Our warning to Business Leaders: AI is a tool to support, not replace hiring professionals

When building a business, hiring the wrong person – is a big risk to take, and an expensive mistake to make.

Last week we did a deep-dive into the concept of the Open AI Jobs platform, highlighting the differences between AI and experienced professionals.

The results were interesting, and something business leaders shouldn’t ignore…

There is no doubt that AI provides a great alternative to traditional methods of hiring.

It's cheaper than paying for expert professionals, delivers candidates for roles almost instantly, and accessible to the masses. While this is particularly vital for small businesses, there are host of unforeseen considerations that inevitably require the expertise and insight of an experienced professional to oversee and remedy.

“We’re already seeing competitors over-relying on AI, by investing in search and assessment tools in place of good old-fashioned competency interviewing and face-to-face meetings”, warns Gareth, Co-Founder of Trace Recruitment.

“”We know that using the right recruiter will pay dividends for a business and nothing can really replace looking someone in the eye and using your own qualified judgement and years of experience”, he continues.

The AI agrees. According to ChatGPT: “The Jobs Platform trades human interaction for algorithmic matching, which can lack the empathetic insights, mentoring, and negotiation support recruiters provide.

Recruiters offer personalised guidance, coaching, and relationship-led advocacy—especially valuable for senior or sensitive roles.”

Not only this, but Recruiters, HR and Talent professionals are able to develop their own skillset, tailor their expertise to particular roles and markets, and adapt to each individual they meet - whether it’s a client, candidate or both.

Professionals are also able to effectively implement specific strategies, providing much-needed peace of mind to business owners, and addressing important issues that are unregulated and everpresent in AI models, such as racism, sexism and bias.

This has been proven, with research from the University of Washington finding “significant racial, gender and intersectional bias in how three state-of-the-art large language models, or LLMs, ranked resumes.

Small companies could attempt to use these systems to make their hiring processes more efficient, for example, but it comes with great risks. The public needs to understand that these systems are biased. And beyond allocative harms, such as hiring discrimination and disparities, this bias significantly shapes our perceptions of race and gender and society.”

It’s important for Leaders to be aware of these considerations, and take accountability for the culture they are building and nurturing, by employing professionals with the right skillset to tackle bias in their hiring processes.

With 80% of HR workers around the world expecting AI to serve as a tool to assist - rather than replace - their work over the next five years (LinkedIn), it’s important that business leaders also see AI as a skill for a professional to master, not a one-stop-shop for them to be replaced by.

“Our message to both clients and candidates is that AI tools are a good thing - they can definitely assist a hiring process and help you stand out as a candidate, but nothing can replace human interaction. Without this, things can go wrong extremely quickly and we know how costly that can be to both parties…”

While there are some undeniable benefits to AI platforms, it’s clear that conscientious business owners and leaders will understand that an efficient, trustworthy hiring process will be led by an experienced human professional supported, not replaced, by the advanced capabilities of AI.

If you would like to find out more about how Trace can support your business with an efficient and trustworthy hiring process, get in touch with the team today.