8 use cases for ChatGPT in recruiting

8 use cases for ChatGPT in recruitment

Here are some ways that recruiters are using ChatGPT and other generative AI to attempt to improve their work in various areas.

1. Map skill taxonomies and skill gaps

Prior to recruitment, recruiters must identify the skills that are needed for a certain job, and ChatGPT can make that process less challenging.

"The reality is, with employees coming and leaving and with skill needs changing, keeping a dynamic skills inventory [is] difficult, if not cost-prohibitive," said Rebecca Wettemann, CEO of Valoir, a technology analyst firm located in Arlington, Va. "ChatGPT [can] summarize, categorize and update skills."

ChatGPT can also identify skills gaps and help recruiters understand required skills for job candidates, she said.

2. Help write job descriptions

Writing good job descriptions is critical for attracting candidates, but the task can be time-consuming.

ChatGPT can use a company's standard job ad language as a basis for a specific job ad, said Matt Collingwood, managing director at VIQU, and IT recruitment firm located in Birmingham, U.K. His company has found success doing so.

"We're getting less pushback or change requests from clients [after using ChatGPT for job ads]," he said.

VIQU is also seeing an increase in response rates since the organization started using ChatGPT, Collingwood said.

However, job listings are only going to be as good as the information that users put into ChatGPT, Collingwood said.

"If [recruiters] are not putting in the right information or level of effort, we will get substandard job specifications," he said.

3. Search databases

ChatGPT can potentially make it easier for recruiters to identify the best candidates.

"We see the biggest return on time [for ChatGPT] is on the [candidate] sourcing aspect," Collingwood said.

Junior recruiters may still be learning how to create complex Boolean strings to identify candidates, Collingwood said. ChatGPT can write Boolean searches, saving time for junior recruiters.

4. Produce relevant interview questions

Asking job candidates questions that are specific to the position can help companies hire better workers, and ChatGPT can suggest questions for a specific job title.

ChatGPT can use a job listing to create competency-based questions such as "Provide an example of when you successfully used this technology," Collingwood said.

Many of VIQU's clients have found ChatGPT-produced questions about specific skills to be helpful for the interview process, he said.

5. Summarize resumes

Sorting through resumes is often a time-consuming task.

Recruiters can ask ChatGPT to summarize a resume's main ideas as a starting point, Wettemann said. However, ChatGPT could include some bias in its models, so recruiters should review resumes manually as well and make a final judgment call based on their own work instead of relying solely on the generative AI summaries.

6. Identify highly specialized candidates

ChatGPT can save time for recruiters who are looking for job candidates with very specific experience.

For example, recruiters could use ChatGPT to search a technical publication for authors or individuals who contributed intellectual property, Wettemann said.

"If I was recruiting for a specific skill set, I would never find [that person] if I had to scan thousands of tech publications," she said. "I can do that now with ChatGPT."

7. Summarize interview and recruiting notes

Recruiters may need to spend time reading through transcripts of job interviews to remind themselves about each candidate. ChatGPT can provide an overview of an interview transcript or provide a summary of recruiting work.

"There's less risk [with summarizing notes] than other AI use cases," said Tanya Moore, chief people officer at West Monroe, a digital services firm located in Chicago.

Using ChatGPT to summarize notes could be a good starting point for recruiters looking to try out the technology, Moore said.

8. Gather talent insights from the job market

ChatGPT can give recruiters an overview of the marketplace as well, which could be useful for recruiters' work.

Recruiters can use ChatGPT to learn information such as which companies are hiring for a certain type of job or the titles that companies use in their job listings for a particular job, Moore said.

However, to make the exercise worthwhile, recruiters will need to devote some time to describing exactly what they are searching for, Moore said.

Christine Campbell is a freelance writer specializing in business and B2B technology.