Take a breath and try not to panic… your job is safe.

It’s a crazy time we live in. If Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerburg had their way, we’d all be sitting at home, jobless, VR headsets stuck to our faces, reaching for that last bag of crisps while we watch their fragile masculinity unfold in a UFC fight streamed through the Metaverse.

It’s not a great future to imagine. But, if we know anything about tech billionaires, it’s that we can’t really trust what they say. So, when you watch the news and start to feel a nagging fear when the topic turns to AI, it’s okay. You’re not getting fired and replaced by a robot anytime soon.

Recruitment is about so much more than algorithms, predictive language models and ChatGPT. Recruitment is about people. It’s about relationships. No form of AI can replicate that.

The personal touch is more powerful than you think

When you visit an expensive restaurant, it’s not just the food that you’re paying for. It’s the service that comes with it. It’s the attentiveness and care that’s taken. It’s the treatment you get for walking into such a place. This makes the whole experience worth the money.

This is the same for recruitment. When the market is competitive, time is short or companies struggle to find the best talent, they employ someone who truly understands the industry inside and out. Someone who takes the time to talk to the candidates, vet their experience and listen to their aspirations. A good recruiter will be a professional matchmaker for candidate and client, delivering the service with an empathetic and advisory ear to all.

We’re overestimating how advanced AI really is

AI is a gamechanger. It certainly can’t be ignored and it will have far reaching consequences. But, are we really meant to believe that in the next few years, ChatGPT will be able to do everything a trained recruiter can?

Anyone who has asked ChatGPT to complete some work for them will know that it requires a number of very specific, tailored prompts to deliver writing which is even remotely similar to what you’re looking for. Even when you do this, the tone is flat and it doesn’t sound like a person wrote it. Even if voice commands and independent non-prompted action were added to this, it would still be blatantly obvious to anyone hearing or reading the work that it was written by a piece of software.

People are fickle beings. We like to feel special, especially if we’re paying for a service. The idea of AI recruiters is little more than an evolution of automated customer service answering machines. People will just become frustrated with the results.

AI is just a tool

With all said and done, we don’t think recruiters should discredit AI completely. It’s not going anywhere and it will become more advanced as time goes on.

Instead, look at AI as a tool for automation. The software can become an extension of your daily activities. We wouldn’t be surprised to see AI software integrated with CRM databases and CV searches to help add an additional layer of support in finding the right candidate. This use case would be the holy grail for many recruiters – helping them to pre-qualify the candidates and have a more sophisticated search functionality.

Not only this, but AI could help you to review the most effective cold emails sent to prospective clients. Reviewing the words used, formation of sentences and opening gambits. This would help you to compose messages which remain fundamentally yours, but deliver the most effective results.

Not only this, but tools like ChatGPT will eventually be able to help new starters, delivering industry knowledge to those working in a sector for the first time, without the need for in-person tutoring. This could improve efficiencies across the board.

The scaremongering around AI is misplaced

Headlines about AI stealing people’s jobs get clicks. Unfortunately, we live in a society where negative headlines get more attention than those with a positive sentiment. It’s as simple as that.

There is a chance, in the future, that AI may cause some people to eventually lose work. However, this won’t be the result of a massive paradigm shift across industries. It will instead be because there are people who will be reluctant to grow and adopt AI technology when it becomes available. This won’t happen to most recruiters though.

Recruitment is an industry which sails close to the wind. When the economy changes, the job market follows almost immediately after. Recruitment as an industry changes so fast that those on the front line often get picked up and moved with the tide without necessarily realising it. The industry won’t have any difficulties adopting new technology and tools to make the job more efficient. So don’t fear the onset of AI, research it, prepare for it and get creative with how to use it. After all, it might even make you some extra commission.

If you’re looking for the next step in your career, we can help. We have a number of exciting opportunities for recruiters of all levels. We only work with the very best clients and will take the time to find the right company to fit your aspirations. Reach out today for a confidential chat or browse our job board for more info. ChatGPT need not apply.