AI in Practice: Four Smart Use Cases for Your Recruiting

According to a report by Gartner, the number of HR managers launching AI projects will double between June 2023 and January 2024. The main drivers here are the benefits that HR managers expect to gain from using AI: greater process efficiency, freeing up more time for strategic HR work. Four use cases in the recruiting process show how this can be achieved with modern HR systems such as SAP SuccessFactors and what needs to be considered.

Need to quickly create or edit a job description? Using existing job descriptions and the associated skills, the generative AI formulates meaningful texts in seconds. If no job description is available or if it is out of date, the AI compares existing files with internal structures and current market data, adds missing skills, and suggests alternative keywords.

⬆️ Advantages: Time savings of up to 50 minutes per job description, non-discriminatory and targeted approach to potential applicants.

✅ Best practice: Sometimes minor manual adjustments are necessary to ensure that the AI suggestions really fit the company's image and reflect its corporate culture.

The HR software automatically analyzes application documents and identifies relevant qualifications for open positions as well as soft skills. Based on this information, the AI then creates a list that allows you to see the skill matching of all applicants at a glance.

⬆️ Advantages: Acceleration of the selection process, objective evaluation of applicants based on skills and competencies.

✅ Best practice: Due to a universal skill taxonomy, user-defined skills may not be recognized. Therefore, AI-supported pre-selection should be carefully reviewed by an HR professional before decisions are made.

A co-pilot integrated into the HR solution, such as Joule from SAP, generates personalized interview questions tailored to the specific requirements of the respective position. If the functionality is integrated into Microsoft Teams, those responsible from HR or the department receive a reminder with the interview questions 24 hours before the interview appointment.

⬆️ Advantages: short response times, consistent interviews that reveal valuable insights and make it easier to compare applicants.

✅ Best practice: The AI-generated questions should be supplemented with your own wherever possible. This ensures that the corporate culture and specific needs of the teams involved are also taken into account.

The combination of HR software with Microsoft enables smooth appointment scheduling and organization. Joule supports HR professionals in coordinating interview appointments and automatically sends invitations and reminders. In addition, managers and HR professionals no longer need to open the HR system themselves, as the integrated AI remains available in external applications such as MS Office. This means that, as in the case of Joule, they can access the system functions of the HR solution from anywhere.

⬆️ Advantages: Time savings, reduced administrative effort, improved candidate and user experience of HR systems.

✅ Best practice: To ensure that everything runs smoothly, the calendar integration must be configured correctly and aligned with the applicable data protection guidelines, and the relevant Joule configurations must be fully completed.

The use cases presented show that AI-supported solutions can revolutionize recruiting. However, this cannot be achieved without the human factor. The future of recruiting therefore lies not in complete automation, but in “hybrid intelligence,” which combines the best of both worlds—the speed and machine intelligence of AI with human intuition and experience.

This article was first published on May 5, 2025, in HR Today.