(AI)gorithm turns recruiter

Time of India

5 hours ago

Vidya, a software engineer for over 14 years and in her late thirties, was looking to switch her job earlier this year. When she applied to India's second-largest software services company,
Infosys
, one of her four rounds of interview was with an AI-chatbot.
'A male voice command asked me about myself and 8–10 techno-functional and managerial questions, along with subtitles. The interview was through an online link and lasted around 15 minutes. It was interesting to see a computer-based questioning. I felt more confident,' said Vidya, whose resume was also shortlisted through AI.
ETtech
When she finally landed the coveted job, Vidya was among the thousands of engineers and developers being interviewed by AI as part of the latest next-gen recruitment process at India's top software service providers.
ETtech
As per numbers, IT firms are hiring tens of thousands annually, relying on AI for 70–80% of initial screenings. Just at the two top IT service providers—HCLTech and Wipro, AI is assisting to shortlist and interview around 55,000 candidates for entry and mid-level positions. Not just HCLTech and
Wipro
but all companies are using AI prolifically and the numbers are only increasing.
ETtech
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Infosys chief human resource officer Shaji Mathew said the company is using AI in its HR processes, covering the entire hire-to-retire cycle. 'AI enables us to dynamically map candidates to panelists, trigger interviews on the fly, and even leverage facial recognition algorithms in our interview tool,' Mathew said without sharing specific numbers.
Infosys uses an AI-based facial recognition process that compares images from interviews and induction to prevent impersonation on Day 1. HCLTech is using AI to reimagine how the company attracts, assesses, and hires talent through its proprietary AI-backed platform, said its chief people officer Ramachandran Sundararajan. The firm uses the platform across all levels in their projects and programs. 'A group of AI agents augment our internal and external staffing teams to enhance job descriptions, determine the skill and competency evaluation expectations for candidate assessment, screen CVs to help shortlist, assist our technical panels in interviews and provide a second opinion of the candidate for the job,' Sundararajan said. To date, AI has helped in screening and processing over 45,000 open positions at HCLTech.
Neeti Sharma, CEO of Teamlease Digital said, AI is helping save recruiters approximately 23 hours weekly. 'While exact numbers of AI-driven hires are hard to pin down, IT firms hiring tens of thousands annually rely on AI for 70–80% of initial screenings, with AI-led processes boosting interview success rates by 53%.' Meanwhile, conversational AI is still in an exploratory stage and is being used for 15–20% of their total hiring, Sharma adds.
Sanjeev Jain, COO of Wipro says it has initiated AI pilots from April at key stages—from initial resume screening and first-level interviews to communication assessments, background checks, onboarding, and even simulations for client interviews. This, according to him, not only helps optimise time and costs but also subconscious bias at early stages. 'Most importantly, it allows us to onboard and deploy talent on client projects faster, ensuring we stay agile and responsive to business needs. As we continue to evolve our talent strategy, AI will remain a critical enabler,' Jain added.
ETtech
Outsourcing majors, including TCS,
Tech Mahindra
and others are also using AI for their recruitment process. Companies are using AI to filter and rank the top profiles, for intelligent screening and skill-based assessments, significantly reducing manual screening time and doing video interviews powered by behavioural and sentiment analysis. They are also using predictive analytics to assess how well a candidate aligns with past successful hires in similar roles thereby improving the quality and consistency of hiring decisions.
However, Vidya felt that she was lucky to have got through. 'One concern was the English, and even the database test was difficult to understand initially. I also was not sure if they could absorb or recognise my accent or language, because the follow-up questions at times were not linked.'
Richard Lobo, chief people officer at Mahindra Group subsidiary Tech Mahindra, India's fifth largest IT firm said, 'We believe that AI is not here to replace human judgment but to refine and elevate it—especially in recruitment, where precision and speed are critical…We are continuously investing in rebuilding our training infrastructure.'