The buzz surrounding the Metaverse in 2021 and the excitement around NFTs and smart contracts in 2022 have been surpassed by the chatter about ChatGPT in 2023. This groundbreaking generative AI-driven chatbot, developed by the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence research lab OpenAI, was co-founded by tech tycoon Elon Musk.

While chatbots have been around for some time, ChatGPT sets itself apart from its predecessors. OpenAI’s groundbreaking bot effectively comprehends human cues and can track the progression of a conversation, generating human-like, natural language in response.

 

What Has Generative AI Got to Do With Work and Talent Management?

 

With any groundbreaking technology, considerable discussion about its potential impact tends to exist, particularly in the employment industry.

Pessimists often emphasize the possibility of generative AI replacing jobs currently held by humans. However, McKinsey offers a more hopeful perspective, indicating that since over half of companies are actively exploring AI projects, white-collar professionals should anticipate working alongside AI-enhanced tools. This collaboration could increase salaries and enhance the productivity of underperforming employees.

Talent management teams are likely to be drawn by this cutting-edge AI technology, as evidenced by a recent SHRM study revealing that 88% of global businesses have already implemented AI in their HR processes. The study also indicates that ChatGPT creates training materials, HR presentations, and job specifications.

 

AI and Recruitment

 

AI technology is widely employed to facilitate various aspects of recruitment, such as matching candidates to job openings, screening CVs and applicants, creating more comprehensive candidate profiles, writing job descriptions, improving inclusivity, and streamlining recruitment processes. It has become a valuable tool for delivering better objectivity and candidate sourcing and reducing the time and cost associated with recruitment.

Several companies have reported positive outcomes from using AI in recruitment. For instance, Amazon claims it saved 68,124 recruiter hours in one year and reached 300% more candidates using AI. At the same time, Dataconomy has reported that 75% of recruiters see a reduction in cost per candidate screen when using AI. 

According to Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, the director of AI research at Zoho Corporations, AI tech has significantly impacted recruitment processes by helping recruiters scan through thousands of CVs faster and more efficiently.

 

Recruiters Are Familiar With Generative AI

 

Generative AI has been utilized in recruitment technology for a considerable period of time. According to Hayfa Mohdzaini, a senior research adviser at CIPD, the technology has assisted with tasks such as creating job advert templates, shortlisting candidates, and answering questions from applicants. 

Mohdzaini is optimistic about the future evolution and impact of generative AI, highlighting its potential to free up recruiters’ time for other activities and its ability to offer a conversational experience for users. She believes that the further development of ChatGPT-supported technology will lower the entry barriers to using generative AI, making it more accessible to recruiters and employers.

hireEZ, an end-to-end recruitment technology firm, has already released a ChatGPT-powered product that enables recruiters to auto-populate personalized emails based on job descriptions and work effectively with multiple candidates. Steven Jiang, CEO at hireEZ, stated that the company’s objective is to ensure that the technology works efficiently and ethically for both companies and job candidates, to help one recruiter easily do the job of ten through the use of AI.

 

ChatGPT Recruitment Revolution

 

ChatGPT-powered recruitment technology has numerous benefits, with time-saving at the top of the list. According to Steven Jiang, the CEO of hireEZ, generative AI is a flexible tool that recruiters can customize to meet their specific needs, thereby increasing personalization in recruitment processes. Jiang believes that generative AI will be more user-driven than traditional AI and create efficiencies that can change how recruiters work.

Jason Heilman, the SVP of automation and AI at Bullhorn, shares Jiang’s sentiments by saying that integrating ChatGPT and recruitment technology could be revolutionary by driving efficiencies and improving operations. Heilman emphasizes that ChatGPT can help junior recruiters produce higher-quality work while saving valuable time for senior recruiters.

Dr. Lindsey Zuloaga, the chief data scientist at HireVue, describes generative AI as a more sophisticated recruitment tool than previous AI technologies. She highlights the potential of generative AI to improve the hiring context, particularly in helping people understand jobs and skills better, including the transferability of skills between roles.

 

The Critics

 

Several critics have pointed out limitations in ChatGPT’s capabilities. One of OpenAI’s founders has described the technology as incredibly limited. Others have found that it may produce factual inaccuracies and overconfidently hallucinate. Some note that it relies on an outdated dataset, although there is anticipation of updated data sets in future releases of the GPT software.

While Zoho’s Ramamoorthy believes that ChatGPT can assist candidates and talent management teams during the recruitment process, he isn’t convinced that it will revolutionize recruitment tools. ChatGPT can summarize, translate, predict, and generate, and it may help recruiters identify candidates who rely solely on AI to create their CVs and cover letters. But at its core, it may not fundamentally change how recruitment tools work.

Some have tested ChatGPT’s ability to write job ads, which is touted as a benefit of the technology. Textio, an inclusivity software developer, found that ChatGPT requires specific inputs to produce decent output. Although its output doesn’t often display inherent bias, it sometimes may use language that discourages ethnic minorities, and it will respond to racially prohibitive or exclusive prompts. Textio concludes that ChatGPT recruitment text doesn’t convey the soul or purpose of a business well without human intervention.

 

Many in recruitment believe ChatGPT will always still require human oversight. Kimberly Maucher-Lynch, head of talent acquisition sales EMEA at Workday, notes that recruitment is ultimately a people-centric activity, and human beings will always play an important role in that process.

 

Ethical Considerations

 

The test conducted by Textio on ChatGPT’s job ad writing and Jiang’s mention of ethics during the rollout of hireEZ’s ChatGPT-powered product highlights some of the regulatory and ethical concerns surrounding the technology’s use as a recruitment tool.

Alistair Dent, the Chief Strategy Officer at Profusion, points out that the technology can easily replicate bias in the datasets used to train it. While generative AI can help create more inclusive job descriptions, provide information on roles and salaries, generate interview questions, and automate candidate emails, its effectiveness is only as good as its design and the data it was trained on.

Mohdzaini from CIPD also notes that recruiters must ensure that what ChatGPT-technology creates is legal, unbiased, and accurate. There is always a risk that it may produce inappropriate outcomes. She adds that critics have questioned whether the data collected from the internet to train ChatGPT comply with data protection regulations on the right for individuals to have their data erased.

Heilman from Bullhorn warns that current legislation prohibits using ChatGPT in hiring decisions. However, using it to save time in communications should be acceptable. Recruiters will still need to intervene to ensure quality and accuracy, maintain the right balance, and add a personal touch to avoid candidates feeling like they’re only talking to an AI.

 

Can ChatGPT Revolutionize Recruitment Technology?

 

ChatGPT has the potential to improve inclusivity and hiring outcomes. However, take caution that it still requires human oversight. ChatGPT is an evolution rather than a revolution, and talent management teams must use it with careful guidelines. Any misuse or corner-cutting can be dangerous.