process, well yes you might be in trouble, AI will be able to take away pretty much all of your job.

But if you’re a good recruiter, AI won’t replace you, it will enable you.

It will enable you to do more of the human elements of the role, to have better conversations and provide solutions to both hiring managers and candidates, but only if you embrace it.