This is according to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s (REC’s) ‘UK recruitment industry status report 2023/24’. Of the remaining businesses, 41% already use AI for recruitment, with 26% planning to adopt AI technologies within the next year. A final 3% did not know what they would ultimately do.

In businesses where AI is being deployed, job description and posting tools were rated as the most effective, with 85% of respondents finding them helpful, the RISR24 report said. Ratings of 45% for CV screening and 39% for talent acquisition tools suggest that AI is “particularly useful in the initial stages of recruitment, where its ability to handle large volumes of data is critical in identifying qualified candidates quickly”, the report said.

Respondents to the survey said that areas in which more human interaction and personalised engagement are needed are less effective. “Only 25%... rated AI as helpful in candidate experience and engagement,” the report said. AI tools were also seen to be underperforming in interview scheduling and onboarding, with only 11% of respondents saying that interview scheduling tools were helpful and 8% contending that onboarding tools were on the whole helpful. Scoring in the same range was the category of interview analysis and insight tools, with just 9% applauding their net helpfulness.

Asked to define the biggest barrier to wider adoption of AI tools in their recruitment businesses, the largest percentage (61%) cited lack of trust in AI’s decision making.

The report was published at the end of 2024.

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