Adoption of automated recruiting

Automated recruiting is here! LinkedIn Business reports, “Adoption among recruiting teams is growing, with 37 per cent of organizations now ‘actively integrating’ or ‘experimenting’ with generative AI tools, up from 27 per cent a year ago.”

HCM professionals have high hopes for how AI hiring can improve hiring processes. Some benefits of using AI for skills-based hiring include:

• Increased hiring efficiency;
• More effective job postings;
• Expanded reach to new talent pools;
• Reduced unconscious bias in recruiting;
• The ability to screen high volumes of applicants;
• An increased overall calibre of applicants;
• Improved candidate experiences;
• Scribing for HCM professionals during interviews so they can focus on the conversations they are having with candidates instead of taking notes; and 
• Streamlined onboarding.

Some AI concerns loom

Beyond early and optimistic adopters, there are underlying concerns among HCM professionals about some of the less desirable impacts AI is having on hiring practices from both applicants and organizations.

One professional told HCM Dialogue that they routinely see candidates utilizing what they assume to be AI to answer interview questions during virtual interviews. They noted that this practice yields high-level sounding answers that lack concrete information.

Others worry about how AI hiring will impact candidate privacy and security, as well as hiring transparency as the technology evolves faster than regulations can be implemented. 

Some results reveal that AI can pick up on previous unconscious biases through algorithm bias, particularly during recruitment, amplifying, for example, gender inequalities when trained on past, biased data. 

Zinnya del Villar, a responsible AI subject matter expert, told UN Women, “AI systems, learning from data filled with stereotypes, often reflect and reinforce gender biases. These biases can limit opportunities and diversity, especially in areas like decision-making, hiring, loan approvals and legal judgments.”

Candidates note that recruitment involving too much AI and not enough human touch feels cold, making them feel like “just a number” and see it as a red flag for a potentially toxic corporate culture. This sentiment is highlighted in the TA Trends 2025 report from Korn Ferry, showing that 40 per cent of talent specialists have concerns that too much automation will remove the human touch from the hiring process, making candidates feel less connected to the organizations they are applying for and therefore less likely to accept a role.