Law firm Mishcon de Reya is one of many firms eyeing AI, with 5,000 applications for 35 roles in its last recruitment round.
Tom Wickstead, the firm’s early career manager, said: “We have more law graduates, fewer graduate roles, and more candidates using AI to write more applications.”
“For us as employers, we’re seeing an explosion of applications and it’s becoming difficult to tell the difference between them,” he says.
They are piloting an AI chatbot developed by Bright Network, a career advisor for graduate students. It screens candidates early in the process and asks them a series of questions in real time. The tool also highlights parts of your application that may have been written by AI.
Wickstead claims that the feedback he has received from candidates so far has been positive, and says AI recruitment tools could make the whole process fairer.
“I don’t think any hiring process is free from bias,” he says. “So what AI has the potential to do is make it much more consistent and much more fair than the old process.”
He emphasized that human recruiters will still interview candidates later in the process and make the final hiring decision.
“What we’re studying is whether AI can make the same decisions as humans, or whether it can make even better and more consistent decisions,” he says.
A machine is As far as Bhuvana is concerned, she is no match for humans.
“I don’t trust AI. I think I always trust people. But it’s hard to get a chance to meet that person,” she says.
Adecco’s Denis Mathuel says AI and humans will need to work together to achieve the best results for future employees and employers.
“What you need is to inject AI smarts at the right time in the process and supplement AI efficiency with human judgment and human touch,” he says. “That’s the combination that will break this arms race.”
