AI is becoming ubiquitous in nearly every area of our lives, and the talent acquisition and hiring space is no exception. Yet with the excitement of something new comes fear of the unknown. What impact will AI have on the future of the talent acquisition industry? Only time will tell, but we have some ideas, and we explored them at the recent SIA-CWS conference. Led by Rocki Howard, the Chief Impact & Equity Officer at The Mom Project, the panel aimed to examine the equitable and ethical human balance in AI.
To ensure a human-centric hiring process continues to be equitable and inclusive, we must understand how organizations are exploring AI, particularly in talent acquisition strategies and what this can mean when it comes to recruiting and identifying talent, the interview process and communication, and the candidate experience. ChatGPT, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and other AI-driven platforms promise to streamline repetitive processes and save time, but this help comes with ethical concerns over bias, especially when it comes to hiring and talent experience. While there are obvious merits of using AI when it comes to weeding through thousands of resumes, finding niche skill sets, and automating manual tasks, it’s incumbent to identify the pros and cons and potential risks in order to understand the moral and business implications.
In conversation with Jessica Dominiczak, Chief Product Officer at The Mom Project, and Marcus Sawyerr, Founder and CEO of EQ Community, we explored how AI impacts the human-centric experience, how AI enables hiring, potential bias from AI-based solutions, and why companies should pay attention to and assess this learning phase of AI.
Defining AI
We all have our own ideas on what AI is, especially as it’s evolving and will likely continue to transform over time. Marcus and Jessica work with AI regularly, so we sought out their expert opinions on what AI means to them today.
For Marcus, one of the ways he thinks about AI is imagining it as a tree or umbrella in which humans have programmed a system:
“AI is taking data, which you then transform into information, and then you transform that information into insights, and then transform that into knowledge, which can ultimately lead to wisdom.”
He asserts that we’re getting close to the knowledge part of the equation, but we’re not quite at a place of wisdom yet. Whatever AI is or will come to be, the use case should be to solve important problems.
From Jessica’s point of view, AI is shifting rapidly. It has moved from basic data and information gathering to more generative AI in which we’re leveraging mass amounts of data, and things are moving at a very rapid rate to generate different outcomes. As a result, today we are able to leverage AI for more human-driven, high-value tasks.
Marcus agrees: “One of the really useful ways that we can leverage AI is to connect people.”
AI' use in streamlining the recruitment process
One of the most obvious benefits of using AI is streamlining tasks. From Jessica’s point of view, AI can help both in terms of the candidate experience and the experience of the recruiters. This rapidly evolving use case speaks to the shift she mentioned earlier — generative AI enables you to use it not just for background tasks, but also in the forefront where you’re actually engaging with candidates. This enables businesses to drive lead-nurturing campaigns in a much more scalable way.
Marcus states that candidates want to ensure they’re being heard and seen. With AI, there’s a huge opportunity to keep candidates informed and avoid the dreaded “black hole” experience that can occur for many who never get word on their progress. AI has the power to provide more transparent feedback in real time, allowing individuals to have better experiences with a company while allowing a company to transact with a more efficient process.
Rocki sums up the thoughts shared nicely — with AI, there are endless opportunities to come up with new ways of doing things that we haven’t thought of just yet. There is business optimization that AI is helping us achieve, but at the same time, it allows us to be able to make the candidate experience better — something we’ve been trying to do for years. AI has the power to change that.
AI’s role in alleviating bias in hiring
When considering AI’s ability to help alleviate bias in hiring, Jessica concedes that using AI is not without its risks:
“The reality is that you have to know what the data is trained off of. It’s important to know the data source. You also have to acknowledge that there is already a lot of bias in the hiring process. With AI, you have a choice: to continue forth with the way we’ve been doing it, or to begin a different approach that can really transform the way we’re doing things.”
With AI, it all goes back to getting what you give — even the wording you use in the job description. You must employ intentional thinking about how you generate the outcomes you want to achieve when it comes to AI. At The Mom Project, we are training data based on understanding what employers are really looking for, how a candidate aligns with that experience, and how we create the right narrative around the candidate’s experience to better position their story. This is where properly training AI is key, because basic algorithms are going to miss the nuance, the story.
What’s important is to look at your results and then make adjustments if needed. This approach gives us more ways to produce more ethical outcomes, but it has to be done with intention.
Marcus puts it plainly: “When it comes to bias, one thing we have to be aware of is that we’re all biased.”
He pointed out that we all have biases based on our experiences and our environment, and that what we’ve been seeing is that AI bias depends on how it’s being trained. It’s critical to spend time thinking about how you’re intentionally training your AI. An example of a use case for his company is that they are spending time programming their models to ensure they get more people at the top of the funnel, which widens the pool so they can find more people and enhance diversity. In sum, you can think about who’s programming each AI model but know they are all going to be biased.
Balancing moral implications with business objectives
“Ethics have to be baked into whatever you’re building, and that comes back to your purpose.” - Marcus Sawyerr
Marcus stated that purpose should be a guiding light for any organization. As it stands, profit may be at the top, but ideally you want to start reversing that, starting with purpose, then principles, and then profit. How you incorporate AI into your value system will help how you’re perceived by others and can make a huge impact on the candidates you’re recruiting. You should be asking yourself how AI fits into your purpose, not the other way around.
According to Jessica, opportunities for advancement are here, and it starts with looking at how humans are doing things today and learning by doing. Having lots of feedback loops along the way can help ensure you’re driving the outcome you want to achieve. As she pointed out, the reality is that adjustments are never done. As things adjust, you’ll need to make changes along the way.
Rethinking workforce planning as AI shifts roles
We’re in the midst of a revolution in terms of work, but with intention and careful planning, we can drive how the future will unfold.
Marcus suggests taking a step back and thinking about what AI is again. He describes AI as UPS: useful, powerful, and scary. Therefore, there needs to be some guidance on how you leverage that system inside of your organization.
Workforce planning in general always starts with a business need. Organizations should ask themselves — do we actually need this position right now, and what can this position become? In some scenarios, you can do more with less, but in some you can do more for more. Knowledge work has become a lot more valuable and has become a high-ticket item as opposed to spending time on the administrative side.
For Jessica, while she believes that some jobs will be more impacted than others, she thinks that, ultimately, a lot of opportunity will come out of AI. Leveraging the unique skill set you have and how you can use that with AI presents a great opportunity for candidates.
How AI has positively impacted the candidate's experience to be more human centric
According to Marcus, the biggest impact from AI thus far has been regarding the placement of talent — in particular, using AI for training recruiting teams on hiring for new positions. AI can help train how to hire in new fields to understand what the talent mix would be before you begin to hire for the role. This bleeds into the candidate experience, because if talent acquisition teams know more about the role and the position and the types of candidates it needs, companies can have better conversations and a more robust screening process, enhancing the candidate experience.
Jessica agreed that AI can help solve the black hole problem. Talent can now have access to tools that can enhance their experience, from knowing where they stand to being able to get more consistent feedback. AI can help with career planning, knowing what skills to add to your profile, resume targeting, and how to better prepare better for the interview. Both agree that on both sides, we’re going to see the experience get much better.
Coolest ways of integrating AI into work or business models
“Women who have less traditional career paths can often be overlooked if you only look at their most recent relevant experience or search within a very rigid skill set — companies are missing out on the full narrative of the candidate” Jessica stated.
What The Mom Project has been working on is better understanding both the job and the candidate to build the selling point for those particular candidates being a fit. Once you build this skill set, you can leverage it in many different ways, telling employers why a candidate is a great fit and telling candidates why the job is such a great fit for them. We can also use this information to talk about skill gaps and how we can support moms to help them bridge the gap.
For Marcus, his company is using AI internally with their products and services. They recently noticed a gap where there was an opportunity to insert inclusion into their process. EQ developed a solution using AI to help with all aspects of recruitment, focusing on inclusion and saving his team a lot of time.
Both examples shared illustrate how AI can be used for good to truly enhance the talent acquisition experience for everyone involved. The power is in our hands — we just have to be intentional with how we’re training and using AI. If we can lead with intention, the future of recruiting looks exciting and full of possibilities.