Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm. People in all professions are finding ways to use this innovative technology to work more efficiently and deliver better results.
AI has been particularly beneficial for talent acquisition professionals. While this technology comes in different forms (generative AI and AI-powered recruiting automation, for instance), one especially powerful application is conversational AI recruiting chatbots. Why exactly? Because AI chatbots can be used throughout the recruiting process to instantly communicate and engage candidates. This translates to an outstanding hiring experience and significant time savings for recruiters.
An AI recruiting chatbot is a technology powered by artificial intelligence that has conversations with candidates about job opportunities, the hiring process, and the organization as a whole.
These chatbots are trained on massive datasets informed by job descriptions, applicant information, and previous candidate interactions, allowing them to understand questions and requests and provide answers in a human-like way. By analyzing the words and tone used, a recruiting chatbot tailors responses for the individual candidate to answer questions, provide information about specific job opportunities, and even guide candidates through the application process.
No. AI recruiting chatbots and ChatGPT share some similarities but are ultimately different technologies with different use cases. ChatGPT and similar solutions like Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Twitter/X Grok are Large Language Models (LLM) that respond to prompts and generate content on general topics.
Recruiting chatbots are designed specifically for recruiting and come with numerous features that help source qualified applicants, improve candidate experience, accelerate hiring, and boost recruiter efficiency.
Now that we know that a recruiting chatbot is different from the AI solutions most people use every day, the natural next question is what exactly does this technology do? The answer is a lot. AI recruiting chatbots support human recruiters by automating candidate engagement at each stage of the recruiting process—from the moment a candidate expresses interest in your opportunity to after they sign an offer letter.
Let’s explore the specific applications an AI recruiting chatbot offers and how each improves the experience for both recruiters and candidates.
It used to be when a job seeker landed on your career site, they would have to search through all your open roles to find the one that was right for them. That could be a laborious process, especially if you were hiring for dozens or hundreds of jobs across different teams and locations. So much so, that many candidates would give up and leave before finding the right job to apply for.
Thankfully, recruiting chatbots are helping hiring organizations better attract the right talent.
Upon landing on your career site, candidates are greeted by a friendly chatbot that initiates a conversation and asks about their skillset, location, and ideal role. Based on the information the candidate provides, the chatbot then presents them with relevant roles they should consider, saving them significant time and frustration.
A Job Matching Chatbot brings an interactive element to your career site and fosters a more engaging candidate experience. This technology not only helps you generate more applicants. It connects you with qualified candidates who are eager to move forward with the opportunity because they already know it’s exactly what they’re looking for.
Many candidates want insight into the organizational culture, available benefits, and the ins and outs of the hiring process before moving forward with applying. Fortunately, chatbots can answer these questions and get candidates excited about the idea of joining your team.
With a Smart FAQs Chatbot, you can upload pre-populated answers to the most common questions candidates have during the hiring process. The chatbot will instantly relay these answers to the candidate while they’re on your career site, giving them the information they need to feel comfortable applying. Even more, leveraging a Smart FAQs Chatbot helps you start the hiring process on a positive note by being transparent with candidates and alleviating any concerns they may have.
Lengthy, multi-step application processes are a notorious point of frustration for candidates. Very few are willing to spend more than ten minutes completing an application or typing in basic information that is readily available on their resume.
With an Instant Apply Chatbot, candidates can submit an application in a more conversational, user-friendly way. The chatbot asks them a few basic questions, like their name, zip code, and work history, and then automatically generates a candidate profile in your Applicant Tracking System (ATS). The chatbot can even recognize candidates who previously applied to your organization—and will only ask them to confirm their information while avoiding creating a duplicate profile in your ATS.
Thanks to an Instant Apply Chatbot, candidates experience a smoother and faster application journey. And recruiters enjoy lower application abandonment rates and accurate profiles that are free from typos and data entry errors.
Following a candidate's application submission, a recruiting chatbot will continue to streamline the initial stages of the recruiting process. Chatbots can be programmed to ask a series of pre-screening questions that assess if the applicant has the basic qualifications for the role and should advance to the interview stage. The pre-defined questions can be tailored to align with the specific requirements for each role you’re hiring for.
A Pre-Screening Chatbot frees recruiters from the time-consuming task of manually reviewing every application and resume. This allows them to focus their valuable time and expertise on interviewing and evaluating the most promising candidates, as well as other high-priority initiatives like sourcing passive talent, advising hiring managers on role requirements, developing a DE&I strategy, and long-term workforce planning.
Even more, using a recruiting chatbot for pre-screening promotes objectivity. By removing human discretion and bias from the initial assessment, these chatbots ensure that every candidate receives a fair evaluation.
Note: There is a legitimate concern that some AI chatbots can be prone to bias, like humans. We’ll cover that in more detail at the end of this blog post.
After an AI recruiting chatbot determines that a candidate is qualified, it will automatically advance them in the hiring process and prompt them to schedule an interview. This eliminates the time-consuming back-and-forth exchanges recruiters typically have with candidates and the hiring team, significantly reducing time-to-hire.
An Interview Scheduling Chatbot integrates with each interviewer’s calendar and presents the candidate with multiple slots to select from. The candidate is empowered to choose a date/time that works best for them, building on the positive experience they’ve had to that point.
This type of recruiting chatbot will also manage complex scheduling scenarios such as panel interviews and sequential interviews, ensuring everyone involved in the hiring process gets the opportunity to interview the candidate.
An Interview Scheduling Chatbot, combined with the other AI recruiting chatbots we’ve explored so far, not only streamlines the hiring process. It converts curious job seekers—who may have been casually exploring your opportunities—into formal candidates who are excited about the prospect of joining your team. Within minutes of arriving on your career site, they can be connected with the perfect role, have their questions answered, submit an application, undergo pre-screening, and finally, secure an interview date—all facilitated by the power of a recruiting chatbot.
As a large staffing firm with 20 different branch locations, SEEK Careers needed to make it easy for candidates to find the right job opportunity from their primary website. They use the Sense AI Chatbot to connect job seekers with the right role and kickstart the hiring process.
“The way we’re going to win at this game is through speed and efficiency,” says SEEK Careers Vice President of Organizational Development Sara Luchsinger. “If we can get someone on our website to interact with the chatbot, apply for a job, and schedule an interview with a few clicks, we’ve succeeded at that goal.” Read their full story here
Recruiting chatbots enhance the hiring process but this technology is designed to complement the human element in recruiting, not replace it entirely. In certain scenarios, the chatbot will pass a candidate to a live recruiter who is capable of better engaging them.
Take a qualified candidate for a high-priority role, for example. The AI recruiting chatbot can seamlessly route them to a live recruiter for a more in-depth conversation. This transition allows the recruiter to delve deeper into the candidate's interest in the role and discuss it in greater detail than the chatbot can.
And then there are frustrated or hesitant candidates. Recruiting chatbots come with sentiment analysis that enables them to understand a candidate's tone and identify when human intervention is required. If the chatbot detects that the candidate is dissatisfied and at risk of dropping out of the hiring process, it can intelligently trigger a handoff to a human recruiter who will address their concerns directly. This proactive approach prevents great candidates from getting lost in the shuffle due to unanswered questions or a lack of clarity.
Sense surveyed more than 130 recruiting professionals and discovered that text messaging has surpassed phone and email as the preferred communication channel of today’s candidates. However, communicating with dozens or hundreds of candidates at once via text messaging just isn’t realistic.
The good news is the functionality of recruiting chatbots extends beyond your career site to candidates’ mobile devices. Through automated, AI-powered candidate communication, recruiters can better engage with candidates using text messaging.
Here's how AI recruiting chatbots and text messaging elevate the recruiting process:
With the tandem of AI recruiting chatbots and text messaging, organizations can cater to the communication preferences of today’s candidates and engage them in real time.
While text messaging has become the go-to communication channel in recruiting, many older candidates still prefer phone calls. However, connecting with candidates for initial phone screenings has long been a time-consuming activity—and in some cases—accounts for about half of recruiters’ workdays. Conversational Voice AI, the latest advancement in recruiting chatbot technology, can completely automate outreach calls to candidates.
Here's how AI recruiting chatbots and voice automation bring greater efficiency to the recruiting process:
By taking advantage of Conversational Voice AI—the next iteration of AI recruiting chatbot technology—recruiting teams can add a new channel to their outreach strategy and bring greater efficiency to their workflows.
While recruiting chatbots have numerous use cases that accelerate the hiring process and improve candidate experience, there is a legitimate concern that this technology can be prone to bias. What if certain AI models—like some humans—unintentionally prioritize candidates based on factors like gender, age, and ethnicity during the pre-screening process?
Even more, failing to confirm that an AI recruiting chatbot makes equitable recommendations could lead to legal issues for hiring organizations. In 2023, New York City enacted a first-of-its-kind law stating that any AI solution used to make employment decisions must successfully pass an audit confirming it’s bias-free. Similar laws are under consideration in other jurisdictions so we can expect this requirement to become commonplace in the coming years.
For these reasons, it's crucial to conduct thorough due diligence before implementing any AI recruiting chatbot solution. You should not only confirm that the chatbot has successfully passed a bias audit. You should go as far as to learn how the algorithm operates so you understand how it arrives at the recommendations it makes.
Talent professionals have made significant strides in recent years to create a more equitable hiring process. AI, when used effectively, can augment and improve these efforts. However, poorly designed technology will hinder progress. By selecting a recruiting platform that prioritizes fairness, organizations can enhance their diversity and inclusion initiatives by guaranteeing a fair evaluation for every candidate.
Sense AI-powered chatbots have successfully completed a bias audit conducted by Holistic AI. Learn more here.
Recruiting chatbots offer numerous use cases that innovative talent teams are already using to attract top talent, accelerate hiring, boost candidate experience, and increase recruiter efficiency. If you want to learn more about Sense Chatbot and our other AI and automation features, get in touch.
