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When James Cameron developed the idea for The Terminator, he probably wasn’t thinking about using sophisticated AI to scan résumés and fire people, but IRL, AI is less bloodlust-y and more administrative.
As conversations about generative AI and its eventual impact continue, a June ResumeBuilder survey probed how the technology will change the hiring process. While the results may seem alarming, one expert said the future is more about learning how to work with AI, instead of it replacing HR pros.
The data. ResumeBuilder surveyed 1,000 people involved in the hiring process, and found that AI is expected to have a larger role in hiring, with 43% of companies saying they’re already using AI to conduct interviews or plan to start by 2024.
Beyond the interview process, 15% of respondents said they’ll allow AI to make job candidate decisions without human input.
Risky proposition. While more than one-half of respondents feel that AI will eventually take over as hiring managers, Gerald Kane, professor of management information systems at the University of Georgia, told HR Brew, “for average hiring processes, I think it’s an extraordinarily bad idea.” AI is only as good as the data it has access to, and therefore is rife with potential problems like inserting biases like sexism into the hiring process. He argues that humans will remain a necessary part of the equation.
Kane said that there may be a few rare instances where AI could help screen out less talented or less qualified candidates. “AI does a really good job of assessing structured tasks like programming,” he explained. “There’s a lot of research that says in some ways that AI are going to be better programmers than people because it’s just a very well-defined environment.”
AI and humans as a team. Kane argued that hiring managers and AI will work together to make quicker decisions. “AI will not replace managers, but managers who use AI will replace managers who don’t use AI,” he said.
AI is just the latest technology that workers are learning to use, Kane said. He compared it to the internet, email, and social media as just another advancement that will impact the way people do their jobs. “The only way to make sure that you remain employable is to stay adaptable and to understand these technologies,” he said.
That said, don’t rely on the Terminator to send rejection emails any time soon.