Complete guide to using AI in recruiting

From creating candidate shortlists to helping draft job descriptions, AI has the potential to revolutionize hiring. AI can provide insights and suggest optimizations that would otherwise go unnoticed. The speed at which it can accomplish tasks — and the scale at which it can engage candidates – represents a significant opportunity for hiring teams.

That all sounds good, but getting started with AI can feel overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be.

Why trust us on AI and recruitment?

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ICIMS has a history of using artificial intelligence across our hiring platform – long before this current race to incorporate AI into everything.

We think the results speak for themselves. ICIMS Coalesce AI was named “Best Overall AI Solution” at the 7th annual AI Breakthrough Awards.

Here are our steps to evaluating and implementing an AI-driven recruitment process.

Step 1: Define the use case for AI in your recruiting process

AI isn’t a narrow solution for a specific hiring challenge. There are many opportunities to use AI throughout the hiring process to save time and help make smarter, more informed decisions. The first step is determining where and when to use it.

How AI can benefit recruiters and hiring managers:

  • Assist with writing job descriptions
  • Generate interview questions based on role
  • Pinpoint your most interested and engaged candidates
  • Summarize emails and email threads for recruiting teams
  • Create shortlists of the most qualified candidates for specific roles and locations

How AI can benefit job seekers and employees:

  • Provide job search guidance on your career site with an AI-powered chatbot
  • Help job seekers find relevant jobs based on their skills and experience
  • Assist employees in identifying skills to help them grow in their careers

Step 2: Determine responsibilities across functions

Once you’ve figured out how you want to use AI, it’s time to get the right people on board and define who is responsible for what. Ideally, this should happen before you start looking at specific AI tool vendors. This way, you’ll get into the evaluation process with your internal teams all on the same page.

Who is consulted will vary from one organization to another. Your executive team, legal counsel, information security and IT department are all possible candidates. Some organizations find it best to formalize an AI committee to hammer out the details.

Questions to discuss with your internal team:

  • Who is in charge of evaluating AI recruitment tool vendors?
  • Who oversees implementation of AI systems?
  • Do we have guidelines around the ethical use of AI?
  • Who will communicate changes, timelines, etc. with our team?

Step 3: Evaluate vendors

At this point, you’re ready to assess AI-powered solutions and their vendors. There are at least two important categories to consider:

  1. What capabilities do they promise, and how do they deliver?
    Is AI native to the tools vendors offer, or is it a separate feature? Your organization’s unique needs might lead decision makers to prefer one over the other.

  1. What are their guidelines for the creation and use of AI?
    Responsible vendors align the development and use of their AI to ethical principles and international standards. Knowing the vendor’s core AI ethics will help you ensure that they align to your organization’s principles.

When evaluating vendors, ask:

What responsible or ethical principles is your AI developed with?

How are you prepared to comply with emerging AI laws?

How long have you been developing AI?

Is your AI solution native to your product or a “bolt-on”?

Step 4: Implement AI in your recruiting process

With an AI solution secured, it’s time to begin the rollout. Your team will likely have a lot of questions about how this impacts their day-to-day.

The first step is communicating the vision for AI, and how it can transform the way your organization recruits. Next come timelines and expectations. Finally, training for recruiters and hiring managers.

Hiring with ICIMS Coalesce AI

Trusted by the world’s leading brands, our responsible AI has a proven track record of helping teams simplify and accelerate their hiring process – including reducing time-to-fill by as much as 50%.

Learn more about ICIMS AI