While much fuss has been made about the negatives of AI, its greatest benefits, like research, speed, and data processing, are aligned with the needs of an HR department overwhelmed with information during the talent acquisition process. 

“The AI sweet spot is gathering, synthesizing, and summarizing information, stopping short of decision-making, but certainly helping recruiters, hiring managers, and talent acquisition professionals get to know the inputs on their candidates a bit better,” said Craig Ellis, Ph.D., head I/O psychologist, HighMatch. This information includes skills alignment, level of experience, cultural match, and even the candidate’s desire for the role. Ellis spoke on an executive panel discussion at From Day One’s Atlanta conference about making talent acquisition more efficient and inclusive. 

“Where I’ve seen AI really show efficiency gains, particularly in the talent acquisition space, is around areas where we can infer at a large scale. So, think screening candidates, resume reviews, scheduling interviews, even communication with candidates. AI is helpful in making that a very efficient process,” said Emily Clark, VP, global head of talent & COO at BlackRock. It can even help boost diversity in hiring by automatically removing or hiding identifying characteristics like names, addresses, or graduation years, eliminating the natural temptation to make assumptions. 

AI can not only sort applications but help with more proactive headhunting for executive-level positions. “AI helps us to radically identify the right candidates faster, because it allows us to have access to information that used to take 10 minutes to get. We can get it in a few seconds,” said Bert Hensley, chairman and CEO of Morgan Samuels Company. “If we’re looking for a candidate that's going to be a CFO of a certain size business in a certain market segment, we can find those companies and know how to sort them by the size of the business and how much they’ve grown, versus taking so much time to find each one of those [criteria].” He cautions that HR still needs to do its due diligence in vetting, but can use AI to at least generate lists and identify appropriate candidates for further human review.

Salvador Ortega, global VP of HR at Newell Brands, says HR professionals need not fear being replaced by AI; instead, AI can augment their work. “It's more about how we elevate our value as human beings,” he said, citing research that has shown that AI has already taken over approximately 50% of most talent acquisition tasks. “So, the main question for us is, what are we going to do with this 50% of our time that is free now? And that's where the magic is going to come.” 

That magic, in part, comes down to human intuition. “AI doesn't have the ability to use instinct as humans do, connecting the right person with the right job,” said moderator Leon Stafford, senior business journalist. “Do you have concerns that AI could overlook great talent because a candidate doesn’t quite fit the bill in areas that you could obviously see in a one-on-one interview?” Panelists agreed that one of HR’s key roles is helping organizational leaders articulate not just the kind of candidate they want, but also the type of candidate they need. This is a type of complex, intuitive thinking and level of communication, often relying on more than just printed words, that AI cannot accomplish on its own.

“[AI is] not able to look at nuances. It’s not able to have the empathy that we’re looking for or the context [for] what the situation might be,” Clark said. For example, AI cannot identify potential in a person’s resume. “That’s where human interaction is required in the hiring process. And as with implementing any other technology, staff must be trained on how to make the most of AI. That means pushing hiring managers to clearly articulate the exact kind of candidates they need and teaching them how to write highly specific, accurate, and informed prompts. 

In terms of hiring for C-Suite roles, Ellis says, “AI makes a really good co-pilot. It makes a really bad pilot.” In other words, while it can support the C-suite hiring process, it cannot properly evaluate senior-level candidates. “People are complex, and C-suite jobs are complex, and the intersection of those two things is exponentially complex. That human side of C-level evaluation is incredibly valuable: that judgment and that nuance and that ability to ask follow-up questions and probing questions.” 

AI Best Practices

When employing AI in your hiring practice, transparency and boundaries are essential. Clark suggests letting candidates know up front whether AI is being used to parse resumes and match them to job descriptions, which, in turn, gives them permission to use it as well. But boundaries need to be set for when the technology needs to be put away. “I recommend that you tell the candidate, ‘It’s totally reasonable and understandable if you want to use AI to look at questions that we might ask during the interview [and] prep for responses. We do not allow you to use AI in the interview itself,” she said. 

The signs of a candidate using AI during an interview are usually clear, such as reading off the screen, looking to the side, or having an AI agent on the Zoom call. It tends to be recent college graduates who rely on it the most, Clark says, because they’re so used to it. 

HR managers should prepare interview questions that deliberately undermine a candidate’s ability to use AI, forcing them to respond in real time if they are not already doing so. “You, as an organization, have to design your interviews to test what AI cannot do. You’re going to want to design your interview questions to look at real-time judgment, critical thinking, communications, and rationale through ambiguity. AI cannot do any of that with ease.” Ellis notes that follow-up questions that deliberately encourage rephrasing and reflection can also force a candidate to go “off-script,” since AI often cannot remember its previous responses.

In seeking out future HR leaders themselves, companies should focus on hiring for critical thinking, human intuition, and data analytics skills—competencies that align with an increasingly AI-dependent industry. “You can do more today in really helping your CEO and your organization be proactive instead of being reactive,” Hensley said. 

Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost, Top Think, and several printed essay collections, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.

(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)