When it comes to KPIs, hiring managers are almost always evaluated on one of two metrics: time to engage and quality of hires. Therefore, an increasing number of recruiting specialists must ask themselves, “How can recruiting be quicker and more effective?”

The answer may lie in artificial intelligence (AI).

What is AI-enabled ATS?

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a software application that helps businesses manage their recruiting processes. ATS facilitates the tasks of resume gathering, archiving, and evaluation, helping recruiters identify the best candidates for vacant positions.

ATS systems have already been used for years to assist recruiters and recruiting managers in sifting through hundreds of thousands of submissions for a single job opening. This initial filtering phase, it lets companies compile short listings of qualified candidates.

And now, artificial intelligence (AI) may significantly enhance the reliability of ATS systems. Additionally, it helps automate repetitive HR processes. This doesn’t just save time while making hiring decisions but also potentially saves money by filtering out poor/bad applications.

Google, for instance, offers its own AI-powered ATS, Google Hire, and this uses data from past hires to boost its functionality.

Types of AI Uses in Applicant Tracking Systems

Most modern recruitment software and ATS come with AI features; the common AI types you are likely to find include:

• Data parsing in resumes: The use of natural language processing (NLP) to gather data from applications, including work experience, higher education, and skill sets.
• Conversational interfaces: Chatbots powered by AI that assist candidates during the application process by addressing frequently asked queries and offering feedback.
• Matching algorithms: Models based on machine learning that match job postings with resumes to identify the top applicants for a particular position.
• Predictive analytics: Data analysis models that examine past hiring practices to figure out which applicants are most inclined to thrive in a specific position.
• Automated scheduling: AI-powered appointment scheduling apps that streamline the job interview scheduling process and reduce recruiters’ administrative workloads.
• Video AI analysis: Interviewing tools that analyze applicants’ gestures, voice & tone, and facial movements to share deeper insights with recruiters.

Why Adopt AI in Resume Reviews and ATS?

While there are concerns around the use of AI-assisted hires (more on that later), the technology offers undeniable benefits for recruiters and the business as a whole:

1. Automating data processes

AI in Resume Review screening helps automate the process of storing and managing hiring data. It facilitates the tracking of vital data, such as cover letters, application forms, etc., by converting them from unstructured text to structured data. This enables the creation of an application inventory. Furthermore, this talent pool can eventually be utilized to speed up and streamline the recruiting process.

2. Empowering recruiters to focus on value-adding tasks

Generally, every job posting receives about 250 applications. If a hiring manager spends approximately 2 minutes per resume, that’s 500 minutes per day!

This can be accomplished within a few seconds by resume screening software. In addition, AI can classify these candidates according to your recruiting practices. It can even assess credentials contextually, like a domain expert. Recruiters don’t have to sift through a stack of credentials individually and can identify the best matches immediately.

With more time on hand, hiring managers can converse with the most interested and qualified candidates, thereby improving engagement, assessment, and, finally, hiring.

3. Improving the quality of candidates you engage

Recruiters typically evaluate applications in the sequence in which they are received. The difficulty is that they’re sent several irrelevant applications. Or, they are misled by keyword-matching techniques prone to error. For instance, when looking for Oracle programmers, you might end up speaking with Java developers if both candidates’ resumes include PL-SQL.

Consequently, an average recruiter invests a great deal of time interacting with irrelevant candidates. And after days of interacting with substandard candidates, you might start believing it’s impossible to locate qualified candidates. This is where you begin to think about compromising on the quality of hires.

Using AI in Resume Review eliminates this uncertainty and confusion and takes you straight to the right talent. Sophisticated AI algorithms can parse complex data beyond just keywords to surface candidates who are truly relevant to your business.

4. Removing unconscious bias from resume screening

Unfortunately, implicit bias is a widespread occurrence that can impact the outcomes of the hiring process.

A recruiting manager may make an instantaneous assessment based solely on a candidate’s name. The demographics of a candidate, like race, ethnic background, religion, gender, or region, can also contribute to implicit bias. While assessing candidates, artificial intelligence can eradicate the influence of such biases by concealing factors like demographic information.

Also, it provides a consistent basis for evaluating candidates across the organization rather than relying on the subjective point of view of a single recruiter. Some applicant tracking systems may even detect gendered, ableist, ageist, and culturally inappropriate phrasing in job postings and help remove any discrimination or prejudice in the hiring process.

5. Enhancing the candidate’s experience

AI can work at the backend, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to help you offer the best possible experiences to talent.

Instead of a recruiter having to respond to every call and search through queries from various applicants, an AI-powered bot can begin collecting data as soon as an interested applicant visits your website. Integrated data sources let the AI tool alert prospective job seekers of available roles, arrange interviews, and carry out other tasks. This greatly improves the candidate experience.

(Also Read: 5 Ways Applicant Tracking Systems Can Solve Recruitment Challenges)

Are AI Interviews the Future of Hiring?

AI interviews are the newest trends in artificial intelligence-driven recruitment, going a step beyond resume reviews and applicant tracking.

In AI interviews, a candidate “speaks with” an AI interviewer, which is possible with ChatGPT, Bard, and various other AI large language models.

In June 2023, ResumeBuilder.com spoke to over a thousand individuals engaged in the recruiting process to find out if their organizations use AI interviews. Surprisingly, 43% of companies have already adopted AI interviewers or intend to do so by 2024!

Two-thirds of this group think AI interviews will enhance the efficacy of the recruiting process. 15% of those surveyed believe AI will help in making decisions on applicants — without human input.

And, 85% of those polled believe that the software will offer candidate recommendations but that human beings will still make the final call.

As artificial intelligence becomes more advanced, its role in resume reviewing and ATS will become more than just administrative. AI could take on a real decision-making role, assisting hiring managers in most tasks and even replacing them in a few low-stakes ones.

Concerns Around AI in Hiring

While implementing artificial intelligence and AI-based hiring tools, HR teams need to remember a few potential issues.

The first is the GIGO principle – garbage in, garbage out. The output of any AI engine is as efficient as its inputs, and the majority of candidate selection requires huge amounts of data. Organizations may lack these details, or the data might have underlying deficiencies, such as existing patterns of biased decision-making.

Moreover, people are typically cautious and apprehensive about the use of AI in recruiting and selecting staff members. A study discovered that 66% of over 11,000 US employees weren’t interested in applying for a job at an organization that uses artificial intelligence for hiring decisions. 71% of respondents were also against AI making the final recruitment decision. Reasons include fears of bias, a lack of human connection, and a potential inability to get the “big picture” with context.

Data security, privacy, and compliance could be another challenge, as companies will need to train the AI model on fully anonymized yet accurate hiring data.

Conclusion

A sophisticated AI applicant monitoring system is used by organizations during the recruiting process. It automates the screening, tracking, and classification of candidates, speeding up hiring by reviewing applications, competencies, and credentials to identify the most talented candidates — at an advanced pace of delivery and quality. Companies that can navigate the challenges we discussed and partner with the right vendors could see sizable gains from their investment in AI for resume reviewing and ATS.

Indeed, 81% of HR leaders have either explored or installed AI tools, reports Gartner, with generative AI in HR being the latest trend as this exciting space evolves.