In all its various forms, artificial intelligence (AI) is already providing powerful tools for HR, especially in the area of hiring. AI can assist in screening applications and resumes to identify strong candidates faster and more efficiently and even assist with the interview process. However, AI is still an emerging technology, and employing it without proper consideration and human oversight carries significant risks.

Ultimately, HR departments must find the proper balance and embrace a hybrid approach to AI, where human hiring experts and AI work together, playing to each other’s strengths to achieve the best results. To provide concrete examples of how this can work, we’ll look at three use cases for AI in the hiring process, showing how people and AI together can provide superior outcomes to either working alone.

Use of AI for Resume Screening

One application for AI is resume screening. Many organizations have been automating resume screening for some time, typically through basic keyword matching to identify desired skills. These approaches have limitations, however, because they can miss candidates who may have desirable skills but may not have clearly conveyed these on their resumes.

AI-based resume screening can infer more about a person’s skills than simple keyword matching, but these tools need training and oversight to ensure accurate assessment. Some organizations have used historical hiring data to train the AI only to learn that biases inherent in past hiring decisions are replicated or just plain strange results occur, like preferences for certain first names.  Left unchecked and undiscovered, the use of AI can result in hiring mistakes.

Biases can be eliminated in some cases through monitoring, ongoing training and corrective action. Organizations can also create a more objective data set by having trained human raters evaluate resumes against standardized criteria to ensure consistency in their evaluations, but this may be beyond the means of some companies.

Another challenge is that AI-based resume screening is typically better at identifying technical skills than professional skills such as resilience, strategic thinking, flexibility and interpersonal communication. Organizations are increasingly placing more value on these non-technical skills, because they are more enduring and often better at predicting job and career success over time than specific technical skills, especially in today’s rapidly changing, volatile work situations.

Companies can certainly leverage AI to rapidly identify candidates who may be more likely to perform better on the job. But it is important to monitor and check the AI to ensure it is accurately identifying the best talent. Additional more formal and objective assessments may be needed in many contexts to hire the best employees, especially to the extent that professional skills are essential for effective performance.

Use of AI for Formal Assessments and Interviews

HR organizations are becoming increasingly interested in using assessments to determine a candidate’s qualifications instead of relying on the traditional resume and cover letter. The Tear the Paper Ceiling movement is championing this cause, and it includes well-known brands such as Accenture, Chevron, Google, IBM, McKinsey and Walmart.

Generative AI can be used to facilitate the generation of assessment questions. The questions can sound good but they may not be the best measures of the target skills or the items may not mee the criteria for a high quality test item.  Here again, organizations can adopt a hybrid scenario in which AI generates initial assessment items that are then evaluated by human assessment experts who select and edit them. A hybrid model can accelerate assessment development and provide higher quality outcomes than either AI or humans alone.

Interviews can also benefit from AI, especially if organizations are conducting structured interviews with standardized questions that ask about specific experiences and are evaluated using standardized rating criteria.  AI can assist with generating questions to assess target skills, suggest follow-up questions, and evaluate responses. But like with the resume screening applications discussed above, the use of AI works best when it occurs alongside human interviewers so that the outcomes can be monitored.

While AI may be capable of conducting and  evaluating interviews without human intervention, it is important to remember that as many as two-thirds of candidates are still spooked about the use of AI in the evaluation process and turned-off by its use. The empathetic, relationship-building aspects of human interaction remain vital in creating a positive candidate experience and ensuring the best fit for the role.

AI can certainly increase the efficiency of hiring by automating portions of the screening, assessment, and interview process.  But the best outcomes will be achieved for companies and candidates when AI is used as part of a hybrid approach – with human oversight and participation. This will not only ensure higher quality outcomes but a more engaging process for applicants that maintains its human touch.