Employers using AI to recruit graduates and apprentices’ triples

Friday, November 24, 2023

A new report from the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) reveals that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by employers has tripled, marking a substantial increase in the adoption of technology to streamline hiring practices.

ISE has found a significant increase in student employers adopting AI to help recruitment processes become more efficient.

This year’s ISE Student Recruitment Survey found that nearly a third (28%) of employers are now using AI as part of their hiring, which is a significant increase from 9% in 2022.

Members of the ISE hire tens of thousands of graduates and apprentices each year. Findings show adoption of AI in different stages of recruitment.

The most frequent use was in online psychometric assessments. AI was also commonly used to pre-screen candidates and update them about the process as well as analyse video interviews.

Benefits of AI in recruitment

With job applications soaring to 86 per vacancy this year (up 23% on last year), employers are looking for quicker and more efficient ways of managing high volumes of candidates.

Employers reported AI is increasing speed and efficiency (83%), making it easier to analyse large volumes of data (64%) and enabling repetitive tasks to be automated (59%).

A further 17% reported it was cheaper than using people and 8% said it enhanced the likelihood of finding the best candidate for the job.

Meanwhile, 70% of employers said that they preferred a more human-centric approach in the recruitment process mainly mentioning concerns about the reliability of using AI (63%). Handling data securely was also a potential issue (33%).

Limited budget and resources as well as lack of capability to implement AI systems were cited as the main reasons AI wasn’t used more widely.

Analysis from ISE

Georgia Greer, head of insights at ISE has been talking to employers and suppliers about use of AI in student recruitment. She commented:

“AI is creating opportunities for employers to do things differently in a more effective way. With the rise in job applications, the increased speed and efficiency is particularly attractive. It should improve the candidate experience too.

“It can be a juggling act for recruiters who want the efficiencies but are questioning the ethics and whether they’re comfortable removing human interaction from the process. As AI evolves and improves, confidence will grow and some of those concerns should fall away.

“From a candidate perspective, they may be asked to use tools like ChatGPT to answer questions and playback their experience at interview. But now, AI is mainly being used to assess performance in the process, so it’s not something candidates will always be aware of or can prepare for.”