Balancing AI Tools and Human Touch in Recruitment

Nicholas Pretorius, Manager, Talent Acquisition, High Liner Foods

Nicholas Pretorius, Manager, Talent Acquisition, High Liner Foods

Nicholas Pretorius is a strategic talent acquisition leader with 10+ years of experience driving recruitment transformations across North America. Passionate about organizational psychology, he blends data-driven innovation with human connection to deliver impactful hiring strategies and empower individuals in their careers.

Recent years have seen a surge in AI-driven recruitment technology. From sourcing and scheduling to assessments and interviewing, there seems to be a tool for every piece of the hiring puzzle. This abundance comes with a challenge: which tools truly add value, and which may undermine the essential human connection in recruitment?

I often hear questions like, “What fits my tech stack? Which metrics should we focus on? Can AI replace part of my team?” These are valid concerns, but many focus on the wrong process steps in the rush to optimize. Time can be saved, but at what cost?

A faster hire means little if the candidate experience suffers. At the end of the day, only one candidate will get the role, but the other 99 could still be future applicants, customers, or brand advocates. For the one you do hire, the journey they had before day one shapes how they start their career with you.

The Candidate Voice Still Matters

Recent surveys highlight this tension. According to a 2024 Deloitte Human Capital Trends report, 74% of candidates prefer meaningful human interaction at critical stages of hiring, while only 12% find one-sided AI interviews engaging or fair. A LinkedIn Talent Insights study showed that companies delivering a positive candidate experience see 70% more qualified re-applications in the future.

“The best use of AI in recruitment is not to replace people, but to free them.”

This evidence reinforces a simple truth: candidates want to be seen, heard, and respected. Overreliance on AI, especially in front-end interactions such as interviews, can feel cold, impersonal, and ultimately harmful to the employer brand. Generative AI, for all its strengths, still lacks the nuance of human critical thinking and empathy.

Understand Your Process Before Adding Tech

Before chasing the latest AI solution, organizations should step back and conduct a value stream analysis of their hiring process:

• Where are the bottlenecks? Look for steps where candidates or hiring managers experience delays or frustration.

• Which steps add real value? Identify the moments that are meaningful to the candidate, the hiring manager, or the organization.

• Where are the risks? Time delays, compliance issues, poor communication, or misaligned assessments often lead to cost overruns or worse, damaged reputations.

Once you’ve mapped the process, you’ll have clarity on what truly matters and what can be automated without sacrificing experience.

Automate the Routine, Protect the Human

The best use of AI in recruitment is not to replace people, but to free them. Repetitive, administrative tasks are ripe for automation:

• Scheduling interviews

• Resume parsing and basic screening

• Candidate communications (with careful personalization)

• Workflow updates and data entry

• Each administrative, routine task you remove from a recruiter’s plate gives them back time for what matters most: building relationships, understanding candidate motivations, advising hiring managers, and applying strategic, human judgment.

In short: Consider using AI for routine tasks and allow people to focus on the more meaningful and fulfilling aspects of the work. 

Best Practices to Keep in Mind

While every organization’s hiring process is unique, there are universal best practices that apply across industries:

1. When adopting AI solutions, ground your choices in candidate experience. AI should streamline processes, but never at the expense of people, stakeholders, and candidates alike. Every touchpoint should leave individuals a feeling of respect, clarity, and a positive impression, regardless of whether they’re ultimately hired.

2. Choose tools that integrate seamlessly. Clunky add-ons create more work than they solve, often lack customizability, and force you to change your process to adopt their solution.

3. Measure the right things. Time-to-hire matters, but so do candidate satisfaction, offer acceptance rates, and quality of hire.

4. Pilot before scaling. Start by testing new tools in small, well-defined hiring projects before rolling them out broadly. Apply the 70/20/10 innovation approach:

• 70% proven solutions – Keep the majority of your process grounded in reliable,        well-tested tools that consistently deliver value and minimize disruption.

• 20% emerging solutions – Allocate a portion to newer tools that show promise and complement your core stack. These may still need refinement, but they can enhance efficiency and candidate experience.

• 10% experimental innovations – Reserve a small slice for high-risk, high-reward pilots. This is where you trial unproven AI or cutting-edge recruitment tech that could create a competitive edge, without putting your entire process at risk if it doesn’t pan out.Never outsource empathy. Reserve conversations, feedback, and final stages for people.

AI in recruitment is not about doing less human work; it’s about making space for better human work. The question is not “How much can we automate?” but rather, “How do we create a hiring process where every step adds value, and no candidate feels like a number?”

In the end, the organizations that win the talent game will be those that leverage technology intelligently, without ever forgetting that people hire people.

AI