The Future of Recruitment - Conversational Artificial Intelligence

AI Applications, Opportunities and Challenges
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The Need for Disruption

Efficiently recruiting top talent while delivering exceptional applicant experience is, for most talent acquisition teams, a challenge beyond the realms of possibility. This is especially true in volume recruitment, but even enterprise teams spend just shy of 100 hours and 4 weeks of manual human labour to hire each candidate. Countless hours are wasted screening candidates that are not suitable for progression beyond top-of-the-funnel screening processes, and consequently, recruiters typically lack the time to offer a reasonable experience to both the rejected applicants and the candidates that count.

Introducing Conversational AI

But new advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the game, and in particular, disruptive conversational AI applications are creating disruptive opportunities for innovative recruiters and hiring teams to set a better standard for candidate experience, and to strap on an “Ironman suit” to exponentially improve their productivity. Already 96% of recruiters are optimistic about the ability of AI to change the game.

In essence, “conversational AI” refers to the application of AI and Natural Language Processing to create automated interactions, enabling computers to communicate with humans with agility and to understand, interpret, and respond to conversations in a simulated human-like way, and with comprehension of the nuances of human interaction such as context, intent, and tone. Conversational AI relies on highly advanced machine learning algorithms to process and analyse natural language inputs to generate appropriate and relevant responses. Good conversational AI agents are virtually indistinguishable from humans.

What sets aside conversational AI from traditional chatbots is that chatbots rely on pre-defined decision trees that are highly limited (not to mention expensive and onerous to build). Unlike a chatbot, which can only respond with rigidity based on programmed inputs, a good conversational AI agent will be able to engage with a level of agility and personalisation to deliver exponentially superior user experience, as well as possessing the ability to constantly learn and improve the more conversations it delivers. The best conversational AI agents are also not limited to web chat pop-up windows but can be delivered across a miscellany of channels including mobile-first channels like WhatsApp, favoured by younger generations in particular.

Use Cases and Benefits – From Top of the Funnel Recruitment -> to Onboarding -> to Retention

1. Job Description Writing

Job descriptions are notoriously badly written, impacting success through the entirety of a recruitment funnel. By using Large Language Models (LLMs), talent professionals are better able to digest, suggest improvements, and even re-write job descriptions to improve their credibility and effectiveness, as well as ensuring that language is thoughtful of DE&I accommodations to eliminate inherent biases.

2. Pre-Application Engagement

Engaging top talent from the beginning of their recruitment journey is essential, especially for impatient millennial and Gen Z candidates. Whether through outbound campaigns from an ATS, or inbound campaigns from a job ad, conversational AI agents can engage, build initial rapport and answer candidates’ questions promptly before they even apply for a role, reducing the administrative burden on the recruiter or HR team, and enhancing the speed of candidate engagement to deliver a superior application experience.

3. Screening and Analysis

Screening candidates’ applications and long-listing qualified candidates using automation tools to streamline the top of the funnel is nothing new, but deploying screening tools that rely on LLMs can be a powerful differentiator.

Traditional application screening tools have relied on keyword sifting, an inflexible approach that depends on candidates refining CVs specifically to cater to a limited scope analysis, and favouring advantaged candidates who have been trained accordingly. Using LLMs offers a much more flexible and intelligent way of screening because they can intuitively understand if a candidate has experience without needing explicit keyword inclusion. This naturally makes the process fairer and avoids eliminating qualified candidates erroneously.

It’s important to note that heavy-handed, careless use of LLM-powered automation is not the answer. These tools must be flexible, guidable and customisable to reflect the recruiter’s human intuition. Developing an automation product that scales up human intuition (as opposed to machine intuition) is extremely difficult, but the very best AI recruitment tools will be aim to do just this.

4. Engagement

A holistic solution would automatically deploy intelligent conversational automation across a longlist of candidates analysed by an ethical, human-guided AI, enabling the recruiter to begin building relationships with hundreds of candidates, as well as answering their questions and screening them on autopilot.

While there has been notable pushback from recruiters defending their manual outreach processes on LinkedIn and Email as critical to a process that relies on relationship-based human connections, the thoughtful use of AI in recruitment has significant advantages for both recruiters and candidates:

  • Less Human Bias – No longer is every screening campaign a factor of an individual recruiter’s biases. Using AI, candidate screening can be conducted based fairly, and based instead on pre-designated, data-driven criteria that preclude prejudice in favour of merit.
  • Shorter Screening Processes and Greater Reach – Conversational AI gives recruiters an “Ironman suit” of capabilities, enabling them to reach out to hundreds of candidates simultaneously and take them through a rapid engagement and screening process in hours, not days (or weeks). Eventually, conversational AI tools will support multimedia, accepting voice and video submissions as well as text answers, and which can glean finer details that will help a talent acquisition professional begin to build a picture not only of a candidate’s skills and experience but also their personality and cultural fit early in the process.
  • Enhanced Candidate Experience – Conversational AI can drastically improve candidate experience if delivered effectively. It should be deployed across multiple channels, including mobile-friendly applications like WhatsApp or SMS. It is accessible to candidates 24/7 from the outset of their application process, answering questions and offering them updates in real-time and/or upon request rather than keeping them in the dark. It should make ghosting an aberration of the past, giving instant updates to rejected candidates, offering feedback, and redirecting them to more suitable roles rapidly. When used well, Conversational AI should improve the employer’s brand and reputation and increase conversation rates.
  • Higher Quality of Hires – Conversational AI can engage more candidates, expanding the scope of the search to include a more diverse talent pool. Naturally, this improves candidate quality, but additionally, the best AI products will convert conversational data into CRM-ready properties, improving the effectiveness of the hiring process as a whole, and leading to net higher-quality interviewees.

5. Interviews

Cold-calling candidates to schedule interviews, or emails with “Are you free on Wednesday at ten?” is not acceptable in 2023. An adept conversational AI agent will connect with a recruiter’s calendar to schedule interviews with the shortlist of conversations that count.

At the human interview stage, data collection from the entire AI-enabled recruitment funnel should be collated to provide the interviewer with a synthesised candidate report and recommended questions, cases or tests to explore any potential gaps in the candidate’s profile.

6. Onboarding

Once contracts are signed, conversational AI will expedite the administrative burden placed on HR teams during the onboarding process. This includes collecting information from new hires and sending out necessary onboarding paperwork. HR teams can instead focus on more high-priority, high-value areas such as helping new employees acclimatise and hit the ground running.

7. And Beyond -> Employee Engagement and Retention

Businesses are constantly changing, as are the needs of their employees. By using new technologies, businesses can extract data insights to keep senior leadership on-point with employee wellbeing and sentiment around specific practices of decisions, as well as to identify health-threats and recommend remedial steps before they become retention or PR crises.

For individual employees, adept conversational AI agents can improve employee experience by offering them the personalised information they need instantly while saving HR the time to invest in more meaningful people and cultural initiatives.

Elephants in the Room

Where is the Humanity?

One of our early customers initially described an AI-enabled vision for the transformation of traditional recruitment and hiring practices as having the potential to lead to an “automation nightmare”. And she was correct. There is always a place for a human in the recruitment relationship, and hiring will always be a profoundly relationship-based experience that is as important for the hirer as the candidate. Meaningful applications of AI will not dilute the human element of talent acquisition, but enhance it by streamlining the repetitive manual processes to ensure that hirers are better prepared and have more time for high emotional quotient activities, building the relationships that matter and having the conversations that count. In our experience, candidates unanimously agree that until the interview stage, transactional access to the personalised, transparent, and real-time information that recruiters are typically too busy to provide trumps a human signature block in an email exchange.

Furthermore, while we see strong evidence of the success of AI during the engagement and screening phase, we also are convinced that human-in-the-loop capabilities are essential to intercept and takeover automation where a genuine human touch can make a difference. Recruiters should be able to have both birds-eye and detailed views of all the conversational campaigns running in real-time and be notified when it’s time to temporarily take over from the AI for a human-to-human interaction. Not only should human-in-the loop capabilities provide talent professionals with the means to take over, but they will be able to give Conversational AI agents the guardrails to constantly improve and think and behave more and more like their human counterparts.

What about the Data?

The use of candidate application data is also an area of risk, especially when using open LLMs. Recruitment and hiring teams who want to leverage analytics to continuously improve hiring processes and decision-making must ensure that they fulfil new privacy, security, and regulatory compliance obligations, but also constantly examine and reassess the way they seek to optimise hiring based on data to ensure that they don’t become inherently biased. This is especially important for protecting the very DE&I considerations that can be strengthened by a responsible application of LLMs.

What’s the Risk to Talent Acquisition Professionals?

Finally, to the biggest elephant in the room: Headcount displacement. Inevitably, at the advent of a revolution of automation capabilities recruiters and human resources professionals are concerned about businesses leveraging new technologies to reduce headcount costs. And their worries are justified. Businesses will migrate to an era of leaner data-driven hiring teams that are equipped with the latest AI co-pilots to give them 10x capabilities, and this will inevitably impact traditional recruiters who still prefer manual processes, especially in volume hiring practices (notably black-book executive search is something of an exception here). Talent professionals who embrace these disruptive new technologies will find themselves irreplaceable and will enjoy a strong level of job security that survives cyclical hiring churn based on their indispensable understanding and engineering of the AI and data architecture of a company’s talent strategy. Those who do not seek to up-skill and adapt may find themselves increasingly vulnerable to displacement in the not-so-distant future.

Popp AI is building the end-to-end AI toolset for innovators in talent acquisition. With Popp, you can deliver the features outlined in the article above straight out-of-the-box, in seconds.

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27 Jan
2025
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5 min read

Why Personalisation is the Key to Talent Acquisition Success

Headshot of James Cochrane-Dyet smiling in a professional setting
James Cochrane-Dyet
Chief Operating Officer

When it comes to talent acquisition, one size certainly doesn’t fit all. Whether you’re hiring a junior marketer or a seasoned data scientist, every candidate brings unique skills, experiences, and motivations to the table. So why would your recruitment strategy treat them all the same?

Personalisation has become more than just a nice-to-have in today’s competitive hiring landscape—it’s a necessity. Candidates want to feel seen, valued, and understood, and companies that deliver on these expectations are winning the war for talent.

Here’s why personalisation matters, how it improves hiring outcomes, and some practical strategies to get it right.

Why Personalisation in Recruitment Matters

1. Candidates Expect It

We live in an era where personalisation is everywhere—from Netflix recommendations to Spotify playlists. Unsurprisingly, candidates expect the same level of tailored experience during their job search.

A recent study by Talent Board found that 72% of candidates are more likely to engage with job opportunities that feel personalised to them. In the UK, research from Totaljobs revealed that 67% of job seekers are more likely to apply for a role if the communication feels tailored to their skills and experience.

2. It Boosts Candidate Engagement

Generic outreach often falls flat. Think of those bland, one-size-fits-all messages clogging up inboxes. On the other hand, personalisation grabs attention and fosters meaningful connections.

LinkedIn’s global recruitment report shows that personalised InMails are 45% more likely to be opened than generic ones, and the response rate increases by 20%. When candidates feel that an opportunity aligns with their goals, they’re more inclined to take the next step.

3. It Improves Hiring Outcomes

The benefits of personalisation extend beyond engagement. Companies that personalise tailored communication report better hiring outcomes, including faster time-to-hire and higher-quality candidates.

A McKinsey report highlights that organizations that personalise candidate experiences are 40% more likely to attract high-performing talent. This is particularly critical in industries where competition for skilled workers is fierce.

Strategies for Implementing Personalisation in Talent Acquisition

1. Craft Tailored Outreach Messages

Start by ditching generic templates. Instead of sending the same email to hundreds of candidates, tailor your messaging to highlight:

  • How their skills align with the role.
  • Why your company is a great fit for their career aspirations.
  • Specific projects or initiatives they might find exciting.

For example, if you’re reaching out to a software developer, reference a recent project they shared on LinkedIn or a technology they’ve mastered. A small effort can make a big impact.

2. Use AI to Gain Insights

AI tools like Popp can analyse candidate profiles and surface insights that recruiters might otherwise miss. This includes:

  • Skills and experience that align with job requirements.
  • Patterns in career progression to predict cultural fit.
  • Interests or achievements that can inform personalised outreach.

By leveraging AI, recruiters can focus on building relationships while technology handles the heavy lifting of data analysis.

3. Personalise Follow-Ups

Engagement doesn’t stop after the first touchpoint. Personalised follow-ups show candidates you’re genuinely interested. Here’s how to do it right:

  • Reference your previous conversations or their responses.
  • Provide updates tailored to their application status.
  • Share relevant content, like blog posts or case studies, based on their interests.

For instance, if a candidate expressed interest in your company’s sustainability efforts, follow up with details about your latest green initiatives.

4. Tailor the Interview Experience

Personalisation shouldn’t stop once candidates enter the interview phase. Make the experience unique to them by:

  • Aligning interview questions with their expertise.
  • Connecting them with team members who share similar interests or career journeys.
  • Offering flexibility in scheduling to accommodate their needs.

How Popp Enables Personalisation at Scale

While personalisation might sound labor-intensive, platforms like Popp make it manageable—even for high-volume hiring. Here’s how Popp helps:

  • Automated Personalisation: Popp uses AI to craft tailored messages based on candidate profiles, saving recruiters time while ensuring every interaction feels personal.
  • Real-Time Insights: Access actionable data about candidate preferences and skills to inform your approach.
  • Engagement Tracking: Monitor which messages resonate most with candidates, refining your strategy over time.

With tools like Popp, recruiters can deliver a personalised experience without compromising on efficiency, making it easier to connect with the right talent, faster.

The Bottom Line

In a world where personalisation drives everything from customer loyalty to online engagement, it’s time for talent acquisition to follow suit. Tailored communication isn’t just about making candidates feel good—it’s about standing out in a crowded market and achieving better hiring outcomes.

By implementing personalisation strategies and leveraging tools like Popp, your team can build stronger connections with candidates, improve hiring efficiency, and ultimately win the race for top talent.

It’s time to leave generic recruiting in the past and embrace a more human, personalised approach.

22 Jan
2025
·
5 min read

Recruitment Automation Myths Debunked: What Every TA Leader Should Know

Candid photo of Angus Reid during a professional speaking event
Angus Reid
Director of Sales

Recruitment automation and AI tools have been making waves in the talent acquisition world for years. But with innovation comes plenty of misconceptions, and automation in hiring is no exception.

From fears about AI replacing human recruiters to concerns about depersonalised candidate experiences, there’s a lot of noise out there. The truth? Recruitment automation isn’t here to steal jobs or strip away the human touch—it’s here to empower recruiters, making them more efficient and strategic.

Let’s break down the most common myths about recruitment automation and uncover what it really means for talent acquisition leaders.

Myth 1: “AI Will Replace Recruiters”

This is probably the biggest misconception about recruitment automation. Yes, AI is powerful, but it’s not replacing recruiters anytime soon.

The Reality

AI doesn’t eliminate jobs—it eliminates inefficiencies. Tools like Popp automate repetitive, time-consuming tasks like resume screening, interview scheduling, and follow-up emails. This frees up recruiters to focus on what they do best: building relationships, understanding team dynamics, and making strategic decisions.

According to a 2023 report by the CIPD, 73% of HR leaders in the UK agree that automation enhances, rather than replaces, human roles. Across the pond in the US, LinkedIn data shows that 81% of recruiters believe AI will make their jobs easier by automating administrative tasks.

Myth 2: “Automation Creates a Cold, Impersonal Candidate Experience”

Some worry that introducing automation into recruitment means sacrificing the personal touch candidates expect. But the opposite is often true.

The Reality

Automation can actually improve the candidate experience by ensuring timely, consistent communication and freeing up recruiters to spend more time engaging directly with candidates. For example, AI-powered chatbots provide instant answers to FAQs, while automated workflows ensure no candidate falls through the cracks.

Research from PwC reveals that 49% of UK job seekers say they’ve been ghosted by a potential employer, while 78% of candidates are more likely to apply again if they receive timely updates. Automation solves this by maintaining communication momentum.

Take Sense, a competitor platform, which uses automation to send personalised check-ins at key stages of the hiring process. Popp goes a step further by integrating automation into a centralised system, ensuring a seamless blend of human interaction and efficiency.

Myth 3: “AI Can’t Match Human Judgment”

Another common myth is that AI lacks the nuance to make fair or strategic hiring decisions.

The Reality

AI isn’t here to replace judgment—it’s here to complement it. By analysing large volumes of data, AI can surface insights that human recruiters might overlook, like identifying patterns in candidate performance or spotting unconscious bias in job descriptions.

Phenom, for instance, uses AI to match candidates to roles based on their skills, but the final decision always rests with the recruiter. Similarly, Popp uses machine learning to prioritise top candidates, giving recruiters more time to focus on the critical “human” parts of hiring, like culture fit and team alignment.

And the results speak for themselves: McKinsey reports that companies leveraging AI in hiring see a 40% improvement in recruiter productivity and a 25% reduction in time-to-hire.

Myth 4: “Automation Only Works for High-Volume Hiring”

While automation is often associated with processing thousands of applications for entry-level or seasonal roles, it’s just as valuable in specialised and executive hiring.

The Reality

High-volume hiring isn’t the only game in town for automation. Tools like Popp are flexible enough to support tailored hiring strategies, automating parts of the process while leaving room for personalised touchpoints where they matter most.

For example, automation can handle preliminary outreach and scheduling for senior roles, allowing recruiters to spend more time on detailed candidate evaluations and stakeholder alignment. In the UK, Deloitte reports that 41% of companies using AI in recruitment improved their ability to attract niche talent pools.

Myth 5: “Automation Is Too Complex to Implement”

The idea of overhauling your recruitment process with new technology can feel overwhelming. Many TA leaders worry about steep learning curves and disruptive implementation periods.

The Reality

Modern recruitment automation platforms are designed to integrate seamlessly with existing tools and workflows. Whether it’s an applicant tracking system (ATS) or your internal collaboration tools, platforms like Popp focus on simplicity and ease of use.

Take Scotty AI, which requires significant upfront setup but offers limited flexibility. In contrast, Popp provides out-of-the-box functionality and intuitive design, enabling teams to get started in days, not months.

The proof? Gartner found that companies adopting user-friendly automation tools experienced a 50% faster implementation timeline compared to traditional systems.

Why Popp Is Different

At Popp, we don’t believe in a “one-size-fits-all” approach to recruitment automation. Our platform is built to:

  • Empower Recruiters: Handle the admin so your team can focus on strategic hiring decisions.
  • Enhance Candidate Experience: Keep candidates informed and engaged with seamless, timely communication.
  • Scale with Your Needs: From high-volume hiring to bespoke executive searches, Popp adapts to your challenges.

By blending automation with a recruiter-first mindset, Popp ensures that technology complements—not competes with—your human expertise.

Final Thoughts

Recruitment automation isn’t something to fear—it’s something to embrace. By debunking these myths, it’s clear that AI and automation are not replacing recruiters but empowering them to work smarter, not harder.

The future of talent acquisition isn’t about choosing between technology and the human touch—it’s about finding the perfect balance. With tools like Popp, your team can achieve that balance and deliver a recruitment experience that’s efficient, engaging, and future-ready.

6 Jan
2025
·
5 min read

5 Common Bottlenecks in Talent Acquisition (and How to Fix Them)

Headshot of James Cochrane-Dyet smiling in a professional setting
James Cochrane-Dyet
Chief Operating Officer

Hiring great talent is no small feat. For most TA teams, it feels like there’s always a new hurdle to overcome—whether it’s slow hiring, candidates dropping off, or communication breakdowns that stall the process. And with competition for talent at an all-time high, the stakes are even greater.

These challenges aren’t just frustrating; they’re costly. Research shows that unfilled roles cost UK businesses an average of £27,000 per vacancy in lost productivity (Oxford Economics). Tackling these bottlenecks isn’t optional—it’s critical.

Let’s look at five of the most common talent acquisition challenges and explore how innovative solutions (like Popp) can help your team navigate them.

1. Slow Hiring Processes

If your hiring process drags on, you’re not just losing time—you’re losing top candidates. In the UK, the average time-to-hire is 27.5 days (SHL), yet nearly 50% of candidates expect an offer within two weeks (Totaljobs). The mismatch in expectations leaves room for competitors to swoop in and make offers first.

How to Fix It:

Streamline your hiring process by automating time-consuming steps:

  • Resume Screening: Use AI to sift through CVs and shortlist candidates based on pre-set criteria.
  • Interview Scheduling: Let tools like Popp coordinate calendars, eliminating the back-and-forth.
  • Process Visibility: Track progress in real-time with dashboards to identify and address delays.

By removing bottlenecks in these areas, UK companies can cut time-to-hire by up to 25%, according to a CIPD report on recruitment innovation.

2. Candidate Drop-Offs

It’s a common problem: candidates disappear mid-process, and you’re left wondering what went wrong. Across the UK, one in three candidates abandon applications due to complex or time-consuming forms (Indeed).

How to Fix It:

Make it easy for candidates to stick with you:

  • Mobile-Optimised Applications: With over 70% of UK job seekers applying via mobile (Glassdoor), ensuring your process works seamlessly on phones is non-negotiable.
  • Proactive Communication: Automated follow-ups and reminders keep candidates informed and engaged.
  • Conversational AI: Use AI to provide instant answers to candidate questions and guide them through the application process.

Not only does this improve completion rates, but it also builds trust with candidates—something they’ll remember when deciding between offers.

3. Inefficiencies in Communication

When communication breaks down, the whole process suffers. Missed interviews, slow feedback, or unclear expectations frustrate candidates and strain relationships between recruiters and hiring managers.

A survey by LinkedIn found that 83% of candidates in the UK say timely communication is critical to a positive hiring experience, yet delays remain a widespread issue.

How to Fix It:

Centralise communication to ensure everyone’s on the same page:

  • Use Popp’s collaborative platform to share candidate updates, screening scores, and next steps across teams.
  • Automate routine communications, like interview confirmations and follow-ups.
  • Provide candidates with a clear timeline for each stage of the process—and stick to it.

Better communication doesn’t just improve efficiency; it creates a hiring experience that candidates rave about.

4. Lack of Data-Driven Insights

Without data, it’s easy to overlook what’s working—and what’s not. In fact, a UK survey by Robert Half revealed that 42% of businesses struggle to use recruitment metrics effectively, often relying on intuition instead of evidence-based strategies.

How to Fix It:

AI-driven platforms like Popp make it easy to unlock the power of your recruitment data:

  • Track critical metrics like time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, and candidate source effectiveness.
  • Use predictive analytics to anticipate hiring needs and address potential bottlenecks before they escalate.
  • Monitor diversity and inclusion metrics to ensure equitable hiring practices.

Data helps you work smarter, not harder, and can improve hiring outcomes across the board. In fact, companies that rely on data-driven decision-making are 30% more likely to achieve high-quality hires (PwC).

5. Difficulty Scaling Recruitment Efforts

When hiring ramps up, it can overwhelm even the most efficient teams. Temporary agencies or external recruiters can help, but they often come with high costs and inconsistent results.

How to Fix It:

Embrace scalable solutions that adapt to your needs:

  • Deploy AI recruitment agents to handle repetitive tasks during peak periods.
  • Automate candidate outreach to maintain engagement, even when volumes are high.
  • Leverage tools like Popp to scale seamlessly without compromising quality or increasing fixed costs.

This approach doesn’t just save time—it also protects your in-house team from burnout, creating a more sustainable and scalable recruitment model.

Streamlining Talent Acquisition with Popp

At Popp, we understand the challenges of modern talent acquisition because we’ve been there. That’s why we’ve built a platform designed to:

  • Automate repetitive tasks and reduce time-to-hire.
  • Keep candidates engaged with timely, personalised communication.
  • Provide actionable insights that help you optimise every step of the process.

Whether you’re a fast-growing startup or an established business, Popp gives you the tools to scale your hiring efforts while delivering an exceptional candidate experience.

A Final Word

Recruitment doesn’t have to feel like an uphill battle. By addressing these common bottlenecks and embracing smart technology, you can transform talent acquisition into a seamless, efficient, and engaging process.

It’s time to stop putting out fires and start building a hiring strategy that sets your business apart. With tools like Popp, the future of talent acquisition is within reach—and it’s brighter than ever.

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