ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, has made waves through the technology sector since launching in November 2022, with users impressed by its realistic and human-like conversational experience.
The prototype, which is developed by Open AI, an artificial intelligence research laboratory co-founded by Elon Musk, has recently been linked with Microsoft in a multi-billion dollar investment.
The model distinguishes itself from other chatbots such as Bixby, Cortana and Siri with its impressively detailed, human-like responses to random questions.
Users simply key in questions, prompts, and even follow-up questions to which the chatbot responds, using information from its knowledge base. It has been used to perform a variety of tasks from coding websites to writing poems and job applications.
The technology could hold the power to transform our lives and will likely be used as a tool across many different sectors.
But how about ChatGPT for recruitment? Can it be used to augment, automate, and transform the hiring process? We put it to the test.
The Benefits
ChatGPT can automate recruitment tasks
Time-consuming recruitment tasks can be made simple by the chatbot. This can include creating job descriptions, generating interview questions, conducting hiring market research, and drafting HR policies. ChatGPT can do all of the heavy lifting for businesses which might be looking to streamline their recruitment materials. For more complex tasks, such as the creation of more advanced content, the chatbot can create useful, automated templates which can then be refined by strategic human recruitment professionals.
ChatGPT can improve client experience
On average, the average length of the UK hiring process is 36 days. Maintaining a dialogue during this time with clients and candidates is an essential, but time-consuming, part of the recruitment process. Recruitment agents may often need to respond to email follow-ups and keep candidates in the picture while providing a timeline to employers. Harnessing the power of ChatGPT, recruiters can instantly draft personalised emails from scratch when particularly time pressured.The tool’s in-built sentiment analysis will provide personalised, human-like responses of a similar standard to a human agent.
ChatGPT can improve efficiency and productivity
ChatGPT’s instant responses can lighten the burden for your workforce in what is often a fast-paced, frenetic industry. According to research, almost half of UK workers are close to burnout. This can include time-consuming tasks like maintaining communication flows and writing high-quality templates for specific parts of the hiring process. This will enhance worker productivity and free up time to work “on” the business as opposed to within it, adding value and improving your company’s bottom line.
The Challenges
Of course, ChatGPT is not necessarily a silver bullet to your productivity and staffing problems and must be used with caution. Here are some potential challenges to overcome if implementing the new technology into your hiring process.
Lack of a personal touch
While some users may like the round-the-clock availability of a chatbot, there are some scenarios where they may prefer the human touch. Rejected candidates for instance may not like receiving confirmation via AI and will prefer having the reasons why explained on the phone or in person. Assigning this task to AI will feel faceless and insensitive and could lead to bad PR for your organisation. Similarly, while ChatGPT can write a job description, it may not be tailored to the specifics of the role you want to advertise. Greater nuance may be needed and you might attract the wrong candidates to the role. Think carefully about the situations in which human interaction is desired.
Potential for bias
ChatGPT has been praised for its hyper-real imitation of human interaction, but it also has the potential to amplify human prejudices. The chatbot is programmed to trawl information from a sprawling database, some of which could contain sensitive information, including that of a racist, sexist or violent nature. Prospective recruiters should therefore proceed with care when employing the technology as part of their recruitment strategy as it could have the potential to offend clients or candidates. Look out for likely performance updates and bug fixes before adoption, and make sure that ChatGPT-generated content is checked before being published.
Cost of implementation
While ChatGPT has enormous potential, in its current state, it’s just an online chatbot in the beta stage of production. This could be used ad hoc by recruitment professionals but is not ready to be fully built into the real-life hiring process. When ultimately the technology develops, this will require bespoke integration into a recruitment company’s IT system, which will likely incur a sizeable cost. Weighing this against return on investment will likely be a dilemma for the future.
