Accenture AI agents are sifting through applicants

But a human makes final hiring decisions at global tech consultancy

Accenture is using AI across its recruiting process, although it maintains that final hiring decisions remain in human hands.

Speaking to at its recent investor day, the global tech consultancy and outsourcing biz said it was using AI agents to sift through resumes (or CVs if you’re in the UK) and schedule interviews.

Kate Clifford, global chief leadership and HR, said it was helping clients adopt a similar application of the nascent technology.

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"We call it frictionless recruiting, which is really our agentic recruiting solution. We put in an agentic recruiting solution where agents now do all the interview scheduling. Agents can screen a resume. We have assessments that deeply understand the skills of the candidates to help that process move much, much faster. Now a human always makes a hiring decision," she said.

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Clifford said the agent technology was used to help recruitment staff get through their work more quickly. "Our recruiters needed to spend time with candidates. They needed to spend time sourcing, but where they were actually spending their time was scheduling interviews, where they were actually spending their time was typing information into a system," she said.

The executive claimed the agentic process reduced the time taken to hire for roles by 28 percent and improved candidate quality by 30 percent.

AI agents also help new recruits get up to speed. Whereas it once took six months for an entry-level hire to become productive, the time has been cut to six weeks using AI agents, Clifford claimed, allowing them to produce billable work more rapidly.

Accenture claims to serve around 9,000 clients — including some of the world’s largest businesses and government departments — with tech advice and services. For example, it won a contract with the US Internal Revenue Services worth $2.6 billion in 2023. Any tech pro looking for a job with the company is likely being screened by AI as part of the process.

The company also expects internal staff to get on the AI bandwagon. A memo sent to senior staff in February informed them that promotions to top roles at the corporation would necessitate "regular adoption" of AI tooling, and it is tracking usage.

But not everyone is convinced by the value of AI in recruitment. A study published in 2022 found the idea that AI-powered recruitment software creates a fairer process was unfounded. A paper published in the journal Philosophy and Technology demonstrated that the software is little more than "automated pseudoscience."

Tech job-hunters applying for a lucrative role at Accenture will be hoping the technology has moved on since then. ®