Curated Intel from the Talent Tech Industry
June 12-18, 2023:
• Pointing the finger, cautiously: The jury is still out but AI is behind at least some recent job cuts;
• Doubling down on generative AI: Startup Humanly raises $12M to expand its product features;
• Offering a more granular view: Public Insight intros updated job market data/analytics product;
• Soothing job seeker anxiety: Adzuna launches a free AI interview coach called “Prepper”;
• Preparing for every possibility: June’s TAtech Talent Market Barometer forecast – Wear a hat.
PLUS
Worldclass content & business-building connections – that’s what you can expect at TAtech Europe & The EMEA Job Board Forum, coming up in London on December 4-6. It is the only conference in Europe and the rest of the EMEA region that is designed for job board and talent technology company CEOs, their direct reports and rising stars and totally focused on advancing the bottom-line success of their enterprises. The information and insights and the contacts and relationships it provides will accelerate your sales, reinforce your brand and give you a sustainable competitive advantage in the market. So, don’t delay; register today to take advantage of Early Bird Discounts.
Is AI The Cause Of Job Cuts This Year?
When ChatGPT was launched on the last day of November, it punctuated what was, at the time, the largest layoff month of 2022. More people were laid off in November than in every other month of the year combined — more than 44,000 people, according to Crunchbase data. Perhaps November’s numbers were a harbinger of trying times ahead. Since then, companies have continued layoffs at the same brutal pace. While funding dried up elsewhere, leading to layoffs, venture firms were pouring money into the generative AI movement, where language models were poised to be the next big cash cow. Indeed, according to Crunchbase data, funding to AI startups made up about 10% of global startup funding. Venture’s dramatic shift in funding priorities has rocked every industry from the art world to health care. And whenever a new piece of technology promises to disrupt an industry, the first worry is that it will replace workers. While few — if any — tech startups are actively conducting layoffs to offload work onto AI, the tech industry is quickly embracing artificial intelligence. According to a report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which looks at layoffs across every industry, around 5% of May’s job cuts were directly related to artificial intelligence.
Recruiting automation startup Humanly lands $12M as it doubles down on AI
Humanly, a Seattle startup that helps companies automate their recruiting functions, raised $12 million to help fuel growth of its AI-powered software. Customers such as Microsoft, the Seattle Storm, and Moss Adams use Humanly to screen job candidates, schedule interviews, automate initial communication, run reference checks, and more. The company is investing heavily in its short message service (SMS) chatbots that interact with job candidates, part of a broader rollout of new generative AI tools that help companies hire more efficiently, said co-founder and CEO Prem Kumar. Humanly’s chatbot is trained on more than three years of the company’s hiring data, helping it respond to specific questions by job candidates. For instance, when interacting with a job applicant in Colorado, the bot will recognize the presence of specific pay transparency laws in that state, Kumar said. The company is also introducing AI analytics features for human-to-human conversations. These tools, which run during live calls, generate insights and send follow-up emails. The startup aims to address a pain point in the hiring process where limited data is exchanged between a hiring manager’s bots, screening tools, and interview transcripts. The use of multiple tools often make candidates feel as though they are “being interviewed by three different companies,” Kumar said.
Public Insight Releases Update of TalentView Job Market Data and Analytics Solution
Public Insight announced the spring release of its TalentView job market data and analytics solution. The release includes weekly job postings data collection, job posting text analysis, time-change analysis of job market metrics, updates to workforce migration analysis and new filtering for advanced segmentation of insights. These updates enable granular analysis of over 150 job market metrics to better inform recruiting, employer branding, career planning, and business development strategies. “This release expands TalentView capabilities to provide more in-depth analysis of job market data,” explains Dan Quigg, Public Insight Chief Executive Officer. “Current, market-driven data to justify recruiting decisions is becoming a top priority,” adds Quigg.
Adzuna launches AI interview coach ‘Prepper’
Adzuna, the smarter job search engine, is pleased to announce the launch of a unique, free AI interview coach tool Prepper. For the first time, the recent advances in large language models (LLMs), alongside Adzuna’s proprietary data and expertise, have made it realistic to simulate interview questions for any job at any company, at scale. Adzuna’s cutting edge tool Prepper allows jobseekers to prepare for job interviews by generating questions likely to be asked based on information from the job ad, as well as coaching them on how best to respond, changing the game for interviewees. Users simply paste the job title, job description and company name into Prepper, and the tool then generates the five interview questions most likely to be asked. Users can input draft answers to practise their responses. Adzuna’s AI coach will then provide feedback scores and detailed suggestions on how to improve, helping give candidates an edge over their competition. Users can also ask Prepper to generate model answers, without any input, to help them prepare for interview. It follows research revealing 93% of jobseekers experience pre-interview anxiety, with the top job interview worry being not being able to answer a difficult question (cited by 41% of respondents).
This Month’s TAtech Talent Market Barometer Forecast: Wear a Hat
The TAtech Talent Market Barometer is based on two metrics for the U.S. talent market: the Supply-Demand Ratio and Net Migrations. The Supply-Demand Ratio compares the number of job seekers with resumes to the net number of jobs posted in a select set of workforce sectors. Net Migrations measures the number of people with resumes entering or leaving those same sectors. Together, they provide recruiters with an empirical assessment of the conditions they will face in the talent market and a commonsense forecast for dealing with them. In May, the Supply-Demand Ratio and Net Migrations data indicate improvement in some segments of the talent market. Therefore, the TAtech forecast for the next 30 days is for a variable talent market with a mixture of partly sunny and stormy conditions. In such an environment, we think it would be wise for recruiters to wear a hat, to avoid getting either overheated or drenched, whichever might be caused by their specific recruiting requirements.
TAtech Europe: Worldclass Content & Business-Building Connections
Worldclass content & business-building connections – that’s what you can expect at TAtech Europe & The EMEA Job Board Forum, coming up in London on December 4-6. It is the only conference in Europe and the rest of the EMEA region that is designed for job board and talent technology company CEOs, their direct reports and rising stars and totally focused on advancing the bottom-line success of their enterprises. The information and insights and the contacts and relationships it provides will accelerate your sales, reinforce your brand and give you a sustainable competitive advantage in the market. Whether your company is a niche or general job board, aggregator, talent marketplace, online classifieds business, programmatic platform, conversational AI solution, chatbot, ATS, recruitment marketing solution, CRM platform, interviewing or assessment system or talent technology consultancy, this event will supercharge your company. So, don’t delay; register today to take advantage of Early Bird Discounts.