When millennials engage with a brand, they want a response quickly. According to a Desk.com report, 22 percent of millennials who connect with a brand via social media expect a reply within 10 minutes. Another 22 percent say they would cease engagement after one bad interaction.

Now imagine that said brand isn’t a consumer good, but rather, your reputation as an employer. Losing top candidates at the start simply because you can’t engage quickly or effectively is simply unacceptable. Not finding those candidates in the first place is an even bigger problem.

More companies, and their recruiting and HR teams, are discovering that artificial intelligence is the answer to bridging the gap between immediate engagement and meaningful connections with candidates. Here’s a look at how organizations are engaging the top of the talent pool through purposeful AI:

The Data Revolution

With so many digital actions and interactions we engage in every day, the amount of data produced (and collected) is immense. However, that data holds potential in dozens of ways, including how companies connect with employees. Consider the healthcare industry—a space inherently defined by human interactions. AI is transforming healthcare by allowing providers to automatically ask about symptoms, analyze data, streamline HR functions, and more.

The future of talent acquisition and HR technology is similarly entrenched in AI. Recruiters can now target and engage with candidates in ways that weren’t possible even five years ago. Now, AI analyzes the data and complements talent acquisition efforts by making strategic matches on behalf of the busy recruiter and identifying who is best for the job. The tool helps find ideal candidates and asks if you want to make them a lead, which makes it easier to run proactive email campaigns and personalized outreach..This approach isn’t just revolutionary—it’s ultimately necessary for the current talent pool in which finding and hiring the best candidates before others do is critical to success.

Automated Programmatic Media

Nowhere has AI had a bigger impact upon the talent pool than with automated programmatic media. Simply put, this solution uses an algorithm to continuously maximize media spend, placing job postings on channels faster than already busy recruiters can. Moreover, automated programmatic media adjusts spend as necessary to conditions such as which social channels top candidates are currently frequenting, as well as the priority of a particular posting. Through these benefits, purposeful AI eliminates much of the guesswork of media spend. This, in turn, frees up recruiters to focus more on establishing and building relationships with candidates who have worked their way deeper into the hiring process.

AI and the Candidate Experience

In 2017, when candidates (especially millennial candidates) are picky about the jobs they choose to pursue and accept, their experience during the entire hiring journey factors heavily into their decisions. If a company’s communications, employer brand, user experience through the hiring process, and level of engagement are strong, candidates will be more likely to stay enthused. AI delivers insights and information to engage the best candidates quickly and improve the candidate experience. If, for example, a certain segment of the talent pool isn’t responding to emails early in the process, AI can catch that and engage those candidates a different way. All the data is brought together to drive efficiency, thus resulting in a commercial recruitment marketing, and email engine that offers the ability to segment talent with filters and criteria of your choosing. Again, this saves time and allows recruiters to devote their energy to other facets of the candidate experience.

AI Isn’t Artificial

Much of the resistance to AI in the talent acquisition space stems from concern that turning the recruiting reins over to a computer will diminish the need for expert human recruiters. What’s important to understand is AI isn’t replacing recruiting departments, but rather, providing a powerful complement to help them be successful. Consider the words of Madeline Laurano of Aptitude Research Partners, in her report Debunking the Myth of Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment:

“It is important to note that AI cannot replace a recruiter’s ability to detect emotional intelligence or personality traits in candidates. Recruiters can measure emotional quotients of candidates in areas such as self-awareness, empathy, social awareness, and relationship management. While AI can effectively filter candidates with the required competencies and experience for a job, recruiters can spend more time analyzing the human element that is critical for measuring organization fit.”

We’ve touched upon one-on-one relationships throughout this blog—nothing digital can mimic that important element of the candidate experience. What AI can do is cut through the static of immense data and set recruiters up with top talent so they can strengthen those relationships and close the deal.

Benefits of Purposeful AI

AI offers an array of tangible and intangible benefits for recruiting departments. Laurano’s report highlights a few of these advantages:

• Time to hire: Aptitude Research Partners found that the average time to fill a position using an AI solution is a mere 20 days. Think of it: Plug the open job into the solution, and within three weeks, you may have someone on board.
• Candidate experience: Companies using AI are three times more likely to improve the candidate’s journey to hire. A better experience, of course, means better candidates and better employees.
• Screening: More than half of organizations that leverage AI are doing so to screen applications and resumes. Besides saving time, the software pinpoints characteristics you are seeking in ideal candidates, which naturally leads to increasing quality of hire. 
• Quality of hire: AI doubles the likelihood that quality of hire will be improved. Because AI solutions are narrowing down the talent pool to only the best candidates, less skilled prospects aren’t sneaking through the process.

How to Get Started

Artificial intelligence is great in theory and in application, and with today’s solutions and providers, it can be simpler to take advantage of than you might think. First, secure buy-in from key stakeholders, including people in your own recruiting department. Then, and most importantly, partner with a talent acquisition provider that is skilled with AI. Attempting the algorithms and advanced data on your own requires too much work; better to rely on established experts whose core systems are driven by AI to help make this recruiting capability a reality.

Finally, build your recruiting strategies around the benefits AI will deliver. The best solutions will prove successful only if you take the results and run with them. Do that and executives and other key stakeholders—as well as top candidates—will take notice.

Do you currently utilize any sort of AI in your hiring process?