Dive Brief:
- HR leaders have almost universally embraced artificial intelligence, with 91% saying they actively use the technology “somewhere in their recruitment process,” and the remaining leaders saying they intend to implement the tech “within the next 18 months,” according to a new report from Paylocity, an HR technology provider.
- Yet while 85% of respondents said they trusted AI to assess applicants “regardless of background,” more than a quarter (26%) said they were concerned about not seeing some candidates due to AI screening. Four in 5 leaders said they were “actively managing at least one issue” with their AI tools, per the report.
- However, applications per hire tripled between 2021 and 2024, according to Ashby's Talent Trends data cited by Paylocity. Hiring teams are now interviewing between 36% and 52% more candidates for each role than five years ago — but 43% of HR leaders said using AI saves their recruiting teams the equivalent of a full working day each week.
Dive Insight:
The study surveyed more than 1,000 U.S.-based HR and recruitment leaders and found that AI tools are solving some problems and creating new ones.
While 89% of respondents said AI tools have helped identify better candidates, 71% said they believed more than half of the applications they had to screen were written using generative tools.
In addition, hiring managers said AI sometimes missed the mark and cited bias concerns (16%), compliance and regulatory risks (16%), loss of control and transparency (11%) and candidate trust and drop-offs (11%).
Recruiters were most likely to use AI tools for screening resumes (67%), scheduling interviews (59%) and writing job descriptions (57%), per the survey. But when recruiters used AI for candidate engagement and interviews, the study said there was a risk of serious consequences, which could explain why both use-cases were at the bottom.
“That caution reflects a shift in how recruiting teams see their own role,” the study said. “Automated tools handle the volume work. Recruiters decide who’s actually worth a conversation.”
There’s also some evidence that AI tools may only work effectively in narrow applications. According to a recent survey from ManpowerGroup and research firm Everest Group, fewer than 5% of the companies that have used AI hiring tools saw “transformational” outcomes on any key metrics. That survey found that while nearly 4 in 10 organizations reported “significant impact” on operational efficiency, decision quality and workforce agility improvements were “limited.”
