How AI Will Change The Future Of Recruitment

Many recruiters are already using AI tools to streamline the recruitment process, and this will likely only increase as AI technology becomes more readily available. But what will that mean for recruiters going forward?

65%

of recruiters are already using AI in the recruitment process

68%

of recruiters believe applying AI in hiring will eliminate any unintentional bias

The AI recruitment software market will reportedly be worth USD 890.51 million by 2028. And according to a recent survey, 65% of recruiters are already using AI in the recruitment process.

If you’re a recruiter who has not yet embraced the power of AI, don’t worry: we recently shared six ways you can start using AI to optimize your processes, drive efficiency and even improve the candidate experience.

But we also wanted to talk about what all of this will mean for recruiters over the next few years. How will the recruitment industry change as a result of these emerging tools — and should recruiters be concerned that AI is coming for their jobs?

In short, no: some areas of recruitment will always require a human touch. But the recruitment landscape will see some big changes thanks to the increasing use of AI tools.

Read on for our predictions for what that will look like.

6 Ways AI Will Change The Recruitment Landscape Over The Next Decade

1. Recruiters will save time on repetitive tasks & take on a more strategic role

A recent survey found that 42% of recruiters believe AI will enable them to be more strategic in their roles. And this makes sense: the ability to outsource repetitive tasks to an AI model will give recruiters more time to focus on the parts of their job that require a human touch. That means more time for relationship-building, developing proactive hiring strategies, and using the insights brought forward by AI to educate hiring managers on best practices.

2. AI-powered trends & insights will lead to more data-driven decision-making

AI tools analyze hiring projects, employee profiles, chatbot interactions, and candidate communications to uncover trends and insights. This data is converted into actionable advice, empowering recruiters to make data-driven decisions and establish streamlined, effective processes.

3. Recruiters will adapt to new processes, leading to a culture of learning & upskilling

With new technology comes the need to develop new skills. Recruiters must invest time in upskilling to maximize the effectiveness of AI tools. Additionally, acquiring data analytics skills enables them to effectively leverage AI-generated data and insights.

4. Businesses will need to comply with new AI regulations

As the use of AI tools becomes more common, regulatory bodies around the world are taking notice. The city of New York passed a bill in 2021 requiring companies to conduct bias audits on automated decision tools, and to notify candidates that they’re using such tools. And both the EU and the United States federal government are following suit with their own sets of regulations. Going forward, recruiters will have to learn about these rules and properly audit their processes to ensure they’re compliant.

5. AI tools will enhance candidate experience (with no extra work from recruiters)

AI will mean faster, more efficient processes, automated communications, and, potentially, fairer and more consistent hiring practices. All of this means that AI has the potential to radically improve the candidate experience — giving those organizations that embrace AI recruitment tools the upper hand over their competitors.

6. AI could reduce unconscious bias (but requires human oversight)

Using an AI-powered ATS can help recruiters to remove unconscious bias from the selection process because it ranks candidates based only on objective factors such as their skill sets and experience. And video interview tools with preset questions can also help to make sure your pre-screening process is fair and free from bias.

A word of caution here, though: AI tools are only as good as the data they’re given, and they can pick up on any bias that’s present there. For example, Amazon scrapped plans for a previous candidate assessment tool because they found it was biased against women. The reason? It had been trained to vet candidates by studying patterns in resumes sent to the company over the past ten years — which were overwhelmingly male.

That’s why it’s important for humans to oversee AI decision-making. Recruiters working with AI will need to ensure the datasets these tools are trained with don’t teach them to replicate human biases.

The bottom line: AI will work with recruiters, not replace them

We predict that AI tools will transform the recruitment landscape over the next few years… but that doesn’t mean that human recruiters are about to be replaced by robots. Instead, humans and AI will work together, making processes more efficient for candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers alike.

And of course, the increasing use of AI in all industries will mean that recruiters will have another key skill set to develop: recruiting for AI-related roles.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can use AI to turbocharge the recruitment process and how to strategically recruit for AI roles, watch our on-demand webinar “How do I recruit for AI (and how does it recruit for me?)” today.

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Watch our on-demand AI recruiting webinar