Artificial intelligence used in hiring at Japanese companies, to read résumés and check applicants fit the corporate culture
- Artificial intelligence is being applied to automate or streamline parts of the recruiting workflow, especially repetitive and high-volume tasks
- At some companies, recruiter chatbots are used to interview applicants and to grade, rank and shortlist them
Many Japanese companies have already shifted to online interviews and seminars for recruiting new employees because of the coronavirus pandemic. Some have gone a step further by testing artificial intelligence (AI) to efficiently hire talent.
But while companies see the benefits of AI, such as standardisation in the hiring process and saving recruiters’ time by automating high-volume tasks, they are still far from relying completely on the technology because of concerns about it yielding inappropriate or discriminatory decisions.
“Using AI in screening tens of thousands of applicant résumés has helped us cut total labour time by 75 per cent. From May, we have also started implementing AI in assessing videos sent by applicants,” said Tomoko Sugihara, director of recruitment at major Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank.
“Extra time that has been created thanks to AI allows recruiters more time to proactively engage with potential candidates in person, build relationships and carefully determine the candidates’ culture fit,” Sugihara said.
Softbank, which hires more than 1,000 people a year, has trained AI with data from 1,500 past résumé sheets. Sugihara said humans still go through résumés and videos that AI has “rejected”, in case promising candidates were overlooked.