With AI being the buzz in almost all circles about all things, I wanted to focus on its influence in the hiring process from a staffing agency perspective.
For starters, it’s important to acknowledge the undisputed advantages and innovations AI is bringing to the world. It’s helping across all sectors, from medical sciences, to data analytics, automating repetitive tasks, predictive maintenance, supply chain optimization, fraud detection and incalculable benefits we have yet to discover.
But with every innovative technological advance, there are also new angles to where it is misused, or abused. It can be relied upon too heavily. Where it is ultimately effective or ineffective is still a work in progress for this very new and powerful technology.
While the breadth and scope of this topic are immense, I want to speak to its influence on the hiring process. It has become quite clear that the use of AI in creating resumes is on a meteoric rise.
According to recent reports, AI-generated resumes have become the largest red flag for hiring managers nationwide. The same report said that 53% of hiring managers say they have reservations about resumes that include AI-generated content, with 20% calling it a ‘critical issue’ that might prevent them from hiring someone.
A district director for a recruiting company, Robert Half, said, “If you use AI to write a resume for you in minutes, it tells me that you didn’t put a lot of time and thought into applying to my job.” She added, “AI is great for proofreading, but it’s not a one-stop shop to generate the perfect resume.”
Resumes have long been a tool recruiters use to assess skills, longevity patterns, personality traits and intangible benefits candidates might bring to the table when making a hiring decision. The use of AI might be blocking the ability of recruiters to understand the distinctions from one candidate to another when, more frequently, we are seeing resumes have a more generic AI feel when reading them.
As stated earlier, proofreading what a candidate has generated might be a fantastic tool, but relying on it is a slippery slope. If a candidate’s resume appears to have been AI-generated, it is becoming obvious and somewhat frowned upon, so it might be best to think twice about depending on it as a tool to generate a resume versus editing it.
In the world of recruiting, even a smaller company such as mine is using it to help create job descriptions, ads, and even email communications with clients and candidates alike. It appears to be helping on all fronts, but we try to be careful not to be over-reliant on it, or else the ads for various clients will also begin to sound generic.
As with any new technology, there will be learning curves and adjustments that need to be made as a balance needs to be struck between its benign use and its overuse. We are at that crossroads right now as an agency, as are our candidates who need to decide how much their resume will truly reflect them versus a more homogeneous version of themselves.
This technology is clearly here to stay, so it will be interesting to see how its influence affects all sectors of our society. While some shy away from understanding it, it’s too impactful to ignore. The future is here, and AI is a massive influencer going forward. And with all new things with such importance, it might be wise to use with caution.
