As with most industries, recruitment is regularly proclaimed as being ‘on the brink’ of another crisis or threat to its existence. The latest such ‘enemy’ lurking at the gates is artificial intelligence (AI).

With data collection on individuals growing wider and deeper all the time, it was only a matter of time before our industry started to embrace the benefits and use this new-found information to find the perfect candidates for our vacant positions.

Back in September, IBM announced that it was developing a way for Watson, its supercomputer that blends AI with sophisticated analytical software, to be used in conjunction with a recruiter’s existing CRM system to rank candidates based on a “perfect fit” score.

When the news of the tech giant’s plans broke, a host of articles appeared in the news sections of recruitment websites, speaking of how robots were going to take recruiters’ jobs and there’s nothing we can do about it.

As usual, such hysteria is misplaced. Instead of fearing our artificial overlords, as recruiters we should embrace them and the help they can give us on a day-to-day basis.

No matter how good the data and how fine-tuned the quantitative analysis, recruitment is not merely a numbers game. An employer’s perfect candidate is, in many instances, as much based on personality and chemistry as they are skills and experience.

While quality data, and its analysis, is a great way to beat the initial administrative element of the of candidates, there’s no substitute for the knowledge and intuition of an experienced recruiter.

It’s our responsibility as forward-thinking recruiters to find ways to collect better quality data and to use it to match candidates and employers in the most effective way possible. Our message to any recruiter reading is: don’t be scared by AI. By working together with machines we’ll spend less time on the manual tasks we hate, allowing us more space to speak to applicants and really find out who they are and the perfect role for them.