MUMBAI: In a world where people are increasingly relying on AI tools, companies are facing a new recruiting challenge: AI-generated resumes. Nicholas Kirk, chief executive of recruitment firm Michael Page, said companies are finding it difficult to select candidates for job roles from a stream of similar CVs, making soft skills more valuable than ever.The London-based company, which has been operating in India for more than a decade, said the volume of interviews conducted by recruiters today has risen because companies are tasked with looking beyond CVs when shortlisting a pool of candidates for a job. “The previous CV was unique, but technology has changed that. The CV is no longer a selling point. Here lies the importance of delving deeper into a person’s experience, behavior and values.
“This is where soft skills come in and they are more important than ever,” Kirk said in an interview here.
Soft skills are important
“We probably interviewed 300 candidates to get the shortlist of three. That’s the hard work that goes into what we do,” Kirk said.The global labor market saw a slowdown due to the war, with operations taking longer to shut down although there was no mass hiring freeze by companies or a complete market collapse as was the case during the bursting of the dot-com bubble (early 2000s) and the 2008 financial crisis, Kirk said.
However, many companies use AI as a way to justify job cuts, because they have spent billions on AI and have to make returns for their investors. “Do I think there have been layoffs as a result of AI… certainly there have been,” Kirk said. “I think there are a lot of other companies that have nothing to do with AI other than doing the business. Organizations are having to be more cost efficient because their business hasn’t been performing the way they should, and in many cases, it’s very easy to point the finger and say it’s an AI shift.”In India, the impact of the conflict has been most evident in sectors such as manufacturing. “Not only have we seen a slowdown in hiring, but we have also seen jobs being put on hold until we see clarity as some of the jobs are more senior in nature,” said Nilay Khandelwal, Senior Managing Director, India and Singapore, Michael Page.