With 2021 bringing the trend of The Great Resignation, nearly each organization is facing headwinds in recruitment – at a scale never seen before. The massive potential of AI to sift through large sets of data, identify patterns, and continually evolve has led to its increased adoption by the global HR industry. This is further attested by LinkedIn’s The Global Recruiting Trends 2018, according to which about 76% of hiring managers believe that AI will be important in the future. Well, that future is here!

But how exactly is this integration of AI influencing the hiring process? Before we get to the answer, let us go through the basics!

I hear it everywhere, but what actually is AI?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a specialized branch of computer science that involves the simulation of the intelligence capabilities of the human mind, which are demonstrated by smart machines and specially engineered computer systems. AI allows the machines to imitate cognitive functions and perform tasks & solve problems as a human mind typically does.

An AI machine acquires data, sets up rules, and predicts tasks that it needs to perform. Then, it learns from the data, retains the knowledge, and performs similar tasks in the future by simply processing the learned knowledge. To put it more simply, an AI machine would be able to perceive a task and approach it just like a human brain would do, but usually with more accuracy, speed, and efficiency.

The role of AI in recruitment and its benefits

1) Improved sourcing and quality hires

Finding talents who fulfil each & every criteria provided by the company is a real challenge in the recruitment world. In fact, according to the *Global Recruiting Trends 2016 by LinkedIn, about 46% of companies were found to be struggling to attract the right candidates. An AI-driven program can search the most relevant candidates as per predefined traits on social media and connect with them, initiating meaningful conversations. Consequently, sourcing and screening become free of any bias, facilitating quality hiring based solely on in-depth analysis of knowledge, skills, and experience of an individual candidate.

2) Accelerated recruitment and reduced hiring costs

Needless to say, traditional recruitment processes are extremely time-consuming and demand not only manual efforts but also a considerable amount of resources and costs. Even after all this, they are not entirely error-proof.

By automating the repetitive tasks, the AI solution can find & source candidates faster, assess & shortlist their resumes with more speed, and ensure the best decision-making, backed by data. This will minimize the need for resources, bring down the overall time consumed by the recruitment process, and reduce the overall hiring costs.

3) Adapted to remote hiring and working

Businesses of all shapes & sizes across the world have been forced to adopt WFH model as their new normal following the pandemic. By implementing AI, businesses can find and hire the most suited talents without any geographical restrictions and also without spending tons of resources and money. Using chatbots for onboarding new hires can also help them settle into your org, as they may have a lot of queries to ask but no one from the HR team readily available to assist them all the time – as would happen in pre-pandemic office times.

4) Enhanced communication

Late responses from a recruiter can convey a lack of interest on the part of the recruiter or the hiring company. In such cases, it is very much likely that the candidate will move on to another company. This is made evident by a study by CareerBuilder – that shows nearly 58% of candidates tend to develop a negative opinion about a company if they don’t get a response to their job applications. On the other hand, about 67% of candidates seem to favour a company that provides them with regular updates.

However, as easy as it might sound, communicating with all the potential candidates manually can be tough, time-consuming, and prone to human errors though. Implementing AI through custom chatbots can automate communication, whether by initiating conversations with the most relevant talents or by sending immediate personalized responses to predetermined candidate actions like submission of applications, stating queries, etc. This will ensure seamless communication between HR teams and the potential candidates, improving engagement and experience.

How to start implementing AI in your firm:

Make your company’s hiring process future-ready with tailored AI-based solutions and implementations from Discite Analytics & AI, a full-stack data science consulting firm founded by ex-Uber and ex-Deloitte employees, and backed by the US-based IT giant DynPro. The company helps small and medium-sized enterprises to gain a competitive edge globally through end-to-end data engineering, analytics,, machine learning, and artificial intelligence solutions.