We take a light-hearted look at the intriguing development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for the recruitment industry

There is no doubt that a growing number of HR executives believe that Artificial Intelligence will transform their talent acquisition capability.

But what will this mean for recruitment consultancies that rely on human intuition, knowledge and skill to help them fill jobs?

Here at Priority Appointments, we have been having a bit of fun imagining a future where robots with artificial intelligence could take over the recruitment process completely.

Here are some pros and cons of relying on a machine, rather than friendly, human recruitment consultants, to help you find your next staff member.

Voice Recognition



If your robot recruiter had the same unreliable level of voice recognition capabilities as most of our mobile phones, its interpretation of your brief about the type of staff you’re looking for could result in some interesting interpretations! It’s one thing to end up with the wrong sort of pizza topping, but just think what could happen if it mis-heard ‘we need an experienced packer and picker’!

 Body Language Cues

An area that industry observers are watching with great interest is the potential for machi

nes with AI to ‘interview’ candidates. An AI-based service could collect, process and analyse huge amounts of unstructured information from a job interview and compare thousands of applications in just a few minutes. However, without a real live human to pick up on subtle cues such as somebody’s body language, tone of voice or eye contact, it would be easy to get lured into choosing someone whose answers were spot on, but whose personality meant that they would not suit either the job or your working environment

Looking at the subject rather more seriously, there is no question that AI is a technology that is on the rise.

Research by Deloitte Human Capital Trends in 2017 showed that 33% of employees expect their jobs to become augmented by AI in the near future.

It could well make sense to include an element of artificial intelligence in the recruitment process as it becomes more widely accessible. For now, however, the best way to make sure that your new employees fit well with your team, business culture and values, is by having a friendly, experienced and human consultant to help you find new staff!

As a professional recruitment consultancy we’ll continue to be alert to AI opportunities within the recruitment industry, but for now we’ll just paraphrase the famous line from RoboCop:

“Excuse me. I have to go. Somewhere there is a new job vacancy happening.”

Priority Appointments is a professional recruitment consultancy based in Basingstoke, Hampshire.  We help companies find people and people to find jobs in Basingstoke, Camberley, Andover, Farnborough, Aldershot, Winchester and the surrounding areas within Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire.  If you’d like us to help handpick your next employee please call us on 01256 334575.