With its AI-powered Smart Sourcing, Indeed is enabling more human hiring

As more jobseekers turn to AI for help with applications, so too are companies deploying AI to help fill key roles. With Smart Sourcing, combined with a commitment to responsible AI practices, hiring platform Indeed is betting automation can shift employers' focus away from repetitive tasks, and towards the human touch.
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It’s a familiar scenario: you spend hours writing a job description, post it online and by the time you log back on, find your inbox collapsing under hundreds, if not thousands, of applications. These days finding the right candidate amongst a sea of CVs can be a truly daunting task.

With the global economy stuttering, and confidence down, the employment market is cooling. UK job postings are 23% below their pre-pandemic baselines. With jobseekers increasingly turning to smarter ways to stand out – including using generative AI to help write their applications – many employers are also turning to AI-powered hiring tools to help find the right talent. But with tools and norms still developing, many are being stuck in the “messy middle”. “The ‘messy middle’ is when people are using AI to replicate or automate existing parts of the hiring process, but new AI-enabled capabilities are still developing,” says Chris Johnson, VP of AI at Indeed. “Think horseless carriages vs. cars. It’s a normal part of any technological transformation as people learn how to use a new powerful tool, and it’s exactly what we’re seeing with AI.”

Indeed is focused on the ways that AI can make hiring simpler. Its Smart Sourcing tool lets companies match with jobseekers based on their skills, experience, qualifications, and preferences. Rather than posting a job and waiting for applications, Smart Sourcing automatically generates a list of quality candidates from the more than 345 million sourceable profiles already on Indeed, that you can message or invite to apply.

Crucially for any AI system, the logic behind Smart Sourcing is transparent: employers can see why candidates are being suggested, and refine their searches accordingly. In all, Indeed says, hiring managers using Smart Sourcing are able to save a significant amount of the time typically spent on manual hiring tasks – saving employers an average of 7.7 hours a week*. “These efficiencies are not only helping employers, but candidates are benefitting from faster, more responsive and personalised hiring experiences too,” says Johnson. That regained time can then be spent on the more meaningful and human parts of hiring, such as in-person interviews, that tend to be a better way to determine if a candidate is a good fit for the role.

The wider economy is embracing generative AI at a rapid pace, and as Indeed invests in AI innovation, it is also working to safeguard trust and opportunities for all. As part of its Responsible AI Framework, Indeed ensures human oversight of its AI models, with regular reviews of the factors influencing matches to help ensure fairness. The company is focusing on transparency – employers can see the reasons behind each match – and says that it is monitoring emerging trends to make sure AI-based hiring is fair and effective for all jobseekers on the platform. “Our Responsible AI framework emphasises fairness, transparency, accountability and privacy,” says Johnson. “This means rigorously testing for bias to help ensure fairness in our products, being transparent about how decisions are made so AI systems are accountable for their outcomes, and, crucially, involving a variety of voices in development.”

By using AI to help focus on skills, experiences and preferences, rather than just indicators like qualifications, degrees or personal connections, Indeed wants to enable employers to unearth an array of talent that they may not have through traditional methods. “The biggest potential impact of this shift lies in AI and human judgement interacting together to be able to do something neither can do alone,” says Johnson. “AI won’t replace humans, but humans that utilize AI will be able to amplify their output. The opportunity lies in our being able to harness AI to be more effective and fair in our hiring decisions.” In that sense, the future isn’t just going to be more automated – it can be more human, too.

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*Indeed Survey, n=102, Jan-Feb 2024