A hiring manager reviews the 50 applications that made it through their new AI screening tool. They look promising, all including relevant experience and formatted cleanly.
But as they think over the CVs they just read, a question nags at them: what about the 200 applications the AI filtered out before anyone saw them? Could the perfect candidate be sitting in that digital rejection pile, screened out by an algorithm that didn’t spot their potential?
By 2025, 80% of organisations will have integrated AI into their HR functions, with 60% using it for end-to-end recruitment processes.
Using AI in recruitment offers genuine benefits, with increased overall speed and efficiency being an alluring prospect for many businesses. Yet, it also brings real challenges around ethics, bias, authenticity, and the risk of losing the human touch that makes recruitment more than just matching keywords to requirements.
So, is this technological shift something to embrace wholeheartedly or approach with caution? As with most things in HR, the answer isn’t straightforward.
In this article, we’ll explore how AI is currently being used in recruitment, the tangible benefits it offers, the legitimate concerns we can’t ignore, and, most importantly, how to strike the right balance.
How AI Is Reshaping Recruitment
Today, 60% of organisations are using AI for complete recruitment processes, and that figure is climbing rapidly. What once lived in the realm of science fiction, such as algorithms reading CVs and predictive analytics forecasting which candidates will succeed, is now standard practice in many HR departments.
Candidate screening is perhaps where AI has made the biggest impact. Automated systems now review 40% of job applications before any human sees them. Skills-matching algorithms compare CVs against job requirements in seconds, and initial assessments sort candidates into categories based on predetermined criteria. What once took recruiters days can now happen overnight.
Job advertising and marketing have also been transformed by AI. Recruiters can use AI tools to write job descriptions and create targeted adverts, tasks that originally would have required much more time to complete.
AI systems can also quickly analyse data to identify which platforms, messaging, and timing will reach the right candidates. Your employer brand can now be tailored and distributed with a precision that would have been impossible just a few years ago.
These tools support workforce planning and have helped some organisations reduce hiring costs by up to 25% through smarter, data-informed decisions. The statistics paint an impressive picture of efficiency and capability. But what does this mean in practice?
The Case for AI
Let’s be clear about what AI does well, because when used thoughtfully, the benefits are substantial.
Speed and efficiency
These are the most obvious advantages of using AI tools in the recruitment process. AI can analyse huge batches of data more quickly than any human, making it perfect for scanning the many hundreds of applications that hiring managers often find themselves with. This means that hiring decisions can be made much quicker.
Shorter time-to-hire benefits everyone: employers fill vacancies faster, and candidates aren’t left waiting weeks for responses. When AI handles the heavy lifting of initial screening and scheduling, human recruiters have the opportunity to focus more on connecting with people and making more nuanced decisions.
The candidate experience improves
Faster feedback means candidates aren’t left in limbo, wondering about their application status.
AI’s twenty-four-hour availability for queries and updates removes the frustration of waiting for office hours, and when candidates are informed of how AI will be used through the hiring process, the transparency can help build better relationships between the candidate and the business.
Improved hiring outcomes
Predictive analytics can identify patterns that suggest which candidates are more likely to succeed and stay with your organisation.
Data-driven insights complement human judgement, leading to stronger long-term hires. When the matching process is more accurate from the start, hiring managers can ensure that people are genuinely suited to their roles, improving retention in the long term.
Cost savings
Reduced time-to-hire means reduced vacancy costs, and better initial matching means less money wasted on rehiring for the same position six months later.
The Concerns We Can’t Ignore
For all AI’s promise, it does have flaws that hiring managers and HR departments must be aware of.
Perpetuating Bias
AI algorithms learn from historical data, and if that data contains biases, there is a very real risk that AI could replicate those patterns.
It doesn’t know it’s being discriminatory; it simply identifies what “success” has looked like historically and looks for more of the same. Without constant monitoring and adjustment, AI can embed unfairness into systems whilst appearing objective.
Losing the human touch
AI struggles with nuance, reading between the lines, and understanding context. There’s a real risk of treating candidates as data rather than people, reducing their potential and unique life experiences to data points and scores.
Over-reliance on algorithms
When recruiters trust AI’s outputs without thinking critically about whether these outputs are factual or helpful, they miss things that experienced hiring managers would normally catch: red or green flags that fall outside the algorithm’s parameters.
Many AI systems can’t explain how they reached a particular decision, making it impossible to challenge or verify their reasoning. What happens when the algorithm gets it wrong, and no one questions it?
The real risk isn’t that AI will get good enough to take over large parts of the recruitment process. It’s that it will take over large parts of the recruitment process with flaws that go unquestioned and unchallenged, ultimately making hiring less fair and less considerate of the unique potential of each person that applies.
Using AI Responsibly
AI shouldn’t replace human recruiters.
The goal is to use technology to handle what it does well (processing large amounts of data and pattern recognition) while keeping humans firmly in charge of making the final decisions.
Here are practical guidelines for responsible AI use:
Use AI for efficiency, humans for judgement. Let AI handle initial CV screening and administrative tasks like scheduling. Use it to flag promising candidates and identify potential concerns.
But keep humans involved in final decisions, cultural fit assessments, and anything requiring nuanced evaluation. Treat AI insights as valuable information that informs decisions rather than makes them.
Maintain transparency with candidates. Be open about where AI is used in your recruitment process. Explain how decisions are reached, even if in general terms. Give candidates the option to speak with a human when they need clarification or want to discuss something the AI might have missed.
Regularly audit for bias. Don’t assume AI is inherently fair. Monitor your AI tools for discriminatory patterns by reviewing outcomes across different demographic groups. If certain groups are consistently screened out at higher rates, investigate why.
Adjust algorithms when bias is detected, and accept that this is ongoing work, not a one-time fix.
Protect candidate data rigorously. Ensure that AI tools are being used in a manner that is compliant with GDPR and UK data protection laws. Be clear with candidates about what data is collected, how it’s used, and how long it’s retained. Implement robust security measures because candidate information is sensitive and trust is easily broken.
Preserve your brand voice. If you’re using AI to write job adverts or candidate communications, heavily edit them for authenticity. Ensure everything still sounds like your organisation and carries your values, your personality, and your culture. Don’t sacrifice what makes you distinctive for the sake of efficiency.
Invest in training. Make sure your recruiters understand how AI tools work, what they can and can’t do, and their limitations. Develop critical evaluation skills so your team can assess AI outputs rather than accepting them uncritically. Create clear policies on AI use in recruitment so everyone knows the boundaries and expectations.
Better, Faster, or Both?
Using AI in recruitment isn’t inherently good or bad because it’s a tool that reflects how we choose to use it.
The path forward isn’t choosing between AI and human recruiters, because no matter how much or how little AI each company uses in its recruitment process, humanity must remain present throughout.
The best outcomes happen when AI handles what it does well (processing vast amounts of data, identifying patterns, managing logistics), whilst humans focus on what they do best (understanding people, assessing cultural fit, making nuanced judgements, and building genuine connections).
So, is AI making recruitment better or just faster? Perhaps the real answer is that it’s making recruitment faster, and whether that translates to “better” depends entirely on how we use it. Speed is only valuable when it serves quality, after all.
If you’re using AI or would like to use AI in your recruitment processes and want to ensure you’re getting the balance right, we’re here to help. HR is as much about people as it is about processes, and that’s something no algorithm can replace.