AI in Recruitment: Will Human Recruiters Become Obsolete?

• The Merit Protection Commissioner surveyed 66 APS agencies in 2022 and discovered that 15 (23%) agencies used AI-assisted and automated tools throughout their recruitment processes during the last 12 months ¹¹.
• The Australian Institute of HR (AIHR) also reported that Meta AI increased its investment in AI infrastructure by $10 billion while laying off approximately 25% of its workforce ¹⁵.
• Research about applicants’ perception of AI in recruitment revealed that 67.4% of respondents preferred human interviews since they believed AI tools lack the nuances of human judgement ⁷.

 

Overview

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can interpret external data, learn from it, and apply that knowledge to achieve specific goals and tasks ⁸. This technology can adapt to various contexts and mimic human intelligence, such as visual perception and speech recognition ⁷.

As a result, AI has the potential to transform how HR recruiters manage the recruitment process and how job seekers apply for work ⁴.

In 2022, the Merit Protection Commissioner surveyed 66 APS agencies, revealing that 15 (23%) of these agencies had incorporated AI-assisted and automated tools in their recruitment processes over the previous year ¹¹.

Additionally, the Australian Institute of HR (AIHR) reported that Meta AI increased its investment in AI infrastructure by $10 billion, despite laying off about 25% of its workforce ¹⁵.

Although these findings may indicate the rising prevalence of AI tools in recruitment across both the public and private sectors, several risks and concerns are associated with the potential misuse of AI systems ^{11, 15}. This highlights the importance of human discernment in recruitment processes, reinforcing that HR recruiters will not become obsolete due to AI-driven recruitment ^{5, 13}.

This article will explore AI’s influence on hiring and selection processes, including the risks and strategies for using AI to support HR recruiters.

 

AI in Recruitment

Several organisations recognise the value of AI tools in supporting the recruitment and selection processes between job applicants and HR recruiters ^{2, 7}.

Results from Tidio’s study of 1,068 people revealed that 89% of respondents working in HR believed that AI could help them with the candidate application process ¹³. These AI tools may support HR professionals in areas they find most challenging during the recruitment process, such as candidate selection for interviews, as reported by 43% of respondents ¹³.

A survey about the perceptions of AI recruitment revealed that among 52 respondents, 28.4% of HR managers and recruiters believed AI recruitment improved the quality and fairness of the recruitment process ⁷.

These findings may support the common belief that, compared to human recruiters, machine algorithms can be more cost-effective, efficient, and better at enhancing both candidate and recruiter experiences ^{2, 7, 13}.

 

Risks of AI in Recruitment

Despite the benefits of AI recruitment, its success may depend on balancing the advantages of AI with the need for human empathy and judgement in the recruitment process ⁴. This includes whether organisations can effectively optimise AI tools while addressing ethical and social concerns, such as prejudice, bias, and job displacement.

For example, the AIHR reports that AI will automate or augment 60% of jobs, which is predicted to reshape labour markets ¹⁵. This may increase the risk of operational disruptions due to significant skills gaps in managing technology advancements in the workplace ¹⁵.

The identification of algorithmic bias also led Amazon to discard its experimental AI-powered recruitment tool in 2018 ^{2, 7}.

The AI system learned to favour male candidates for technical roles by observing patterns in resumes over a 10-year period, the majority of which were from men ². Due to the low proportion of women working at Amazon, the algorithm associated male dominance in the workforce as a factor of success and thus discriminated against female candidates ².

The development of AI bias from a variety of sources was also highlighted in research about using AI-delivered ads to promote job opportunities in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths fields ^{2, 10}.

Based on the frequency of job ads shown across 191 countries, researchers discovered that ads were shown to men over 20% more often than to women ¹⁰. Since the algorithm was designed to optimise ad delivery while keeping costs low, the higher costs of advertising to younger women could result in men receiving more job ads than women ¹⁰.

For example, 51% of Facebook job ads were directed to men, while 36% were shown to women ¹⁰. This suggests that the AI system favoured men, as it believed women were slightly more expensive to advertise to, despite women having a higher click-through rate of 1.71% compared to 0.97% for men.

The outcomes of using AI recruitment systems suggest that AI tools could form biased or irrational conclusions that influence recruitment processes ^{2, 10, 11}. This raises HR concerns related to ethics, diversity and inclusion, and legal compliance in recruitment.

These issues may highlight the importance of human judgement in ensuring impartiality in hiring decisions, suggesting that AI cannot fully replace human recruiters due to the inherent limitations of recruitment algorithms ^{2, 4, 5}.

 

Human Judgement in Recruitment

Given AI recruitment’s potential to introduce patterns of prejudice, bias, and discrimination, AI tools may be better suited to supporting human recruiters than to automating entire recruitment processes ¹⁵.

For example, Mastercard’s automated interview scheduling tool, which coordinates candidate and recruiter availability, sends reminders, and updates calendars, has reduced scheduling time by more than 85% ¹⁴.

However, research revealed that 67.4% of respondents preferred human interviews, believing AI tools lack the nuances of human judgement ⁷. This suggests that an HR recruiter’s ability to interpret a candidate’s motivations and suitability for a role underscores the limitations of AI tools, including its lack of intuition, experience, and personal judgement necessary for such decisions ^{7, 14, 15}.

The following skills further emphasises the need for human engagement in recruitment and selection processes:

Emotional Intelligence (EI) refers to a person’s ability to understand, recognise, manage, and express their own and others’ emotions ¹⁵. In the workplace, a higher level of EI can prevent conflict and foster respect, empathy, open communication, and strong interpersonal relationships ^{1, 15}.

TalentSmartEQ discovered that, out of 22 workplace skills, EI is the strongest predictor of success, with 90% of top performers exhibiting high levels of EI ¹. Their research also showed that EI may account for 58% of a leader’s job performance.

These findings reinforce the importance of high levels of EI among HR recruiters and their ability to recognise this skill in top candidates ¹.

Although AI can analyse patterns and generate results based on predefined algorithms, it does not possess  an understanding of human emotions ^{5, 14}. Through interviews, personality tests, or assessment exercises, HR recruiters can evaluate a candidate’s EI to assess their team orientation and cultural fit within an organisation ^{5, 9}.

Cultural Fit refers to how aligned an employee is with the organisational culture, which is formed from the unique values, goals, belief systems, and habits within a company’s workforce ⁹.

According to a Robert Walters survey of over 1,000 professionals and hiring managers, 81% of hiring managers said candidates are less likely to leave when they have a good cultural match with a company ¹². Given that 73% of professionals also cited poor cultural fit as a reason for their resignation, Robert Walters’ research emphasises the significance of ensuring cultural fit in the selection process ¹².

While AI can identify candidates with the necessary qualifications and experiences, this technology cannot comprehend a company’s culture and its alignment with a candidate’s values, attitudes, work style, and integration into a team ¹⁴.

The ability of HR recruiters to make ethical decisions and assess EI and cultural fit underscores the limitations of AI systems in managing complex recruitment tasks ^{4, 10}. This reinforces the critical role of human recruiters in making nuanced judgements within any given context, ensuring that recruitment processes identify candidates who are more likely to succeed in the long term and perform at higher levels ^{12, 14}.

Building an AI Strategy

Moving forward, organisations that improve their adaptation of AI tools can ensure that HR managers maintain a person-centered approach in recruitment while leveraging AI to assist with administrative tasks ¹⁶. This strategy can foster effective collaboration between AI tools and HR recruiters, helping organisations manage the ongoing development of AI recruitment systems.

Moreover, the AIHR reported that 41% of HR professionals possess the skill competencies needed to keep up with AI-driven transformation ¹⁶. HireVue’s survey of 3,100 workers and 1,000 HR professionals also revealed that 75% of respondents’ perceptions of AI recruitment were influenced by a limited understanding of how AI is used in hiring ⁶.

These findings underscore the importance of increasing people’s acceptance of AI recruitment, as concerns about bias and misuse could hinder its effective adoption ^{6, 16}. For example, organisations could develop and periodically review an AI strategy that outlines how HR professionals should use AI tools in a responsible and effective manner ¹⁶.

The AIHR suggests forming a committee of AI, HR, and legal experts to assess AI tools and establish best practices ¹⁶. In addition, organisations should create a risk framework for AI use in HR. This framework should identify key areas where AI can enhance operations, uphold ethical standards, and ensure safe and effective use ¹⁶.

Regarding concerns about AI recruitment bias and discrimination, raising awareness of the potential consequences may encourage HR recruiters to take further precautions to mitigate bias in their hiring processes ¹¹.

The Merit Protection Commissioner also proposes that HR managers protect candidates’ privacy rights by obtaining consent to store and collect relevant information in compliance with privacy obligations ¹¹.

These recommendations can help organisations reduce reliance on automated processes, improve HR recruiters’ confidence in AI recruitment systems, and increase transparency regarding their use of AI ⁶.

 

Summary

As AI-driven recruitment becomes more prevalent, organisations can improve the effectiveness of their hiring processes while adapting to technological advances in the workplace ¹⁶.

However, the misuse of AI tools may lead to bias and unfair decision-making, which emphasises the importance of human judgement in sourcing and hiring candidates ^{2, 10, 11}. This highlights the risks of fully automating recruitment processes and suggests that HR recruiter jobs will remain essential despite AI advancements.

 

References

1. Bradberry, Travis. 2022. “Why Focus on Emotional Intelligence?” TalentSmartEQ. https://www.talentsmarteq.com/emotional-intelligence-can-boost-your-career-and-save-your-life/#:~:text=Of%20all%20the%20people%20we,but%20the%20chances%20are%20slim.
2. Chang, Xinyu. 2023. “Gender Bias in Hiring: An Analysis of the Impact of Amazon’s Recruiting Algorithm.” Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences 23: 134-140. https://doi.org/10.54254/2754-1169/23/20230367.
3. Diversity Council Australia. 2023. “Inclusive AI in Recruitment.” https://www.dca.org.au/research-directory/inclusive-ai-recruitment-hub.
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10. Lambrecht, Anja, and Catherine Tucker. 2019. “Algorithmic Bias? An Empirical Stidy of Apparent Gender-Based Discrimination in the Display of STEM Career Ads.” Management Science 65 (7): 2966-2981. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2018.3093.
11. Merit Protection Commissioner. 2022. “Guidance Material For Using AI-Assisted Recruitment Tools.” Australian Government. https://www.mpc.gov.au/resources/guidance/myth-busting-ai-assisted-and-automated-recruitment-tools#using-ai-assisted-and-automated-tools.
12. Robert Walters. 2015. The Role of Workplace Culture in Recruiting Top Talent. https://www.robertwaltersgroup.com/content/dam/robert-walters/country/united-kingdom/files/whitepapers/Robert-Walters-Cultural-Fit-Whitepaper.pdf.
13. Stefanowicz, Beata. 2024. “AI Recruitment Statistics: What is the Future of Hiring?” Tidio Blog, October 30, 2024. https://www.tidio.com/blog/ai-recruitment/.
14. Telpizov, Rodion. 2024. “What AI Can and Cannot Do For Recruiting Today.” Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2024/07/24/what-ai-can-and-cannot-do-for-recruiting-today/.
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