Many job applicants dread the use of applicant tracking systems (ATS) by employers in general and the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) for preliminary decision-making in particular.
In my opinion, those worries are often justified but why is that so, actually?
The fundamental problem of the use of AI in recruiting
The problem of using AI in decision-making lies in the fact that, as impressive as the current state of AI may already be, it is simply not "intelligent" enough that it should be allowed to make final decisions. So, yes, it can be helpful but should not be trusted beyond a certain degree.
One could argue that it will always still be a human who offers the job to the candidate of choice. However, such human interaction is less likely part of the preliminary decision about whether a particular application should be considered by a human at all or not. In other words, if AI is not implemented and used with care, it will likely make final decisions automatically that may frequently be neither in the interest of the employer nor in the interest of the applicants.
A fool with an AI tool is still a fool
Don't get me wrong, the use of AI in recruiting can be very helpful if it is integrated in the decision-making processes wisely. So, if AI assists hiring managers and recruiters in making better-balanced decisions, the outcome will also be in favor of the truly suitable applicants, especially if they did not hand in perfect application documents, for example.
In turn, if it is used without due care, it becomes a dangerous tool in the hands of fools and the damage to businesses and society caused by it over time can be immense.