Future of Work Forecast: AI or Human Ingenuity?
I came across a quote on X (formerly Twitter) recently from science fiction author, Joanna Maciejewska. Her post read: “You know what the biggest problem with pushing all-things-AI is? Wrong direction. I want AI to do my laundry and dishes, so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so I can do my laundry and dishes.”
I’ve been speaking at and attending various HR/staffing conferences in Canada and the US lately and have noticed a lot of conversation about how AI is impacting our recruitment landscape. And of course, we are experiencing it first-hand in our work every day as well. (After all, how many cover letters have you read today that were NOT clearly authored by ChatGPT?)
The author’s words above made me think about how we are at a critical crossroads with AI’s infiltration into our industry. Both jobseekers and employers are trying to find ways to make their lives easier through the use of AI.
Companies like LazyApply, and Zapier, and tech offerings like GPT for Sheets, are popping up to help workers cast wider nets that blanket the market with automated outreach, job applications, and follow-up communications. Meanwhile, even behemoth tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon are experiencing business-hindering gaffes, as they experiment with AI in their recruitment processes, plagued with biases.
These challenges aren’t relegated to a few companies in the marketplace either. The BBC recently reported that “AI hiring tools may be filtering out the best job applicants.” According to the article, anecdotal accounts of clear inequities appear to be running rampant across the board on a global scale among employers.
Given this reality, it’s not surprising that jobseekers’ trust, en masse, is eroding when they see AI replacing that irreplaceable human touch in decision-making. According to a Pew Research Centre study, 66% of Americans said they wouldn’t even apply for a job if they knew AI was used in pre-selecting candidates during the hiring process.
At BlueSky Personnel Solutions, we are actually big fans of AI when it can help us streamline admin-focused, repetitive, and inefficient processes. Case in point: Calendly has changed the game for recruiters in efficiently scheduling job interviews. However, we staunchly believe that AI cannot, and should not, replace human ingenuity. That part of us is what connects people to each other, and it’s the very foundation of both the art and science of recruitment.
In our industry today, both on employer and jobseeker sides, AI tools are being developed with an eye to win at a numbers game. This purview seems to be driven by an excitement to cheat existing systems that are time-consuming and tedious.
In reality however, the most successful recruitment case studies (helping people land dream jobs, and helping companies grow by building their dream teams) is a match-making quest within a human connections game.
Our prediction is – if HR, staffing, and recruitment industries want to be smart and strategic with AI to benefit all, then AI development should be focused on helping ramp up human ingenuity.
In an increasing sea of AI-generated sameness, here are a few examples of jobseekers who embraced their human ingenuity to break barriers and AI biases to get noticed by human eyes. These cases tease us with glimpses of what the norm could be in the future of work and recruitment:
- Meet Marta: The Movie
When Marta Puerto, a product marketing manager in Madrid was coming up short after sending out countless job applications, she decided to apply her marketing knowledge on herself and created a 2-minute movie and website for her job hunt. She wanted people to get to know her better, even if they hadn’t met her. Her video resume ended up going viral on LinkedIn, her story was featured in news outlets such as Bloomberg, and she has received hundreds of interview requests from all over the world!
- Matt Box’s “Rap C.V.”
Last fall, Matt Box, an experienced Strategy Director based in London (U.K.), found himself being let go from his job. This happened just three months after he lost his mom to cancer. With young twins in daycare, trying to manage a cost-of-living crisis as he describes it, Matt decided to tap into a medium that he felt was “most braggadocious.” In an endearing two-minute video, Matt humourously “raps” his C.V. for viewers on LinkedIn. The post went viral, and Matt was quickly snapped up by a global agency network. To share the news of his updated employment, Matt treated his new found fans to another rap in a second video.
- Robby Leonardi’s video-game-inspired interactive resume
This example pre-dates the ubiquitous AI reality of today as it took place in 2013. However, we believe it is just as relevant in our current climate – it’s timeless. When New York-based multidisciplinary designer, Robby Leonardi wanted to catch the attention of employers to showcase his software experience and coding skills, he created a scrolling Super Mario Bros.-inspired website (which is still live). Online visitors can move a character through various ‘levels’ that cleverly relay the designer’s experience. Robby’s ingenuity was also featured in news outlets such as Trendhunter, and Business Insider.
In contrast to these examples above, sometimes, dream candidates for certain positions and certain company cultures, are much more elusive to find. This is where recruiters must showcase their human ingenuity.
In the video below, at the 1:25 mark, I share a story about how we matched a fantastic Bilingual/French candidate with one of our clients. She was a dream fit for them. Her experience was exactly what the company was looking for. She lived very close to their office which was convenient. Her salary expectations were right on par with the client’s offer. Everything matched perfectly! Interestingly, AI had absolutely no influence in finding this candidate. That is because she had no online presence. There was no digital footprint for her. We connected with her based on our coveted candidate network, and we discovered just how great a fit she was, entirely through human connection. We are proud to report that she went on to be a star employee for that company.
The net takeaway here is this: While AI is proving to be an invaluable tool in many ways in recruitment, one formula does not work for all opportunities! We mustn’t forget how invaluable connections with candidates are in this line of work.
As such, while we embrace AI in many ways, with open arms at our firm, our promise to our clients remains unchanged: Whether we are looking at 20 or 2,000 job applications for a client, we will always vet candidates with human eyes. There is simply no replacement for human ingenuity.
If you are planning to grow your team and are in search of Canada’s top Bilingual/French talent, then contact us today. We are networked with the country’s most in-demand French and English-speaking personnel, and it would be our pleasure to serve you. Call us at: 416-236-3303, or email us at: [email protected].