Artificial intelligence has been one of the most influential forces shaping recruitment in a global talent war. The volume of data companies can now access, the speed at which candidate pools can be filtered, and the complexity of searches that can be executed in minutes; these are all genuine advances. Yet amid the enthusiasm surrounding automation, Michael Ronis, founder of Janbrook Partners, believes many companies are asking the wrong question.
“AI opens a lot of doors in the sense of access to information,” Ronis says. “You can now research things and approach searches in a much more complex way than you could in the past. The real game changer is the access to information and the ability to break down information.”
Ronis argues that the debate today is largely focused on whether AI can replace recruiters. He rejects that conversation entirely. Instead, the more vital consideration, in his view, lies in a single question: at what point does a human step in?
Recent surveys show that 88% of employers now incorporate AI to accelerate talent acquisition and candidate screening. The appeal, he notes, is easy to understand as the volume problem alone makes some degree of automation non-negotiable. With companies receiving over a million applications in a year, Ronis notes that AI, at that scale, becomes a necessity, as it would be nearly impossible to manage that quantity manually.
