Are Robots gearing towards taking over HR and Recruitment?

Advances in technology are helping many industries in a variety of ways from being able to operate quickly to producing high quality goods to be able to compete with other competitors and to fulfil customers changing needs and demands.

It is more common to hear and read about  advancements in technology for the NHS catering to aiding patients in their treatments or recovery.

But, this is about to change thanks to a company in Sweden called Furhat Robotics who have created a head shaped Robot, 16 inches tall, glows a yellow colour and is called Tengai.

Tengai is designed to be an Interviewer for businesses and will fire questions at candidates and will react to their responses. The Robot has been created to remove bias from the process.

The aim of implementing Tengai, will free up time for Recruiters and Managers to allow them to focus on other responsibilities. The English version is to be ready for purchase in 2020.

I wonder how this unique piece of technology will impact and aid HR as my concern would be, will it cause a decrease in need for recruitment professionals?

Whilst I understand that the aim of the Robot is to create more time for the Recruiters and Managers to work on other tasks and not be using up valuable time to interview prospective candidates. As on average an interview per applicant can be between an hour and 45 minutes. The follow up process includes, reviewing answers recorded and whittling down the candidates to either attending a second interview or deciding to offer a position or not. Those who have been unsuccessful will be contacted and the reasons for the decision will be shared and discussed. All time consuming tasks that must be accurately recorded and completed.

As the Interview will be conducted by Tengai, more information needs to be shared as to how the decision will be made on a candidates suitability or not or will a member of HR need to listen or read through the transcript of what has been said in the interview? plus how will technological faults or settings be managed?

It appears that whilst Tengai has the aim of saving time for the HR team, it may cause  additional tasks needed to be undertaken and supervisory support to implement Tengai into the recruitment and selection process.

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