As any hiring professional will attest, the search for skilled and qualified employees is a seemingly never-ending task fraught with time-wasting redundancies that include sorting through an endless pile of resumes or calling a long list of references.

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to put an end to such redundancies as it becomes more and more sophisticated and easier for non-experts to use. The following is a rundown of those hiring tasks that can be offloaded onto AI, thereby freeing hiring professionals up to do higher value tasks.

Job advertisements

The first step in any hiring process is the advertisement detailing the available position. According to AI experts, this task is one that AI can easily take over by creating attractive copy and descriptions that could appeal to the appropriate candidates. Once created, the AI can then be used to optimize the ad for placement on the appropriate search engines and social media platforms, thereby ensuring maximum visibility of the open position.

Resume reviews

Once the advertisement has been published, it is only a matter of time — hopefully — before the resumes start piling up. Hiring professionals traditionally have had to sort through these oftentimes overwhelming piles manually to search for candidates with the most appropriate skill sets and experience. Now, AI can unburden hiring professionals of this task with the development of AI algorithms capable of scanning resumes and identifying job candidates with qualifications that match the job requirements based on keywords and other search criteria. By automating this task, recruiters can save time by rapidly eliminating unqualified candidates.

Candidate screening

Once an AI algorithm identifies appropriate job candidates, AI-powered chatbots can interact with those job candidates via text or voice interactions to perform initial screenings where candidates are asked basic questions and the AI can answer those questions and provide information about the job role and company. This step further establishes whether or not the candidate is the right fit for the advertised position.

Interview analysis

In the event that the candidate makes it to the interview step, AI can be used to analyze recorded interviews to examine the candidates' facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, speech patterns and assorted other characteristics to offer insights into the candidate’s personality traits and communication skills.

Predictive analytics

To further determine the so-called fitness of a job candidate, AI algorithms can also be used to analyze historical hiring data to subsequently identify patterns and make predictions about whether the candidate is likely to succeed in the advertised position.

There are even AI tools that reportedly make predictions about how long a new hire at a company might stick around once they are hired and AI tools that make predictions about how long an employee is likely to stay with a company following mergers and acquisitions.

Bias reduction

AI experts suggest that because AI tools standardize candidate evaluation criteria as well as remove identifying information from resumes during initial screenings — for example, names, ethnicities and genders — AI hiring tools might help to mitigate the unconscious bias that might occur in traditional hiring scenarios.

Skill-set assessment

In an effort to assess the skill sets of candidates for a job, AI-powered platforms can reportedly administer skill assessments or simulations as an evaluation of the candidates' job-related skills and knowledge, thus providing hiring managers with data for making informed hiring decisions.

Onboarding

Once an appropriate candidate has been hired, AI-powered virtual assistants can help onboard new hires by answering their questions and providing them with the necessary information about company policies, procedures, resources and more.

This is just a sampling of what tasks AI can perform to automate certain parts of the hiring process. Check back with GlobalSpec for more on the topic of AI.

To contact the author of this article, email mdonlon@globalspec.com