Technical Research Lead Corey Gibbins and Timothy Frendo, Sr. Tech Recruiting Consultant explain that, love it or hate it, the talent industry will be forever changed by AI. But is that really such a good thing? Quentin Zapata, Generation Z-er, has a thing or two to say about that.

What types of AI integrations do you look forward to the most?

Tim is looking forward to hyper-targeted social media advertising. The ability to target and source specific candidates based on their backgrounds is one of the most innovative time savers to date.

What he isn’t looking forward to, however, are AI assistants parsing resumes. “I don’t know if [AI] is going to be able to pick up the nuances of resumes…. I’m wondering if candidates now have to start writing not for us… but for the AI assistant.” For someone who regularly talks to candidates who haven’t written resumes in 10 years, this is a major concern of his.

As a recruitment researcher, Corey hasn’t seen a whole lot of AI integrations at work quite yet.

How do AI integrations help you?

While Tim does have his hangups about AI integrations, he does appreciate that they can complete the more repetitive aspects of his job.

Siri is Corey’s go-to gal for all things day-to-day: “Siri reminds me what time to wake up… when do I need to go grocery shopping? What do I need to buy? Just constant reminders. And Alexa and Google home… set the temperature in my house, record my favorite shows.” Needless to say, he’s looking forward to the day that those conveniences become a part of his workday.

Where could AI improve recruitment?

As of now, Tim doesn’t think that AI can walk the talk quite yet. He believes that AI could be great for one function, but not so great for others.

Tim brought up a solid point: AI could revert those mom and pop recruitment shops back to the stone age. They might not be able to tweak the functionalities the way a fortune 500 company could. But, with how quickly technology changes, “who knows where AI could be in 2-3 years. It could be completely different than the way we’re using it now.”

Corey agrees with Tim’s earlier statement that AI automation can take over those super tedious tasks that recruiters slave over. “I’m sure more than one recruiter would speak to about how long it takes to… screen through piles and piles of resumes.”

Corey mentioned a hefty downside: AI integrations require tons of data aggregation. “With data comes human biases… say I’m a recruiter and my patterns tend to be I hire people in a certain age range or from a certain area, and the AI may learn those patterns as well so there have to be ways to negate that.”

Tim added that, overall, “[AI] is… pretty new… as it evolves, there’s going to be a lot of changes from the candidate’s side as well as the company’s side as well as the developers… about how to integrate it all. It’ll be interesting to see… how it all transpires.”

How can recruiters and AI work together?

Corey thinks that we need to be more open to new recruitment technology–switch up our thinking a little bit… or a lot. He explained that, when a new technology emerges, there are always people who are afraid of it and then others who are excited about it. Corey thinks this is the way to go, and we agree: “How can we use [technology] to help us as a tool rather than… this is going to replace what we do.”

A Gen Z Perspective on AI in recruiting

We asked 17-year-old Quentin Zapata how he’d feel if an AI bot–not a recruiter–contacted him about a new job. Considering he’s part of a generation that lives and breathes technology, his response was surprising. “I’d kind of be pretty annoyed because I’d rather talk to someone one-on-one and create a bond with them whether they’re offering me an interview or offering me a job.”

Do you think your Gen Z peers agree?

Quentin thinks some folks in his generation will agree, but that others might let it slide because of how much they already rely on AI for just about everything else in their lives. As our dialogue with him continued, he never wavered on his stance that, AI in recruitment will negatively impact the candidate experience. He’s not looking forward to the changes ahead.