The growth of AI in the past few years has been felt across different aspects of business, particularly in HR.

Of the 31,000 people surveyed by Microsoft for its 2024 Work Trend Index, three in four knowledge workers use artificial intelligence (AI) at work. In addition, 78% of those who use AI at work actually make the effort to bring their own AI tools.

These numbers highlight how more and more employees now utilize AI at work. Despite fears that AI may replace humans in the workplace, it is becoming more apparent that many employees actually rely on AI in order to perform better at work. 

The rapid growth of AI has allowed it to impact different industries as well as different aspects of doing business. Take human resources (HR) as an example. From recruitment and staffing to employee compensation, training, and development, HR covers a wide range of functional areas within a company. 

With the rise of AI, HR professionals now have access to related tools that can improve HR processes, particularly in recruitment. These HR-related AI tools offer a wide range of features and functionalities that can help HR professionals work smarter and more efficiently. 

Candidate Sourcing and Matching 

To start with, HR professionals can use AI tools to source candidates for job openings and assess their suitability. These tools are capable of scouring online job boards and even social media platforms to search for potential candidates. Specific criteria and keywords can be used in order to further filter the search. 

Furthermore, AI also has the capability to compare potential candidates in order to determine who suits the requirements of the company. Through predictive analytics, AI tools can analyze the resumes, profiles, and even online behavior of each candidate. 

Recruitment Chatbots 

Communicating with potential candidates is part and parcel of recruiting new employees for the company. This can be time-consuming on the part of the recruiter of any company. However, communicating with candidates can be made more efficient through the use of chatbots and virtual assistants. 

Recruiters can use AI-driven chatbots to answer questions and clarifications made by candidates. These chatbots can likewise conduct preliminary interviews with candidates, which can help recruiters gather more information that will aid in the hiring process. 

Video Interviewing 

In addition to preliminary interviews done by chatbots, recruiters can also use AI-powered video interviewing tools during the hiring process. These tools have the capacity to analyze what the candidates say, their face expressions, and even the tone of their voice. 

Using such tools during interviews can help recruiters save the time and effort it takes to schedule and conduct interviews. These tools can also help recruiters have a more objective evaluation of candidates. 

AI is Only Meant to Assist Recruitment

The examples above showcase how AI tools can help lighten the workload of HR professionals, particularly the recruiters for a company. However, it is critical for any company to keep in mind that AI is only meant to be used as an assistive tool. The core of hiring, as the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism notes, is still the human resources team. 

It is therefore important for any company to have policies that govern the use of AI across different departments, including HR. The use of AI should always uphold transparency and fairness, which means that companies should also work to remove human biases from the AI systems they use. 

When crafting policies and rules on AI use, companies can refer to IBM’s “Pillars of Trust,” which serve as the company’s foundational properties for AI ethics. In the United States, the Center for Industry Self-Regulation (CISR) has published a set of principles and protocols meant to guide the use of AI in hiring and recruiting. 

Companies should also ensure that its recruiters and employees in general have ample training when it comes to the responsible use of AI. This ensures that recruiters have a firm grasp of these AI tools, which will lead to effective and efficient usage during the hiring process.