The Stepstone Group’s mission is a fairly simple one: the right job for everyone. Active in more than 30 countries, they are responsible for one of the world’s leading job platforms, with a singular aim: ‘to disrupt the job market and make it work properly’. And to be able to come good on that mission, the Group has focused on implementing Artificial Intelligence within its core offerings.
The rush for Generative AI
The Stepstone Group has used AI for a number of years, but Florin Ciontu, Senior Vice President Product B2C at The Stepstone Group, was surprised and excited to see the rapid development of Generative AI. “In particular Large Language Models (LLM), a type of AI that has been trained on large amounts of text and is able to understand and summarise natural language. We’ve had quite a few colleagues already working on AI and it was remarkable to see how quickly everyone rushed to explore the potential of the new technologies.”
A group effort
Over the past year, Ciontu says The Stepstone Group has had more than a hundred colleagues contribute with ideas for using LLM’s. “Such as Open AI’s GPT-3 Turbo and GPT-4, which are also used by ChatGPT. And several products have already entered development. In addition to using these models in our core products, we have also decided to make some of our core job search services in Germany available directly through ChatGPT and the Open AI interface. This is an opportunity to bring our services to an early adopter audience and is also part of our ongoing exploration of new channels and user experience paradigms.”
Better matching
While the GenAI discussion usually takes place around what it promises: generating content for recruitment, Ciontu says AI has long been part of core matching technologies. “Particularly as a way to deliver high quality and personalised job search results. The use of AI in this area continues to evolve, with Large Language Models enabling a deeper understanding of both jobseeker profiles and job ads, and therefore better matching.”
“At The Stepstone Group we have been fortunate to have talented and passionate teams who have been able to build products around these new technologies in just a few months.”
Beyond matching, Generative AI now enables us to offer guidance and advice across the entire jobseeker journey, including areas such as help with drafting CV and cover letters or preparing for interviews. These features have only recently been rendered. At The Stepstone Group we have been fortunate to have talented and passionate teams who have been able to build products around these new technologies in just a few months.”
New AI Interviewer
One of the key features, as recently launched by the Stepstone Group, is an AI Interviewer. “Our AI Interviewer prototype provides advice and guidance to jobseekers by acting as an interview coach. The AI can generate relevant interview questions based on the job ad, provide feedback and help refine answers, allowing jobseekers to prepare for the unfamiliar situations often encountered in interviews at their own pace and with confidence.”
“AI will not replace recruiters, as the human touch they bring to the hiring process, including personal rapport, cultural fit, and other ‘soft’ factors, remains essential for successful recruiting.”
“This can be a very useful tool and ultimately a nice complement to what has traditionally been an entire industry consisting of books and other interview preparation materials. “However, AI will not replace recruiters, as the human touch they bring to the hiring process, including personal rapport, cultural fit, and other ‘soft’ factors, remains essential for successful recruiting.”
User feedback at the centre of everything
While the usage of AI is becoming more prevalent, a survey by Pew Research Center has illustrated job seekers aren’t all that keen on having their futures decided by AI. They asked 11,000 Americans about their attitudes towards AI and the workplace, and a majority (66%) said they would not want to apply for a job where AI helps make hiring decisions.
For The Stepstone Group, the job seeker is always at the centre of any type of product build or innovation, Ciontu says. “Even when we leverage AI, the starting point is always the user’s pain point and, ultimately, the goals of the tasks they want to accomplish. Traditionally, these tasks have been fulfilled by products, based on more classical algorithms. The biggest opportunity for using AI is simply to make the experience in existing products much more fluid and natural.”
“In other cases, we can use AI to enable greater and better-quality support from HR specialists. In a sense, AI is not replacing human interaction; rather, AI is replacing classic algorithms and augmenting human potential. Still, there is always a fine balance, so whenever we implement a new tool, the ultimate decision to go live or not is based on our user feedback.”
AI ethics: the onus is on suppliers
For job seekers, it may just be another case of time that may heal any concerns about the way AI is being used by companies to screen and assess candidates. But along with potential benefits of new AI technologies, come fundamental questions in areas ranging from ethics to data protection and copyright. “Existing EU regulations touch on some of these aspects, and new ones are being developed that will hopefully provide a framework for the industry.”
“We have colleagues focused exclusively on data ethics and we are actively working to integrate solutions to detect and remove bias.”
“However, the field is moving very fast. Hardly a week goes by without some kind of significant innovation, so providers and users of the technology need to play their part. At The Stepstone Group, we have always seen it as part of our role to act responsibly and proactively to address these issues. We have colleagues focused exclusively on data ethics and we are actively working to integrate solutions to detect and remove bias, misinformation, harmful or toxic content.”
AI as a companion
So what are some of the long-term AI targets for The Stepstone Group? “AI is nothing less than a revolution in the application and recruitment market. With ‘the great people shortage’ ahead, AI is being used to improve both job search and recruitment”, Ciontu says. “Ultimately, if I am a jobseeker, an online job platform like Stepstone should be my job search companion that knows me, brings me all the relevant job ads and simplifies everything. A companion that is always there for me and cares about my success.”
“While there is quite a bit of work to do to accomplish this vision, the progress in key technologies such as the ability to have conversations in natural language has already brought this future closer. We can imagine a similar type of scenario for hiring managers who will no longer have to spend time on tedious coordination. Finding or rescheduling appointments, but instead focusing on the areas where they bring most value.”
