The time for entirely manual human resources processes is coming to a close. HR departments around the world look more poised than ever to take on new automation tactics in 2019 in an effort to streamline workflow and reduce some of the most time-consuming aspects of the job.

Thanks to technology, companies have far less restricted boundaries for finding and attracting top talent. This has helped the global workforce, or international labor pool, grow. As more tech and tools emerge, so do the opportunities for organizations who hope to broaden their talent pool and pipelines. After all, the U.S. is currently experiencing a 30-year low in unemployment rates, which means finding skilled talent can be even more challenging than ever before.

It’s very clear to most recruiting professionals and those similar, that we are and have been in a candidate-driven market for a while now. Candidates today have many more options (sometimes better ones, too) when it comes to jobs than a few years ago. If recruitment professionals aren’t keeping pace with technology and candidate expectations, they are going to get left behind.

To no one's surprise, artificial intelligence, recruitment automation and machine learning have taken over the headlines as of late. A whopping 72% of executives believe that artificial intelligence and automation will offer a sizeable advantage in the near future. With robots now involved in our daily lives, the question on everyone’s mind is: how will artificial intelligence affect me and my job?

Recruiters initially feared that AI technology would take over their jobs. After realizing that the human aspects of the process are irreplaceable (and that their jobs weren’t going to the robots), HR professionals began to take on the competitive advantage that this technology offers.

We’ve been looking at the challenge of high-volume recruiting and discussing the unique ways various recruiting approaches overcome them. Anyone in recruiting can tell you just how tough it can be to maintain a positive employer branding while providing an engaging hiring process that actually works for your talent acquisition team. Now scale that up to include dozens, if not hundreds of candidates, and you have a real recipe for potential disaster.