Global cosmetic giant, L'Oreal deploys AI solution to help streamline its recruitment process. Source: Shutterstock

Global cosmetic giant, L’Oreal deploys AI solution to help streamline its recruitment process. Source: Shutterstock

Can AI bots help L’Oréal improve its hiring process?

RECRUITING the right talent has always been one of the many factors that give companies their competitive edge.

This has become all the more critical in the digital age, where its virtually an employees’ market and companies have to compete to hire top talent from a limited pool.

As a result, businesses are deploying futuristic technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) to recruit and manage their human workforce.

Cosmetic giant L’Oréal, who fills about 15,000 new positions yearly, is one of the many that adopted AI technology to streamline its hiring process this year.

According to one report, Global VP of L’Oréal’s human resources department Eva Azoulay said that the company wanted to save time while focusing more on quality, experience, and diversity when looking for suitable candidates.

“And AI solutions were — for us — the best way to go faster on these challenges,” she said.

One of the solutions that L’Oréal uses to help its recruiters save time is an AI-powered chatbot, Mya, which interacts with the potential candidates during the initial stages of the interview process.

It answers queries the job applicant might have and screens for availability and visa requirements.

When candidates make it to the next round, they face another AI software that tests and scores applicants based on their answers to open-ended questions.

While the software assignment score does not replace human judgment, Azoulay said that they are very effective in eliminating those that might not fit the job’s scope.

“We have been able to recruit profiles that we probably wouldn’t have hired just on their CV. Like a tech profile for marketing or a finance profile for sales,” she explained.

Initial results from the initiatives have proven quite effective. For examples, recruiters claimed that they have been able to save over 200 hours while filling 80 spots for an internship program that had over 12,000 applicants.

Is it okay to use AI?

While AI usage for hiring is still in its nascent stage, questions have been raised about whether its usage in recruitment is ethical. This is because some believe that AI is especially susceptible to bias, depending on the input data.

Accordingly, the European Commission unveiled a set of ethical guidelines this month urging transparency, fairness, and data protection in AI development.

Further, while AI-powered automation is capable of adding US$13 trillion to the global economy by 2030, it is also expected to reduce non-skilled jobs by 10 percent within the same period.

Those in favor of AI in recruitment, however, are quite vocal about how it benefits the industry.

They argue that AI will not replace human workers but will augment the current workforce and free them up to do more critical and strategic tasks, improving overall efficiency and productivity.