Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the TA landscape, promising increased efficiency, reduced costs, and a more nuanced approach to hiring. A McKinsey & Company study states that 40% of recruiting tasks could be automated, while current estimations suggest as much as $5,000 to $10,000 per hire could be saved using Generative AI (Gen AI). This transformation will allow TA and HR professionals to focus on strategic business issues, enhancing the quality of hires and building better teams. However, AI is difficult for companies to navigate, and many companies are still establishing their AI policies.
Speed of AI adoption is unprecedented
The rapid adoption of AI technologies underscores the public’s readiness to embrace intuitive and versatile technology. Gen AI, subset of AI technology that can generate new written, visual, and audio content by using datasets it is trained on. Gen AI also offers dynamic problem-solving capabilities and heightened personalization.
Current AI capabilities in TA
Gen AI is already enhancing efficiency and candidate experiences in several areas:
Create targeted job descriptions
Create online advertisements
Write copy for candidate outreach emails
Summarize feedback after an interview
Conduct interviews with candidates
These AI applications allow TA and HR professionals to focus on more impactful work. We believe AI will unleash a productivity boom, freeing recruiters from time-consuming repetitive tasks so they can focus on what they do best – building connectivity with candidates.
Barriers and challenges to AI adoption
The fluid regulatory landscape poses challenges for AI adoption. Laws such as the NYC Bias Audit Law (effective July 2023) mandate independent audits of AI in decision-making, creating constraints for companies. Multinational firms face additional complexity with varying regulations across regions.
Enterprises buy new technology slowly. The necessary rigor around the deployment of AI tools in companies clashes with the start-up culture of the Silicon Valley. Implementing this new AI technology in organizations takes time. There is a lag between AI capabilities and when companies and their employees are willing to embrace the new technology.
Responsible AI is crucial
Responsible AI is the practice of developing and deploying AI in a fair, ethical, and transparent way. Companies have a responsibility to ensure that AI systems are aligned with human values and do not harm individuals or society. The use of AI in talent acquisition raises ethical challenges around bias, discrimination and transparency that must be carefully monitored and addressed.
How companies are implementing AI
Companies have three primary approaches to adopt AI
Buy AI Solutions: Fast implementation but limited customization and bespoke features.
Build AI Solutions: Full customization but high development costs and maintenance responsibilities in perpetuity.
Outsource AI Solutions: Cost-efficient with expert support but less control over the AI development process.
Partners with global reach and ongoing investment in AI capabilities can provide on-demand access to advanced AI tech, helping organizations navigate the evolving landscape. Companies that decide to build their own AI tools will need AI engineering capability and integration resources. As AI tech evolves, continually testing for bias performance and other issues will also be required. Any company contemplating building AI tech in-house should be prepared for this level of commitment and expense. For most firms, this is impractical as their primary business endeavors consume most of their tech resources.
Future state
The future of work will be digitally driven, beginning with TA. AI will enable new ways of working, improving efficiency and candidate experiences. TA and HR leaders must prepare for a future where AI is integral to TA processes, ensuring their organizations remain competitive and attractive to top talent.
AI’s transformative power in talent acquisition is undeniable. TA and HR leaders must act now to implement AI strategies or risk falling behind. Partnering with AI experts can provide the necessary support to navigate regulatory challenges, manage ethical considerations, and realize AI’s full potential. By embracing AI, organizations can enhance their TA processes, driving success and innovation in the digital age.
We believe AI will unleash a productivity boom, freeing recruiters from time-consuming repetitive tasks so they can focus on what they do best – building connectivity with candidates.
In a world of uncertainty, India’s talent market continues to experience significant growth. Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are successfully navigating the dynamic landscape by embracing new technologies, particularly evident in the recruitment space.
India’s GCCs have acknowledged the benefits of incorporating technology into their hiring processes, with many transitioning towards a more digital and data-driven approach. Notably, 96.5% of recruiters in this market agree that Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands out as one of the best ways to improve recruitment process and eliminate bias.
The transition towards a digitally driven hiring strategy not only conserves time and resources for TA teams, but also streamlines administrative tasks. For instance, the integration of automated chatbots for interview scheduling alleviates the administrative burden on recruiters, enabling them to focus on more critical tasks. Data-led hiring also empowers organisations to source, attract and engage a wider, more diverse pool of candidates globally, leveraging AI-driven skills, intelligence, and mapping.
However, It’s not all smooth sailing!
While it would seem logical to introduce technology into aspects of your recruitment process, it is not as simple as flipping a switch. Many GCCs are recognising that digital transformation poses a significant challenge.
Amidst the myriad of talent technology solutions and tools available in the market, identifying the right option for your unique business needs can be an intense endeavour – not to mention the subsequent challenges of implementation and optimisation.
Building a strong technology stack is not done by simply picking something off the shelf. What might work for one business may not necessarily work for your unique requirements.
This is where partnering with an expert Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) provider can be a game-changer.
Making technology work for you
An expert RPO partner will identify the optimal talent technology stack tailored to your specific business goals, whether it involves streamlining candidate processing, insight-led sourcing, or improving diversity and inclusion.
RPO organisations regularly trial, evaluate and rank new talent technology solutions, providing deep insight into the talent tech landscape. They also train your talent acquisition teams on utilising the resources if your business decides to integrate them into the organisation.
How AMS simplifies your hiring process through technology
Be it utilising AMS’ own technologies or tapping into our extensive partner network, we present the right solution to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of your hiring process.
One such digital solution we offer is AMS Verified. AMS Verified is designed to identify the ideal technology fit from among thousands of available talent technology solutions, optimising your talent technology stack to support your mission of finding the best talent for your business.
AMS One optimises the delivery of RPO talent solutions, enhancing quality of hires, accelerating time-to-hire, improving fairness in the hiring process, and increasing satisfaction among hiring managers and candidates.
An AMS success story
The challenge
In 2020, a customer services client partnered with AMS to hire 1,200 junior-mid level specialists annually. By 2023, this forecast was predicted to more than double, reaching over 5,000 hires. AMS took on the responsibility to improve the client’s recruitment processes to effectively manage the significant surge in hiring volume.
The solution
AMS initiated a three-month pilot programme to streamline the candidate screening process. This included implementing a new technology that eliminated the need for recruiters to individually test for language skills and conduct assessments on numerous candidates.
AMS also supported the in-house recruitment team to expedite interviews, and managed offer processes to lessen the client team’s involvement – resulting in a weekly time savings of 50 hours.
The results
The partnership achieved significant results:
Processed over 800 candidates during the three-month pilot program
Extended 134 job offers.
Saved 1,667 person-hours through a reduction in client involvement.
Achieved a submission-offer ratio of 17.5%, a substantial increase from the previous 2%.
Enhanced candidate quality and improved hiring manager experience.
To find out more about how AMS can develop the right tech strategy to tackle your talent acquisition challenges, get in touch today.
This week marks the first year since the full launch of AMS Verified, a website I’ve had the privilege to help build that offers talent leaders clear insight on the complex and fast-evolving landscape of talent technology.
I’ve spoken with dozens of talent tech experts at leading companies as well as vendors of talent technology. It’s been a fascinating journey of learning and discovering new insights. On this first milestone, I put together a few of these learnings which stand out.
Tech transformation is becoming a constant
I have yet to meet a Talent Acquisition function that has landed on what can be termed a finalized set up (if you have, please call me!). Rather, tech transformation programs in the HR space are becoming more of a constant as innovation accelerates. Accepting this reality, talent leaders need to think beyond what tech they need now and have a vision for where they are going in the longer term and put structures in place to maintain agility to adapt such as by choosing vendors, infrastructure, and platforms with the capability to evolve alongside their company’s needs.
Instant gratification is going from delighter to expectation in the hiring process.
We are all feeling the love of technology in our daily lives that makes mundane tasks easier and getting what we want faster. This is having an impact on peoples’ attitudes towards job searching. Candidates are becoming less patient with long application forms or prolonged delays in the process without feedback. Hiring may never get to the same level of satisfaction as, for example, on-line shopping but we can certainly get a lot closer with technology that makes the process easier, more engaging, and generally more consumer grade. As anyone can see on AMS Verified, there is no shortage of digital products with innovative solutions inspired by digital consumer products ready to help. The challenge is for talent leaders to create business cases that clearly show the economic – not just experiential – benefits of this class of technology. That is, that talent technology that improves the candidate experience is not a cost but an investment that, when used strategically, improves a company’s ability to attract and retain the talent needed to succeed.
Technology won’t fix an inadequate process.
I’ve been on dozens of product demos this past year and have been truly impressed by many. But while I believe that hiring processes can be improved with the thoughtful use of technology, I’m even more certain that no amount of technology will compensate for poor practices, ill-defined strategies, or misconfigured systems. Without a proper change program to support the implementation of new tech, there’s bound to be disappointed expectations. And worse, deficiencies may actually be compounded by the introduction of new tech. Before going after new or replacement technology, spend time getting to the root cause you’re solving for. The best place to start on this is to speak to recruiters, hiring managers and candidates and build a business case from there.
Yes, AI will change everything.
I think it’s already clear to even casual followers of technology that AI is going to bring fundamental changes to how and who we hire. For now, the general public seems to have a starry-eyed fascination with its potential and doing some early experimentation with the cool and quirky things it can do. But make no mistake: as it rapidly becomes more advanced and embedded into our daily lives, more risks will emerge and as such the use of AI will be subject to stringent regulation with penalties and reputational damage for its improper application – especially in relation to hiring. This is why AMS Verified is giving it so much focus with our AI Index and other content. It is imperative for HR leaders to stay close to this subject and play an active role in developing strategies and policies for the responsible use of AI in their organizations.
There are some simple but amazingly impactful technologies out there. You’re just not using them.
There are a few categories of talent tech that have some of the most passionate customer advocates but for some reason aren’t widely used. These are mostly products with a specific purpose (aka point solutions). The category that stands out the most to me is tools designed to support onboarding of new hires. Despite being loved so much by their customers, they don’t often get past the gauntlet of corporate procurement, IS and finance. My guess is that these products’ benefits are indirect and difficult to put a number to. For example, what’s the up-side of improving the onboarding experience? The answer is a shorter productivity ramp-up time, lower voluntary attrition, reduced “no-shows”, and can lead to a greater exertion of “discretionary effort” by new joiners (look it up – a great concept that many companies don’t appreciate or often confuse with “employee engagement”). While these elements have a very strong influence on underlying company performance, there are no standard formulas to calculate their impact on the bottom line meaning most talent leaders struggle in creating proper business cases. This is where networking and learning from the experiences of peers is of huge value to gather the insight and confidence that a new technology can bring.
In the year ahead we will continue to evaluate and add products to AMS Verified. In addition, we will be adding new features such as resources and peer networking for members to stay up to date and help guide them to the right tech to achieve their objectives. If you’re not already a member, I invite you to join me and hundreds of talent leaders on AMS Verified and stay ahead of the curve on talent technology.
