This report from Arctic Shores, includes a survey of 2,000 students and recent graduates, as well as internal data science-led research with UCL postgraduate researchers. It offers insights and practical recommendations on how to get ahead of the seismic shift in selection that Generative AI will require talent acquisition teams to make within 12 months. The research reveals that 72% of students and candidates are already using some form of generative AI regularly and advocates a two-step response for talent acquisition teams. The first step involves conducting a Generative AI Vulnerability Audit to identify potential recruitment process issues, especially concerning diversity and distortion risk. In the second step, internal recommendations are created to redesign the selection process, potentially shifting from question-based to task-based assessments and clarifying the organisation's stance on Generative AI usage on their career site.
There have always been tools and practice sites students could use to enhance their applications over the years. But the cat and mouse game of gaining an advantage has been largely contained through ‘Deter and Detect’ techniques and, most importantly, the fact that access to practice sites comes at a cost –– preventing most candidates without the means or inclination to pay for them. ChatGPT shatters this set-up.
ChatGPT is not some geeky, specialist tool that only a few will master. With its chatbot design, human leveraged reasoning, and ability to teach itself faster than the average human, it has already become a ubiquitous tool used en masse by students with little to no specialist training.
Our survey of 2,000 students and graduates found that 72% are now using Generative AI tools on a regular basis – a number that has increased exponentially in just four months (an earlier ISE study from Cibyl reported that 51% of students were using ChatGPT in May 2023). Our survey results showed that as well as using ChatGPT, many are also branching out to other tools like Google’s Bard, Wolphram Alpha, and Whisper AI.