Dive Brief:

• As it continues to bolster the candidate experience, artificial intelligence (AI) is proving its worth as a hiring tool, but employers are cautious to adopt the technology, according to a new research report, State of AI in Talent Acquisition, by Montage, a hiring technology platform.
• Half of firms interviewed use AI for screening, scheduling, sourcing and other upfront recruiting activities, the report said. Only 34% of talent acquisition professionals said they use AI to select candidates. The report also found that just 6% of candidates are comfortable being evaluated for a job with facial recognition. The vast majority of professionals (93%) said AI makes them more successful at their jobs and 87% said they believe AI improves the candidate experience. 
• According to the report, 44% of candidates said they still experience discrimination in hiring. More than half of candidates (56%) said they think AI is less discriminatory than human recruiters.

Dive Insight:

Respondents in the Montage report said they were more comfortable applying AI to the initial phases of the recruiting process. They have plenty of tools to do so; LinkedIn, for example, introduced voice messaging within its app to allow hiring managers to literally converse with job seekers. Far fewer respondents in the survey said they use AI to assist them with hiring decisions, however. This may beg the question, then, of whether the technology can accurately predict whether a candidate will make a good hire. Since AI consists of mounds of data, the output of which can only be as beneficial as the accuracy of the information inputted. But once the right tools have the right data, they can prove helpful.

These tools can also correct for bias. Software maker SAP introduced programs last year that flag discriminatory language that could unintentionally eliminate applicants from certain jobs. The flagging of specific words or terms signals HR to change the language to more neutral expressions.