Mercury talks to Microsoft about the AI Recruitment Revolution

In a recent interview, Chris Kendrick, CEO of Mercury, and Richard Liddington, CTO of Mercury, discussed with Paul Veck from Microsoft, the innovative ways that Mercury is using Microsoft AI to transform recruitment and make people faster, more efficient, and more effective.Chris spoke about how recruiters often struggle with time constraints, owing to the need to sift through large data sets to match candidates with suitable roles. Mercury's AI solution automates these processes, significantly reducing the time taken from candidate submission to interview - from days or weeks down to mere hours or minutes.Harnessing large data sets with AIThe pair spoke about how Mercury has developed a method to transcribe and structure data from recruiters' conversations with hiring clients. Leveraging AI and cognitive services within the Microsoft Cloud, they can break down this data, enriching it through generative AI and Azure's powerful search capabilities. This process enables recruiters to quickly identify the best candidates, sometimes even discovering key requirements not explicitly mentioned in the initial conversation.Infusing Microsoft's AI servicesMercury uses various Microsoft services, including Teams and conversation intelligence, to gather rich, informative conversation summaries. Richard spoke about how they are then processed through Power Automate, with a custom connector to Azure's OpenAI services and GPT models, to create summarised phone call records. This process automatically generates comprehensive job descriptions, engaging job adverts an even questions for the recruiter to ask the candidate.Automating candidate search and outreachThe system performs an automatic candidate search using Azure AI, ranking candidates based on suitability, such as skill prominence. It then contacts potential candidates via SMS, linking them to a chat interface for further discussion. Natural language processing is used throughout these interactions to update candidate records and assess their suitability in real-time, even keeping the hiring manager informed via web portals.Looking ahead, Mercury aims to also improve the candidate experience. With a team of 70 developers exploring further enhancements in Azure AI search and voice-based interaction, Mercury is pushing towards a future where keyboards are obsolete, and voice commands drive software interactions.Mercury's integration of AI into recruitment is a game-changer. By automating and enhancing your recruitment processes with Microsoft's AI technology, you will save time, improve the quality of candidate matches AND increase your win rate.The conversation took place on Microsoft’s AI Accelerate webinar. To watch the recording of the session, please click here For more information on this innovative approach and the significant leap AI brings to the recruitment industry, please contact us.Written by Daniel Fox