The landscape of recruitment has been significantly transformed by the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI), altering how organizations search for, assess, and hire new talent. AI in the recruitment process initially emerged as an experiment in automating mundane tasks and quickly evolved into sophisticated systems capable of managing complex activities. Today, AI in recruitment is no longer a novelty but a staple for many HR departments, with AI in recruitment examples in the form of AI candidate sourcing, chatbots for initial interactions, machine learning algorithms for sifting through untold numbers of resumes, and interview intelligence tools for predictive analytics on each candidate.

The practical use of AI in the recruitment process began in the early 21st century, sparking a revolutionary change in talent acquisition strategies. As these technologies advanced, their roles multiplied, from chatbots, conversational tools, and handling basic screening tasks to providing deep insights into the candidate's experience and potential cultural fit for a team.

Recent challenges for AI in recruitment tools include navigating privacy concerns, eliminating bias to foster diversity, and ensuring the interviewer/ candidate relationship and emotional intelligence (EQ) aspect of hiring remains a central focus in now automated processes.

We've seen these challenges show up at companies like Amazon and Google- but after taking a look at some of the cases mentioned in recent articles I personally believe that these tools weren't completely at fault. In saying this, I'd like to be clear, this is total speculation, but I believe that the tools were actually biased by human feedback. My primary reason for making this assumption is that AI genuinely doesn't care about the factors mentioned that biased the interviews- it doesn't see your religion, the color of your skin, your gender, or your sexual identity. And, well-built "AIs" (which I'm assuming the very intelligent people at Google and Amazon both created) wouldn't have factored these things into hiring decisions- more on this in the next section.

In terms of functionality, AI is a powerful individual and team multiplier streamlining the hiring process by automating time-consuming tasks such as resume screening, reducing time-to-hire, and enabling recruiters to focus on the more human-centric aspects of the job. AI's predictive analysis capabilities also help in forecasting the success of candidates, fairly scoring them, and contributing to more informed decision-making and better quality hires.

Benefits Of Applying AI in Recruitment

Before getting into the possible reasons for bias in AI recruitment solutions at big tech companies, let's consider some benefits.

The Benefits of Applying AI in the Recruitment Process:

We talked a bit about streamlining and analytics, but in reality, the benefits of AI go far deeper than that. From the start, AI-driven tools can sift through hundreds of applications in a fraction of the time it would take human recruiters. This means that AI-powered candidate sourcing tools like HireEZ can add tremendous efficiency to the recruitment process by allowing recruiters to only focus on qualified candidates rather than being bogged down by the initial sorting phase.

AI also enhances the candidate experience- with chatbots and AI-powered digital assistants like Paradox's Olivia, candidates get more engagement from the moment their interested in the role. Olivia can answer candidate questions, guide them through the interview process, and even provide feedback on their resume. This level of interaction creates a more personalized and positive experience for candidates, increasing their likelihood to accept job offers.

Additionally, AI-powered recruitment tools like Pillar are more accurate than humans alone at identifying top talent by eliminating unconscious bias from the equation. This is especially important when it comes to diversity and inclusion efforts as AI-powered interview intelligence can help mitigate human biases that may influence hiring decisions. When there's potential for improvement, Pillar's suite of interviewer coaching tools can help your team grow their screening and selection skills.

Another huge asset to hiring teams is the effectiveness that AI-powered automation tools add to menial tasks like interview scheduling and interviewer introductions. These can all be automated with AI saving potentially 1- 2 hours per candidate- which adds up quickly when you're hiring a handful of people each month.

When it comes to candidate assessment, the role of AI in recruitment becomes exponentially more important. AI can analyze hundreds of thousands or even millions of data points to evaluate applicants more objectively. This means that AIs can catch things human eyes would miss- especially those that are overworked, understaffed, and on a deadline. Remember when I said I'd come back to one of the biggest challenges of AI in recruitment? This is it. The biggest challenge with "AIs" is that they learn from the data they're given. This either means what they've been programmed to look for (OR) what they're being actively given through feedback loops.

A feedback loop is a process of continuous improvement where AI receives feedback on its decisions- learning from it and adjusting accordingly. This is why humans and AI must be part of the hiring process- together.  AI can bring efficiency and objectivity to the table, while humans can provide empathy, EQ, and critical thinking skills.

Solutions like Pillar's interview intelligence software (our shameless plug) bring deep insights that improve hiring decisions and lower employee turnover by up to 50%. But the reason we're able to deliver these and other vital metrics like increasing diversity hiring by 59% is that we interface the human interviewer and our AI-powered interview intelligence. Using both together, we make the interviewer more effective at their role while also mitigating inherent biases.

Ultimately, AI is a game-changer for recruitment when used in combination with human input and oversight to foster diversity and ensure a strong relationship between interviewer and candidate. There are still pros and cons of AI recruitment - but the pros can be magnified and the cons can be mitigated with a human touch.

AI In Recruitment: Current Statistics and Trends

There are a ton of current statistics showcasing the trends around AI recruitment. The challenge is really where to start. For the heck of it, I Googled; "AI in recruitment: current statistics and trends" and returned more than 265,000,000 articles in a little more than one-quarter of a second... the speed of information is insane today. But I'm guessing you don't have time to read all 265 million articles nor do I have the desire to type for eternity- so let's cover a couple of highlights that do a great job of showcasing the industry as a whole.

AI in Recruitment Statistics:

1. G2 currently lists 10 solutions in the category of "AI recruiting software." This is actually a misnomer because there are currently more than 300 recruiting solutions on the market today (326 last I checked), and more than 60% have some type of matching learning (ML) algorithm, artificial intelligence (AI), and natural language processing (NLP) model built into them- this means that more than 200 are using AI in recruitment today - this trend is here to stay.

2. According to DemandSage, 35- 45% of companies today are using AI in recruitment but only 24% say they're using them to directly "hire talent." This means that more companies are using AI for initial screening, resume parsing, and sorting but not as a final decision maker... yet!

3. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 50% of recruiters will use AI to review and assess resumes. Meaning tools like HireEZ are primed for rapid growth.

4. According to PwC, 72% of leaders believe AI can enable us to focus on more meaningful work.

5. A recent Deloitte study found that 33% of HR teams are already using AI-based screening and assessment tools, and another 41% plan to do so in the next two years.

Now you may be wondering, how are these relevant to me? First, there are millions of articles online talking about AI in recruitment right now. Second, as a hiring manager, recruiter, or HR professional, these statistics show the growing trend of AI in recruitment and the potential it has to revolutionize the entire hiring process. So, whether you're currently using AI tools or not, it's going to be a pivotal part of all of our organizations in the future.

One more statistic I didn't mention. According to DemandSage, 99% of Fortune 500 companies are currently using some form of AI. If you're at an innovative start-up or SMB, you're probably on the "frontlines" of these trends and seeing them happen in real time. If you're in a large corporation, you're probably frustrated by how slowly you're seeing these powerful tools get adopted. In either case- AI will reshape the future, and it's up to us to all participate in a meaningful way to make sure that the world we're building is inclusive of all.

If you're currently struggling to make great hiring decisions and you'd like to chat with someone from our team who can help you create a more efficient and effective hiring process, book your demo today. We'd love to show you how our interview intelligence software is helping organizations build better, more diverse teams, for less!