Is AI the Future of Recruitment

February 2025

Saturday: football chat with the Speaker of the Commons. ⚽️
Monday: House of Lords to meet Viscount Camrose on the transformative potential of AI in the recruitment industry.

It was a detailed discussion on how the recruitment sector and in particular much of the digital processes and tools we use are outmoded. And how we really need to look at things again and in particular harness AI.

I believe the marriage of smart use of AI + the human insight and judgement is the future of the industry.

Yet what passes for use of AI in the sector at the moment is often little more than ‘gatekeeping’, with programmes designed to enhance CVs and programmes designed to filter CVs. There’s not much value being created in either application.

One of the questions I’m most interested in is ‘can AI be trained to understand and make decisions regarding sentiment, chemistry, and personality, the intangible things that often define a candidate and are central to placing the right person in the right role?’

The Viscount, Jonathan Berry - who spent many years in change management and is the current shadow minister for AI - has done a lot of thinking on the same lines.

It was great to speak with him - and with Gavin Traylor who joined me - and hopefully it’s a conversation that will progress. The only downside is I forgot to grab a selfie with him so we’re stuck with my tourist shots outside! 😂

I'd love to know what you think - can we balance human insight with AI capabilities? Will you trust AI to make human judgements? Are firms rushing in rather than assessing the impact properly? Tell me your view.