The rise of AI in recruitment has sparked a significant shift in how companies find talent, balancing efficiency with the risk of excluding unconventional candidates who go against algorithmic patterns. While AI-powered tools have revolutionized hiring processes, some companies are betting on a hybrid approach that enhances human expertise rather than replacing it, highlighting the growing value of skilled recruiters in making critical, high-stakes hiring decisions.

 

 

 

Read the article extract and replace the words 1-10 in bold with their synonyms a)-j) below.

 

Silicon Valley has a new obsession: eliminating humans from recruiting. Venture capitalists have 1. poured billions into AI-powered resume scanners, chatbots that conduct interviews, and algorithms that promise to find perfect candidates without human intervention. The pitch is 2. seductive: Why pay expensive recruiters when artificial intelligence can do it faster and cheaper?

AI Recruitment: The Double-Edged Revolution

The integration of artificial intelligence into recruitment processes represents a fundamental shift in how organizations identify and evaluate talent, yet it raises 3. profound questions about the nature of human potential itself.

 While AI-powered systems can process thousands of resumes in minutes and identify patterns invisible to human recruiters, they simultaneously risk codifying historical biases and reducing complex human capabilities to algorithmic scores. Major corporations have documented substantial 4. gains from algorithmic hiring – e.g. Unilever reduced its recruitment timeline by 75% while processing nearly two million applications annually, saving over £1 million and 50,000 candidate hours through AI-driven assessments. Yet this efficiency revolution carries an uncomfortable irony: these same systems may systematically exclude unconventional candidates who don’t 5. conform to algorithmic patterns, potentially filtering out the very innovators and 6. disruptors that drive organizational breakthroughs. The paradox becomes 7. stark when considering that the most valuable employees are often those who 8. defy easy categorization: the college dropout who built a billion-dollar company, the career changer who brought fresh perspective, or the candidate whose resume gaps hide periods of 9. crucial personal growth. As AI recruitment tools become 10. ubiquitous, organizations face a critical choice between operational efficiency and the messy, unpredictable reality of human potential – a decision that may ultimately determine whether they optimize for today’s needs or tomorrow’s breakthroughs. (…)

a) obvious

b) omnipresent

c) stick to

d) invested

e) revolutionaries

f) challenge

g) serious

h) profits

i) tempting

j) vital

In order to read the whole article/check your answers, go to:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/josipamajic/2025/06/24/making-recruiters-ai-powered-not-ai-replaced/

Key: 1d); 2i); 3g); 4h); 5c); 6e); 7a); 8f); 9j); 10b)

 

Glossary

 

• watershed – a critical turning point or a significant event in a process, often marking a moment of change or decision that leads to a new phase
• flip side – the opposite, less good, or less popular side of something:
• to perpetuate – to cause something to continue indefinitely or to make something last longer, often with the implication that it’s being kept alive or sustained
• bias – a tendency to favor one thing over another in an unfair way, often based on personal preferences or prejudices
• funnel – an object that has a wide round opening at the top, sloping sides, and a narrow tube at the bottom, used for pouring liquids or powders into containers with narrow necks
• ascendance (ascendancy) – controlling influence; domination
• overhead – the general, continuing costs involved in running a business, as of rent, maintenance, utilities, etc.
• to lend weight (to) – to make something seem true or correct
• compounding – cumulative

 

 

Practice makes perfect

Use the verbs in brackets in either Present Simple, Present Continuous, Past Simple or Present Perfect. You need to use Passive Voice in one case.

 

(…) Employers 1. ……… increasingly ……… (use) AI-powered interviews like these to vet the flood of candidates that 2. ……… (pour) in for any given role. According to applicant tracking system Greenhouse, the number of applications per role 3. ……. nearly ………. (triple) since 2021, thanks to the ubiquity of AI tools that let job seekers 4. ………… (multiply) their applications with little effort. Greenhouse’s customers 5. ………….. (receive) an average of 222 applications per role in 2024. Gem, another ATS, 6. ………. (report) that recruiters manage 56 percent more open roles than they  7. …….. three years ago.

Proponents of using AI to screen job applicants tout the technology’s ability to vet more candidates than humans can assess on their own. If a human recruiter can screen a dozen applicants, an AI recruiter can screen thousands. “With AI, almost everybody can get a shot,” says Tigran Sloyan, co-founder and CEO of CodeSignal, the technical assessment platform that simulated my sales interview. “Almost everybody can actually get to that interview stage, get an opportunity to talk about their skills, their experience, and have a better shot at getting a job they deserve versus just being locked behind their résumé.”

This is a plus for some job seekers as well, who 8. ……….. (be) happy to know they 9. ………… (consider) for a position at all. Some say they 10. ………. (like) the convenience—and lack of pressure—that 11. ……….. (come) with talking to a bot instead of a person. (…)

In order to read the whole article/check your answers, go to:  https://www.inc.com/emilymccraryruizesparza/i-interviewed-with-an-ai-for-a-job-and-flunked-miserably

Key: 1. are (increasingly) using; 2. pour; 3. has (nearly) tripled; 4. multiply; 5. received; 6. reports; 7. did (managed – also possible); 8. are; 9. are (‘re) being considered; 10. like; 11. comes

 

Discuss

 

• Do you think that AI can fully replace human recruiters in the future? Why or why not?
• How do you think the role of human recruiters might change as AI continues to evolve in the recruitment industry?
• In your opinion, what are the pros and cons of using AI in recruitment?
• How would you feel about being interviewed by an AI avatar? Would it make you feel more comfortable or less?
• What kind of companies or industries might benefit the most from using AI in recruitment? Why?
• What kind of job positions do you think would benefit most from AI-powered video interviews? Why?
• Do you agree with the article’s view that the most valuable employees are often those who “defy easy categorization”? Give an example of such a person.
• What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of using AI for interviews from both the employer’s and candidate’s perspectives?
• Do you think AI interviews can help reduce bias in the hiring process? Why or why not?
• The article mentions that candidates’ responses in video interviews tend to last longer. Why do you think people might perform differently in video versus audio-only interviews?

 

 

Watch and Revise!

 

AI in Recruitment

Empowering Recruiters, not replacing Them!

 

 

https://www.cloud.worldwideschool.pl/index.php/s/6CBjY3oCTmaekKz

 

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