Martyn Redstone, an AI and recruitment expert, is set to reveal his tech and AI insights at the Recruitment Tech Event (RTE) on November 2nd. In this podcast interview, he explores the transformative power of conversational AI in Talent Acquisition.
Laser focus on AI
For Martyn Redstone, generative AI isn’t a new word. After all, he has been a consultant on all things conversational AI for several years now with his company pplbots. With approximately 18 years of experience, working in recruitment tech for most of those years, he knows what he’s talking about. “Six years ago I started working computationally and fell in love with it. Since then, I’ve helped recruiters strategise, build, implement, launch and manage chatbot and conversational AI solutions, voice bots, all those kinds of things.”
“Some people don’t even truly believed AI applications existed before November last year.”
Suffice to say, Redstone’s calendar has filled up quickly, on the back of ChatGPT’s launch in November. “Everyone is now laser focused on Artificial Intelligence. Some people don’t even truly believed AI applications existed before November last year, but it’s been a part of my work for a number of years now. As soon as large language models (LLM’s) became available, I started using them. It has shown people what you can do with natural language: you can have a conversation with a computer
‘It’s about conversing, not prompting’
But now, the conversation has shifted. As a result, AI has grown into perhaps one of the most transformative trends in the recent history of Talent Acquisition and recruitment. But as with any trend, there’s a looming danger of misusage and an inflation of expectations. “We have these massive expectations about generative AI and think we can get it to do everything for us. But very slowly, we’re plummeting into the valley of disillusionment, as Gartner puts it, because it isn’t going to live up to those lofty expectations.”
“In the future, the technology used by recruiters will be driven not by prompting, but by conversing.”
And part of the issue, according to Redstone, is the fact that prompt engineering and designing is viewed by some as the solution to the world’s new AI troubles. “It has gone so fast, now everybody’s become an expert on prompt engineering and prompt designing. But it’s not about that. It’s about taking away the binary thought process of: ‘it’s a machine’, where you have to shout very loudly and clearly to get it to do something you don’t want to do yourself. In the future, the technology used by recruiters will be driven not by prompting, but by conversing.”
Overwhelming
Recruiters, meanwhile, are tasked with the unfortunate and difficult task of sifting through an ever-increasing number of supposed AI experts. And separate the important stuff from the chatter. “I think there are plenty of practitioners out there who aren’t trying to hype anyone up”, Redstone says. “I just want to hold someone’s hand and take them through it all, from my vantage point, rather than slamming things in people’s faces and going: buy my rubbish.”
“The vast majority of people want to understand it more, but trust me, the vast amounts people aren’t doing anything just yet.”
In other words: being even-keeled is a must for recruiters. “I think the risk is creating the hype that we’re seeing right now and and also scaring people, because there’s so much going on every day. This news about generative AI, I think a lot of people feel overwhelmed and like they might be missing out, but they’re actually not. The vast majority of people want to understand it more, but trust me, the vast amounts people aren’t doing anything just yet.”
53 screening conversations a day
So while new applications pop up every day, what does Redstone see as the main potential benefits for recruiters? “In my presentations, I always use a slide that just says ’53’, which stands for the theoretical maximum number of screening conversations a recruiter could have in one day, if they work from eight ’til six, had no breaks and all they were doing is picking up the phone and having a screening conversation with a new applicant.”
“But what we have to realise, is that our time is finite. Some recruiters dozens upon dozens of applications they have to go through, so that’s when you realise that recruiters have an uphill battle to give each candidate the time he or she deserves. That’s where we hear about ghosting, all those horror stories that occur through no real fault of the recruiter. We are people and we have a limited amount of time and resources we can dedicate.”
“Screening, compensation, scheduling, e-mails, follow-ups: everything that can be automated, should be automated.”
That’s where AI comes in. “It’s not a person, it’s a machine. It doesn’t sleep, it doesn’t eat and it can do multiple things all at the same time. So that 53 can become 53.000 or 5.3 million. It is infinite in what it can do. These are the robotic, repetitive tasks that take away from being a productive business. Screening, compensation, scheduling, e-mails, follow-ups: everything that can be automated, should be automated.”
Hear more during the Recruitment Tech Event
Want to hear more from Martyn Redstone on all things AI and Recruitment? He is one of the premier keynote speaks at the Recruitment Tech Event on November 2nd in Utrecht. Please note: the event is in Dutch, with the exception of Redstone’s appearance(s).
