Indeed's CEO Wants to Create 'Cyborg' Recruiters Using AI

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Chris Hyams wants to land you a job. Hyams runs the job site Indeed, which lists 30 million positions — from long-haul truckers to CFOs — in more than 60 countries. Over the past decade, Indeed, owned by Japan's Recruit Holdings Co., has evolved from a listing of open positions to an online hub where jobseekers and recruiters size each other up, and even conduct interviews.

These days, the hiring industry is facing a double whammy of layoffs, which hit the ranks of corporate recruiters especially hard, and the emergence of generative AI, which threatens to move beyond simple resume-scanning to writing job descriptions or even negotiating salaries. In response, Hyams is analyzing how AI can supplement those roles, not replace them. The CEO visited Bloomberg's New York office recently to discuss his own company's return to the office, how he handled Indeed's first-ever layoff and his plan to create “cyborg” recruiters that play to the strengths of both humans and AI. (Responses have been edited and condensed.)

When we last spoke in February, you said the job market had slowed but was still strong. What would you say now?

There are some signs of weakness in recent job opening reports, but the overall picture continues to show a robust labor market. Except for marketing and software development: Those are the first two sectors where demand is lower than it was pre-pandemic. From December through July, marketing job postings on Indeed are down 10%. And copywriter job postings have been even more impacted, down 35%, in part due to ChatGPT.

Jobs are also down inside Indeed. You eliminated 15% of your staff, or 2,200 people, in March. Looking back on that, what if anything, would you do differently?

When things got busy for us, we