If you ever feel your HR budget isn’t being used as efficiently as possible, one possible fix is to turn to AI. AI can automate many tasks currently done by human employees, such as talent search, sourcing, and engagement. By turning these time-consuming tasks over to technology, your HR budget and resources may instead be dedicated to screening, hiring, and nurturing every company’s greatest asset: talent. 

1. Artificial Intelligence Can Help Identify and Prevent Unconscious Bias in the Recruitment Process

Unconscious bias is, by its very nature, difficult to notice in one’s self. It can manifest in many different elements of the recruiting process even for the most mindful recruiter. From the candidates selected for to the questions asked during the interview process, biases are built into our way of thinking. Though it may seem innocuous, unconscious bias can significantly impact an organization’s ability to attract and retain top talent. Artificial Intelligence can help identify and prevent unconscious bias in the recruitment process by providing unbiased data about candidates. For example, an AI-based system can analyze a resume to identify when diverse candidates are selling themselves short. For example, Talenya’s AI can say with 98% accuracy when a candidate is from an underrepresented group and might not be found by recruiters. 

This data can then be used to adjust the recruitment process to ensure that all candidates have equal opportunity to show up in search results and be considered for open positions. By using AI to reduce unconscious bias in HR and recruiting departments, organizations can ensure that their budget goes to finding top candidates—whomever they may be. 

2. AI-Integrated Applicant Tracking Systems Can Save Time and Money by Automating the Search Process

“Time is money”: it’s more than an adage, it’s absolutely true. So the best way to reduce costs and increase efficiency in the HR department is by saving time on certain tasks. AI is a big help in this regard. By integrating an AI sourcing platform into your Applicant Tracking System,  you can streamline and speed up the process of searching for candidates. That’s because once the AI is integrated, all your hiring team needs to do is upload a job description, make a few calibration keystrokes, and the automated sourcing technology will take it from there. It will run hundreds of granular searches based on the description and individual recruiter preference to find the most qualified and diverse candidates in a matter of hours. 

Once it’s searched for and then reached out to hundreds of candidates, it will return those interested in interviewing directly back to the ATS. So AI allows budges to be used on recruiters’ time doing more lucrative tasks not only by automating the sourcing process, but by bringing the automation directly into the systems your recruiters are already using. 

3. Automated Engagement Campaigns Improve Total Response Numbers and Save Time

In addition to automatically searching for candidates, AI can run automated engagement campaigns which contact hundreds of candidates over a multitude of channels.  

Human recruiters have traditionally needed to contact candidates one by one, sometimes using only outdated contact information and with only a guess as to whether a even an active job seeker might show interest, let alone a “passive” one. Getting responses is never a guarantee.  

But AI helps tremendously with these issues. It can reach out to exponentially more candidates than a human. Furthermore, it can actually predict a passive job seeker’s propensity to leave their current job, predict whether contact information is valid, and it can optimize its message to heighten the chance of catching someone’s eye. So the total number of responses an AI can bring in is significantly higher than that of a human. Automating the engagement process saves resources through saving time and efficiency on an unprecedented level. 

4. By Bringing In Extra Interviews, AI Acts Like an Extra Team Member

One reason HR and recruiting departments so essential to company success is that it is on them to bring the very best people into an organization. So it’s important to have the very best hiring team that you can, and that you give them the tools to bring in talent efficiently. That’s where AI comes in. 

Hiring teams are generally awesome at feeling out who the best candidates are for a job and bringing them in for interviews. But the process of finding people and getting them to commit to an interview is no easy feat, especially for a human who can’t, by virtue of their humanity, speak with more than one person or run more than one search at once. AI, however, is able to run hundreds of searches and send hundreds of messages immediately upon receiving and calibrating a job description. By doing this, it will usually return a few interviews into the ATS very quickly, setting the hiring team a step ahead right from the get-go. 

One way to think of it is that you’ll have a team of humans who know when they’re looking at the best talent, plus one robot who can do all the tedious step-by-step labor automatically. Since AI ultimately costs less than another employee, there is no doubt that an AI team member is a great way to utilize your budget.  

5. AI Empowers Recruiters to Focus Their Efforts and Do Their Best Work

In today’s changing world and viciously competitive talent market, the title of “recruiter” encompasses an ever-growing list of responsibilities and skills. Even the most productive, multi-talented sourcer is bound to have trouble putting their all into each and every thing required of them simply because their attention is split so many different ways. 

Boolean keyword search, message-by-message engagement, and searching for underrepresented talent by looking at profile photos and names all take up hours and days of time without really giving great results. By adding AI to the mix to find and engage qualified and diverse talent, recruiters and hiring teams will be freed up to focus on interviews, refining the application process, job marketing, and in general each of the many tasks that take a skilled eye to complete properly. This way, your recruiting budget goes to getting far better results and more productive hiring teams who are themselves more satisfied with their jobs—rather than being wasted on tasks that needn’t be human-led in the 21st century. 

In Conclusion… 

Artificial Intelligence can help reduce budget waste in HR and recruiting departments by automating search and engagement, bringing in extra interviews, and freeing up recruiters’ time. Ultimately, AI ensures that your recruiting budget is being used efficiently, effectively, and with stellar results.. 

If you’re interested in dipping a toe into the AI platform pool, a good place to start is the first and leading provider of sourcing automation tech: Talenya. To learn more from a representative, you can get in touch , or check out the Talenya blog for more tips and advice on recruitment, diversity, and talent sourcing.