Alternate Reality
In a reality where at least 50% (potentially more) of the day-to-day activities you currently perform as a recruitment consultant will become automated; where jobboards in their current form will be obsolete and where you start your day talking to a CV-bot that details the profiles that it has found overnight and why it thinks you should make secondary contact (because it has already made primary contact) with these individuals becomes the norm — how far in the future would you estimate this to be?
Personally, I don’t think it’s that far off at all.
The First Wave
The simple fact that the recruitment industry has already undergone a change through the advent of social media is an illustration that the industry has a willingness to adopt new technology. In this context, LinkedIn will be cited as having the most significant influence on the behaviours and approach of recruitment professionals.
Having said that, these are platforms that are currently utilised by us and rely on ‘input in’ to get ‘input out’; and although the algorithms are much improved, they still do have the propensity to return results that are inconsistent with the initial search criteria.
I’m sure we’ve all encountered search results that leave you questioning how a particular profile has been highlighted on the basis of one key word.
The Future is Now
With IBM already deploying Watson, there is already evidence that artificial intelligence is being used for cognitive computing in a variety of ways.
From simple document conversion and language translation, conversation via virtual agents and chat bots and personality insights which extracts and analyses a number of personality attributes to discover actionable insights about people — imagine how useful a combination of these services could be when screening profiles and supporting information, reviewing blog posts and social media content to really build a more meaningful overview of the individual.
In addition to this, Wipro Holmes delivers the Intelligent Recruitment Agent; using machine learning and visual recognition. Holmes can validate behaviours and states that it utilises “multi-modal human interaction can assess mood and temperament, nine basic emotional responses”.
Add these two specific examples to the host of companies already investing in AI such as Google, Facebook and of course Microsoft. As a side thought — think Microsoft, AI and their recent acquisition of LinkedIn…
An Imitation of Life
There will always be scepticism about advancements in technology; especially when it is said to fundamentally change the way we work — I’m sure you would have sat next to a colleague, reported into a Manager or read content stating that social media would not replace human interaction when it comes to the recruitment industry.
The evidence is to the contrary. The same continues to be said about AI.
What does AI mean for recruitment talent?
From a client perspective, a combination of the ability to continue to identify new employees with higher degrees of accuracy, have access to subjective information to make better hiring decisions and potentially reduce the time or hire all based on a platform of increased efficiency; will be a very powerful return on investment. The zero reliance on a preferred supplier list of agencies will just be an additional bonus.
From the perspective of an individual actively looking for a new career challenge, to being contacted about a relevant opportunity or finding out about a new role even if you weren’t actually looking; the appeal of more targeted and specific content will be refreshing.
In both the client and individual context, the development of AI services and solutions have the ability to address and fulfil these needs.
My personal view is that the utilisation of AI in recruitment is inevitable; to what degree your company or the companies you partner with utilise it will have an impact on the role your company and you play in the recruitment lifecycle.
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