The Influence of AI & Technology on the Recruitment Process in Design Studios

Artificial intelligence in recruitment is not a new development – plenty of software tools with this tech have existed for the better part of a decade. Now, as AI is making ripples in virtually every industry, questions, hopes and concerns are all understandably growing. 

Is AI a friend, or foe? It depends on how you use it. We’ll delve into how AI can help and hinder architecture and design recruitment.

Automating the little tasks

For the average architecture firm or design studio, recruiting people still involves significant chunks of admin tasks, which can quickly add up for busy hiring managers and HR teams. Even with irregular hiring – say, recruiting one or two team members per year – managers find the process usually takes more time than expected.  

In that context, artificial intelligence tools are useful for reducing the admin time that accumulates around each job application. Generative AI tools like Chat GPT can write job descriptions, applicant tracking systems can analyse all incoming resumes, while chatbots can respond to questions from job applicants and contact shortlisted candidates to schedule interviews.

However,  as more organisations rely on AI, it’s only fair to expect candidates to use it as well. In one survey, nearly half of respondents said they’ve used AI tools to enhance their resumes. 

Candidate screening

AI recruiting tools can also be used to screen job applicants, such as matching resumes against job descriptions to create shortlists of candidates for interviews and analysing responses from pre-recorded video interviews. AI and machine learning tech is also found in many assessment tools, such as aptitude and personality tests. 

Is the use of AI for screening candidates a good or a bad thing? On one hand, it’s important to note an increase in negative sentiment among jobseekers about AI dehumanising the job application process. These sentiments can have knock-on effects on an organisation’s employer brand – consider how a more experienced architect may have less patience for sitting through an AI interview, for example. 

The upside? AI-based tools could also be used to identify potential candidates who aren’t actively applying for architecture and design jobs but have the requisite skills and qualifications. Using predictive algorithms, these AI recruiting tools can analyse individuals’ social media profiles and publicly viewable online activity to uncover talent that wouldn’t have appeared on a hiring manager’s radar otherwise. 

Can AI analyse creativity and cultural fit? 

AI tools exist for uncovering the suitable candidates based on analysis of their resumes and responses given in a pre-recorded video interview. So far, however, we’re yet to find a tool that can review 100 architect portfolios and make reasoned recommendations!

Can AI critically assess an architect or designer’s portfolio, and determine how they will fit in with a company’s design ethos, aesthetics, clientele and team culture? It’s clear that human judgment is fundamental and irreplaceable in this process.

It’s also worth considering how, during the interview stage, candidates and hiring managers are mutually searching for insight into how they could work together. Each party is trying to determine the other’s values, perspectives and personality. Algorithms offer no clear substitute for this aspect of a recruitment process.

Outreach and headhunting

A significant part of our work as architecture and design recruitment specialists is to cultivate a network of professionals that we can reach out to about job opportunities.  When we’re engaging with individuals who are not actively seeking a change of role, our ability to establish influence and build relationships is crucial. 

Our recruiters, who understands the nuances of architecture and design jobs, and are skilled at spotting an individual’s fit for a role can shift the dialogue from 'Why are you contacting me? I'm not interested' to 'Actually, I would like to apply for that position’. Relying on automation alone for a delicate, high-touch act of persuasion is likely to be unsuccessful at the best of times. 

Bias and effects on diversity and inclusion 

AI can be used to mitigate the biases lurking within recruitment processes, but this utility gets far less attention than the counterpoint, which is that AI creates multiple avenues for introducing bias into hiring.

The good:

Artificial intelligence powers tools that can alter job descriptions to incorporate more inclusive language. Gendered language in job descriptions is a persistent issue, for example, which AI tools like Gender Decoder can help address. 

Additionally, AI software works best in the service of standardisation of the recruitment process – analysing resumes and candidate responses against pre-defined criteria. Some AI tools can remove elements such as candidates’ names, images and locations from their applications, which are helpful ways to reduce unconscious bias. 

The bad: 

Many researchers and HR professionals have highlighted the variety of ways AI can make recruitment more biased. As one researcher puts it, ‘AI might learn, based on the data, that people called “Mark” do better than people named “Mary” and are thus ranked higher. Existing biases in society are reflected in and amplified through data’. 

Left unchecked, AI tools can make unhelpful inferences and assumptions simply because they’re designed to detect patterns. Only humans can understand what these patterns mean in context, however. It’s therefore vital to closely monitor AI output to detect where existing biases are being reinforced, e.g. only suggesting candidates from a particular age, ethnic, racial or gender group. Failing to do so can derail diversity and inclusion principles, in sometimes very public ways. 

Architecture and design recruitment still needs humans

From an employer’s perspective, many of the questions about artificial intelligence in recruitment relate to the types of roles they’re hiring for and the volume of roles. For industries where hiring dozens or hundreds of people each year is the norm, especially for graduate programs or entry-level positions, relying on AI recruiting might be viable. For a studio hiring a new design lead once a year, perhaps not so much. 

In architecture and design, where the work is rightly regarded as a craft that requires creativity to execute and assess, AI recruiting has hard limits.  

What we do at Bespoke Careers is impossible without the human touch. From providing guidance on individual portfolios to helping businesses uncover hidden talent, our decades of combined experience as architects and designers inform the nuances of our recruitment strategies. Contact us today for help with building your team or taking the next step in your career.