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AI ‘world first’ could transform SA recruitment process

Cape Town – Companies often make educated guesses about who they hire and are biased through the subjective interview process, but a new artificial intelligence (AI) solution could change all that.

This is according to South African entrepreneur Dr Juan Swartz, whose firm Pivotal Talent has developed a “world first” AI solution to improve the recruitment process.

“We normally use interviews or standardised assessments, (but) interviews… are subjective,” he told Fin24 in a studio interview. “We relate to people who are similar to us or have something in common with us or just are generally relatable. They are not necessarily the best person for that specific job.”

Regarding assessments, he said psychometric or scientific assessments only look at limited amounts of constructs. “You end up with an educated guess as to who you’re hiring based on either on a standard set of limited that you test or a subjective interview,” he said.

Basic AI advances in the recruitment space include sourcing and bot assistance, said Swartz.

Sourcing is when recruiters search social media and other database sources to find suitable candidates and then entice those people into taking an interview. “They are becoming better at how you search,” said Swartz.

Bot assistance is “AI solutions that assist you during the recruitment process”, said Swartz.

Swartz has developed a scientific and data-driven AI solution which assists candidates and recruiters through the entire process, ensuring it is fast-tracked and more accurate.

This includes job applications, short listing, matching and ranking. It uses a “scientific approach where we use all the predictors of performance for the specific role and screen candidates based on whether they have those skillsets that are good predictors of a finance role and a sales role – each one of them are bespoke design”, he said.

“We are certainly an early adopter,” he said. “That automated process … we are the only ones who can do that in a very accurate and scientific way. It’s a world first.”

WATCH: Part 1 of Fin24's interview with Dr Juan Swartz

WATCH: Part 2 of Fin24's interview with Dr Juan Swartz

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