Sameer Penakalapati founded Avani Technology Solutions in 2008, In a decade we grew from a startup to a thriving global company in technology staffing, a technology advisory and consulting for software startups, and digital marketing consulting.

Sameer Penakalapati envisioned the development of our flagship SaaS product CEIPAL that provides intelligent HR solutions platform for talent hiring & workforce management. In 2016, Sameer Penakalapati group acquired Indotronix International Corp., a successful IT development & consulting firm, today the firm employs more than 1,000 people across the US, Canada & India. In 2018 we added Rochester-based digital marketing firm Accelerate Media to our group.

Sameer has been recognized for growth, appearing on the Inc. 5000 list every year since 2014 and the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list the last three years in a row. In 2018 the business also earned the #1 spot on the Rochester Top 100 list of the fastest growing companies in the region. 

We asked Sameer some questions on artificial intelligence and it’s impact on staffing industry. Here we go with it..

Question:  “Artificial intelligence” – this is the buzzword in the Talent acquisition and management community. How do you think AI is transforming Talent Acquisition and Management for the Staffing Industry?

Sameer Penakalapati: AI is the latest trend in the talent industry, and it would be safe to say that such a trend won’t be going anywhere in the next few years.  AI technology is so promising because they allow recruiters to complete unified profiles from massive unstructured data sets, matching skill sets required for a certain position with the candidates’ job profiles. It’s an opportunity to automate low-level tasks. Providing decision – makers  with more detailed information, it immediately reduces operational costs. 

 

Question: What are the benefits of AI?

Sameer Penakalapati:

1. Improved Quality and Consistency of Submissions and ultimately placements. On average, recruiters spend ~7minutes screening a profile, with AI, Recruiters can collect more data on each candidate and so evaluate candidates more effectively. CEIPAL automatically matches candidates to a job in a single click, saving 700 minutes of a Recruiter’s time!
2. Impeccable Business Intelligence; Hiring managers get an opportunity to select candidates based on their skills and find a right position where the abilities of a certain candidate are most needed. This new approach not only increases the productivity of business but also motivates candidates to improve their skills. In addition, AI software demonstrates a higher level of accuracy compared to human recruiters. 
3. Improved Business Performance: AI and automation is a critical part of processing the influx of candidates in the hiring funnel. Traditional pre-employment screening and shortlisting takes up to 23 hours of a recruiter’s time for a single hire. An AI screening tool can process thousands of applications in an instant, and surface qualified candidates. Another issue is that recruiters today are working in a market that favors applicants. Competition for talent is aggressive, and businesses need to do more to stand out. It’s also vital recruiters expand their hiring funnel to reach more potential new hires. AI can also help recruiters expand their candidate pool beyond the initial application submission step. By using AI tools, recruiters can screen candidates in, rather than out based on irrelevant attributes. This increases the number of potential candidates to hire.
4. Eliminate Bias: Human intervention always implies a certain share of unconscious or conscious bias. Biased decisions are a common problem for all sorts of organizations, and AI solutions are able to minimize this element. Companies get a great opportunity to hire only the best candidates based on their real potential and personality, as all the decisions are made taking into account data and resume only.

 

Question: How will AI shape the future of the staffing/recruitment industry?

Answer: Recruiters won’t be replaced by robots. In fact, AI will help recruiters spend more time on high-value tasks, like enhancing the candidate value proposition, engaging passive candidates, and improving the onboarding experience. By using AI to remove the repetitive tasks involved in screening candidates, recruiters can:

• Spend more time creating great job marketing campaigns
• Have deeper conversations with hiring managers to understand roles
• Focus on interviewing top candidates, engage them and get to know them
• Concentrate on creating a great onboarding experience, enhancing EVP

The best AI solutions will augment human decision making, continuously learn from humans in the environment, and allow recruiters to spend more time with candidates to ensure a great placement.

 

Question: What do you predict the future of AI will look like in the Recruitment Industry?

Answer: Will hiring soon be taken over by computers? Probably not in the near future. But, according to one AI trendwatcher, the industry is headed towards a hybrid model. 

In some ways, recruitment tools have already ushered in the possibility of constructing a candidate-side AI tool. A recent article by TheVerge outlines how prospective job applicants have already been reduced to a “series of data points.” Between a candidate’s social media profiles, LinkedIn, and internet history, an employer has a rough outline of a person’s ability before the interview process. It’s not far off to suggest that a candidate may attempt to utilize AI to construct their own digital representation, consolidating their internet presence in a way that best represents them to a recruitment algorithm.