What is AI in talent acquisition and HR?
AI tools are already transforming the HR industry. These tools can analyse large volumes of data far more quickly than a human, making them valuable for everything from payroll processing to compliance checks. In talent acquisition specifically, AI can streamline some of the most time-consuming tasks, such as screening applicants, matching candidates to job openings and even supporting the interview process.
Top uses of AI in talent acquisition
AI tools are highly versatile, making them useful whether you’re recruiting for a small business or a large organisation. Once you’ve identified the right tools, here are seven common ways employers use AI to support talent acquisition. As seen in our AI toolkit, talent acquisition teams are primarily using AI to:
- Summarise or analyse CVs and job applications
- Write job advertisements
- Generate interview questions
- Act as customer service chatbots
- Function as virtual assistants
- Match the best candidates to open jobs
- Help with scheduling
Let’s take a closer look at some of these use cases and explore the best practices for getting the most value from AI in recruitment.
Considerations when using AI in TA
When using AI in TA, it’s important to remember the significance of human experience (HX) during the hiring process. HX is a fairly new term to describe the subjective experience of people which cannot be replaced with AI. Talent acquisition involves understanding what makes a candidate tick and how well they fit into the culture of your business. Soft skills like empathy, common sense or culture add might be harder for an AI to detect, whereas a good talent acquisition professional may spot these traits during a face-to-face interview.
Not only that, some candidates may prefer speaking with a real person during the interview process and might come across better when interacting with a human recruiter rather than an AI interviewer.
This means that instead of replacing TA professionals with AI, consider AI as a co-pilot. In other words, it is a useful tool that can help speed up the hiring process and reduce bottlenecks. By identifying which areas of the hiring process still require human involvement, you may get the most out of using these tools.
1. Reducing cost-per-applicant
AI can help reduce cost-per-applicant during the hiring process, thanks to its ability to automate repetitive tasks. During the recruitment process, many manual processes like processing CVs and scheduling interviews can take up an HR team’s valuable time. As we discovered in our guide to AI in HR, on average, 14 hours were spent on repetitive tasks per person per week. By automating repetitive recruitment processes, TA professionals may spend more time working on tasks that require a ‘human touch’. This could include networking and developing close bonds with top talent via professional events, or assessing a candidate’s culture fit or add within the company.
2. Making job descriptions more accurate
A good job description outlines the key responsibilities of a position and gives potential applicants greater insight into your company culture. It also provides a foundation for job interviews and performance reviews, so it’s best for a job description to be as accurate as possible.
AI tools are capable of analysing thousands of job descriptions and identifying the skills, certifications and qualifications needed for each job. This makes them valuable for creating accurate and compelling job descriptions that appeal to quality candidates.
AI tools can help you avoid missing out on top talent due to unclear or unnecessary requirements being listed in the job description. Given that many employers are also moving towards skills-based recruitment, using AI to write skills-based job descriptions may lead to better matches while keeping your workforce adaptable in a changing market. By supplying your AI tool with a clear list of required skills and competencies, you can more efficiently identify candidates who meet your needs.
3. Screening applicants
Applicant screening plays a key role in identifying who should move forward in the recruitment process. A good screening process also makes it easier to identify applicants who would be better-suited for other opportunities within your organisation.
However, manually screening applications can be time-consuming, with TA teams opening and reviewing each individual application and making quick decisions about a candidate’s suitability. Skimming applications instead of reviewing them thoroughly may also lead to missed opportunities.
AI simplifies high-volume screening by assessing hundreds or even thousands of applications quickly and consistently. This is especially helpful when recruiting for gig economy jobs or large seasonal teams. For example, when recruiting temporary staff during peak periods, AI can save your HR department a significant amount of time.
Many AI tools can also compare applications with job descriptions to ensure candidates meet minimum requirements, helping you prioritise the most suitable applicants and move the recruitment process along more quickly.
AI and skills-based hiring
AI tools can be particularly useful when combined with a skills-based recruitment approach. By analysing CVs for skills-focused language, these tools can identify candidates who align closely with the job specification. Some AI tools can also analyse the language used in a CV to identify skills that a candidate does not even explicitly mention. As outlined in our article on skills-based hiring, change means many skills are becoming obsolete more quickly than before. Hiring candidates based on up-to-date skills – rather than relying solely on qualifications – may help businesses stay agile and better prepared for the future.
4. Matching applicants to job openings
AI can also help match applicants to job openings based on the skills and experience listed in their CV. For example, a candidate with proven experience working at a cafe could be matched with a job requiring knowledge of retail point-of-sale and food hygiene standards.
When several applicants have similar qualifications, it can be difficult to decide who to shortlist and unconscious bias may influence a recruiter’s decisions. Unconscious bias relates to automatic assumptions or preferences, such as favouring a candidate who shares your background, even if others are more qualified.
AI can help reduce the impact of unconscious bias by focusing on objective criteria. AI tools are also capable of creating applicant profiles, which may help you improve the quality of your workforce.
While AI can help prevent unconscious bias from humans in the screening process, it’s only as fair as the data on which it’s trained. As noted in our guide to AI and diversity and inclusion, historical datasets created by human recruiters may reflect biased decisions. If this type of data is used to train an AI tool, it may replicate those biases. Vetting your tools and datasets carefully is important to help prevent this from occurring.
5. Scheduling interviews
For many HR professionals, scheduling interviews is one of the most time-consuming aspects of talent acquisition, often involving going back and forth with applicants about availability, only to find that no suitable appointments are available. Even with digital calendars, double-bookings or missed opportunities can occur, especially when technical glitches arise.
Scheduling becomes even more complex when organising panel interviews, as you need to coordinate availability between multiple team members. AI can simplify this by pulling data from multiple calendars and identifying optimal time slots. Many AI tools can also accommodate different interview formats, from brief screening calls to extended technical competency interviews.
6. Improving the candidate experience
When recruitment is managed manually, it can be difficult to provide a consistently positive experience for every candidate. For example, you may have to rely on standardised messages for rejection emails or interview invitations, which can feel impersonal and harm your employer brand, potentially making it difficult to attract high-quality applicants in the future.
Artificial intelligence can improve the candidate experience in several ways, such as using chatbots to interact with candidates, ensuring each person receives timely responses to questions about interviewing, taking pre-employment checks and completing other recruitment-related tasks.
Chatbots can make interactions feel more responsive. By using AI to support candidate communications, you can help boost your reputation and make your organisation more attractive to quality candidates.
7. Streamlining the interview process
Once interviews are scheduled, they require a significant time investment. Conducting the interview itself may take anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours, depending on the type of interview. When you consider that each role may require several interviews, it’s easy to see how time-consuming this process becomes for HR professionals.
Maintaining consistency across interviews is another challenge. If you ask each candidate a completely different set of questions, you won’t be able to compare them on an even playing field. Talent acquisition AI tools can help standardise and streamline the interview process, reducing pressure on interviewers and helping avoid rushed decisions.
For example, AI tools can generate relevant interview questions based on the job description. Some tools can even use sentiment analysis, speech recognition and other AI processes to assess candidates’ responses and highlight those who demonstrate the required skills and knowledge most effectively.
8. Enhancing the onboarding process
Once you’ve found the right candidate, it’s time to welcome them to your company and ensure they have the information they need to succeed. A well-planned onboarding process supports new employees as they adapt to your company culture, while also setting clear expectations for the first few weeks.
Despite the importance of onboarding, some companies rush through the process because their HR departments are already stretched thin. AI tools can help streamline the process by automatically sharing policy manuals, training documents and welcome information on a new employee’s first day.
Some tools can even personalise the onboarding journey based on the individual’s role, skills and previous experience. This added level of personalisation can improve confidence and motivation, helping new employees feel supported, engaged and ready to succeed.
9. Using AI predictive analytics to anticipate future needs
Predictive analytics can be a powerful tool in talent acquisition, helping employers predict recruitment outcomes and make more informed decisions. By analysing historical data, AI tools can identify key patterns in recruitment processes, employee retention and performance across the entire employee lifecycle. For example, you might identify certain personality traits that have historically best matched a particular position in your organisation. With that insight, you could look for those traits during interviews or incorporate personality testing into your recruitment process to support better decision-making.
Advanced AI tools can take this further by using predictive analytics to assign a score to each candidate based on how well their skills, experience and attributes align with a role, or how likely they are to stay in the role long-term. However, predictive analytics should never replace human judgement. AI tools are not infallible, and predictions may not always reflect an individual’s motivations or circumstances. For example, a candidate predicted as high-risk for turnover may provide compelling reasons as to why they are committed to the job during an interview. Always treat AI predictions as one input among many, and apply human judgement to ensure fair, balanced recruitment decisions.
