Mr. Rajan, an experienced techie at a major software firm in Bangalore, says that he has been laid off since the start of novel coronavirus pandemic. Like Rajan, thousands of employees have lost their jobs in India as a result of corporates’ move to ‘cut costs’.

According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) report, nearly 122 million people in India lost their jobs in April because of the lockdown, of which, 21 million came back in May. The centre said that progress of job recovery among salaried employees remains weak.

Companies including Uber and Ola, leading ride-hailing platforms, food delivery start-ups such as Swiggy, online hotel booking site OYO, among others have announced pay-cuts and fired significant parts of their workforce. For the reason that they are grappling with a severe economic plunge due to weeks-long nationwide lock-downs.

Here is where Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered recruitment portals come in, in a move to combat this crisis and bridge the gap between firing and hiring. AI for recruitment databases has become dominant in the arena of HR technology making hiring process faster, easier and efficient.

From Quit to Recruit: Bridging the Gap

During this pandemic, it will be challenging for job seekers to wade through online content to locate right-fit opportunities. In the recent past, AI-powered projects are gaining traction in India.

AI helps in identifying hiring trends, and matches candidate’s profile with relevant job posts. Job seekers can also have their resume screened by robots at a faster pace.

With AI-powered job search platforms, candidates can chat to their preferred company too. Chat-bots are enabled to ease the access by handling job seeker’s queries and guide them to the right opening they are looking for, thus saving ample time.

AI promises standardized job matching between candidates’ experience and skills, with that of job requirements. The tech is used for digitized interviews by accessing applicants’ speech patterns, facial expressions and word preferences to determine the right fit.

Skillr, for instance, realized the urgent need for reliable and up-to-date job employment information for those who had been laid off and seeking potential opportunities instantly.

The New Delhi-based job recruitment startup, leverages AI to compile data and provide information on vacancies in specific industries. The website also provides live tracker on who is hiring during COVID-19.

Ankit Durga, co-founder of Skillr, told KrASIA that only one-third of the total 3500 firms that it is tracking are laying off their employees. The platform has listed over 2,000 companies that are hiring.

Another similar AI-led community supported hiring platform CareerVsCovid19, tracks how jobs are getting impacted during this crisis. Himanshu Geed, co-founder of Big.Jobs that runs CareerVsCovid19, said that the goal is to scale up to over 100,000 jobseekers and over 1,000 hiring companies by the end of this year.

He told KrAsia, “We’re currently working on powering CareerVsCovid19 by integrating an AI-powered matching engine and applicant tracking system we’ve developed at Big.Jobs.”

What Lies Ahead

Industry experts predict that the future of AI for hiring lies in Augmented Intelligence. This uses technology to support and complement human cognitive functions.

According to them, Augmented Intelligence enables recruiters to become more proactive in their hiring process, helping them determine a candidate’s culture fit.

“Augmented Intelligence, rather than totally replacing people at work will be used to make them more effective. I think this may be the best use of AI for HR,” Michael Haberman, a HR consultant told Ideal.

Sources: CMIE, TimesOfIndia, EconomicTimes, KrASIA, Ideal

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About the author

Sujha Sundararajan

Contributing Author

Sujha has been writing and reporting on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology developments since 2014. Her work has appeared in CoinDesk, CCN, EconoTimes and Fintech News Malaysia. She is also an accomplished Indian classical singer and loves baking cakes.