Why artificial intelligence does more harm than good in recruitment

Why artificial intelligence does more harm than good in recruitment

An article in The Times this week has shone a light on the pitfalls of using Artificial Intelligence in the recruitment process.

 

While AI can make many processes in the workplace more efficient, recruitment remains one field where nothing can replace the human touch.

 

According to the article, researchers have found that outstanding candidates are missing out on progressing in a recruitment process due to being ‘screened out’ by bots.

 

The problem with artificial intelligence is that it is not designed to appreciate creativity.  Often, great candidates will avoid cliches in their applications and opt for more unconventional answers to screening questions, while AI algorithms are trained to spot certain key words and phrases.

 

While AI has been welcomed for its ability to bypass any ‘unconscious bias’ in the CV screening process, this comes at a price - namely too many excellent candidates being overlooked.

 

Not to mention the fact that it’s pretty off-putting as a candidate, to be submitting your application to a bot.  Great recruitment should be about building relationships, not finding ways to sift through applications as quickly as possible!

 

At Leonid, we have adopted a number of tools and new technologies to streamline our search process, but we will never use anything driven by AI to select candidates.  For example, our LeonidLive video screening interviews are always conducted by a Leonid consultant (with questions set by the hiring manager). This enables our clients to instantly get a sense of a candidate’s personality and communication skills, before deciding whether to proceed with a full interview.

 

Quite simply put, there is a human driving every stage of our recruitment process and we strongly believe that there is no substitute for this.