HR Meets AI: How Artificial Intelligence is Reshaping the Hiring Process
To some firms, AI does not just help them recruit new team members but also serves as an indispensable part of their entire employ management apparatus.
As a consequence of the availability of the technology and Mankind's insatiable obsession - in the 21st century, with convenience and expediency, Artificial intelligence seems to be permeating and affecting the way companies around the world hire and manage staff members.
AI in Recruitment seems to have already become a thing. Studies suggest that over 40% of companies, big and small are already leaning on the technology, in some form, to make hiring decisions. To some firms, AI does not just help them recruit new team members but also serves as an indispensable part of their entire "Employee Management" apparatus.
Artificial Intelligence 101
In the field of computer science, artificial intelligence (AI), sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals. Computer science defines AI research as the study of "intelligent agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals.
More specifically, Kaplan and Haenlein define AI as “a system’s ability to correctly interpret external data, to learn from such data, and to use those learnings to achieve specific goals and tasks through flexible adaptation”. Colloquially, the term "artificial intelligence" is applied when a machine mimics "cognitive" functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as "learning" and "problem solving". More
Finding new employees
Companies around the world post millions of job openings every year. Most of these positions are typically applied for by a vast number of unqualified folks or individuals with skills irrelevant to the position for which they apply. The daunting task of sifting through these irrelevant applications costs companies billions of dollars each year.
Not to mention wasted human hours the firms can deploy elsewhere to grow their businesses. In fact, surveys conducted by various Human Capital research firms suggest that out of all applications submitted for any particular job opening, only about 10% are relevant to the position. AI has evolved to help companies build highly-sophisticated algorithms to help them sort through the initial barrage of applications received for new job openings.
New AI algorithms now serve as a major part of various firms' application screening process. Tools like Natural Language Processing ( NLP) can analyze keywords and effectively identify the résumés that are actually worth looking at for HR professionals and Hiring managers. Although, the prospect of machines screening job applicants is not without its share of issues, some industry insiders would argue that the benefits far outweigh the most common drawbacks.