Round table Recruitment  in Lille: AI, soft skills and the future of recruitment

An evening of discussion between HR professionals, recruiters and managers around a common question: how to recruit better in a world where artificial intelligence is transforming practices?

As the discussions progressed, one thing became clear: AI does not replace the recruiter. It allows them to dedicate more time to what truly creates value: understanding candidates, discussing with managers, and making better decisions.

« The candidate experience is super important. »

The candidate experience remains at the heart of recruitment

Even with the advent of AI, the speakers unanimously recalled that recruitment remains, above all, a human adventure.

The tools allow for faster processing, but they do not replace listening or the quality of exchanges.

« I want to handle my applications as well as possible to avoid overlooking people who could be very good candidates. »

« Anyone encountered, by phone or in person, deserves more than just an automated email. »

Automation should serve a better candidate experience, not the other way around.

Why the CV is no longer enough

The CV remains a useful document, but it essentially shows a candidate's past career.

Participants recalled that it naturally has limitations: certain skills remain invisible, and two recruiters may have a different interpretation of the same profile.

« Reading a CV doesn't mean the candidate is necessarily perfect. »

« We are human. There are always little things we haven't paid attention to. »

With several hundred applications, the risk of overlooking a good profile becomes very real.

« With several hundred applications in a few days, screening is clearly the stage where we lose the most time. »

It is precisely at this stage that analysis and matching tools can provide concrete help to recruiters.

Artificial intelligence is already transforming recruitment

AI is no longer a trend: it is now part of the daily lives of many HR teams.

It allows, among other things:

to quickly analyze a large volume of applications;
to identify the most relevant profiles;
to help objectify certain decisions;
to save recruiters precious time.

As several speakers pointed out:

« AI will be even more central in the recruitment process. »

« We are increasingly talking about recruiting without a CV. »

« Tomorrow, we might very well receive a matching analysis directly instead of a CV. »

The goal is not to eliminate the recruiter, but to provide them with more information to make decisions.

Useful AI is AI that adds value

The speakers also insisted on an essential point: automatically generating content is not enough.

AI must provide understandable, actionable, and truly useful analyses for decision-making.

« If an AI produces a hollow summary, it's of no interest. »

« What matters is not just automating, but bringing real value to the recruiter. »

The quality of the generated information therefore becomes as important as the speed of its production.

Recruiting also means supporting managers

The success of a recruitment does not depend solely on HR.

Managers play an essential role in the integration and success of employees.

As was recalled during the round table:

« Teams are a manager's first clients. »

« Our role is to give them the best chances of success. »

« Performance depends as much on substance as on style. »

Recruitment thus becomes a true collective effort between HR, managers, and decision support tools.

Structuring recruitment for greater efficiency

The discussions also highlighted the importance of a clear process.

Even before the interview, a pre-qualification phase remains essential to present the best profiles to managers.

« The manager gets involved quickly, but pre-qualification remains essential before presenting candidates to them. »

« Structuring recruitment saves time and improves the quality of decisions. »

AI makes it possible to streamline these initial steps while leaving the final decision to the recruiters.

Key takeaways

This round table organized in Lille highlights several major developments:

AI is becoming a true assistant for recruiters;
the CV alone is no longer sufficient to evaluate a candidate;
soft skills are taking on increasing importance;
the candidate experience remains a differentiating factor;
the recruiter retains a central role in decision-making.

The future of recruitment is therefore not based on the opposition between humans and artificial intelligence, but on their complementarity.

Round table Recruitment &nbsp;in Lille: AI, soft skills and the future of recruitment

Table ronde avec Cegid & groupe Casino

Club utilisateur Lille