AI-Enabled Recruiting in the War for Talent

A large body of research has well established that changes in net balances between labor supply and demand can drive competition for human capital. The authors propose that AI-enabled recruiting tools constitute a force that will intensify the war for talent above and beyond episodic changes in net balances. The authors also propose that three seismic shifts will further intensify the war for talent by increasing the value of human capital and lowering its switching costs. Lastly, the authors bridge human resource management and military escalation literatures and examine how three key onset conditions relative to the use of AI-enabled recruiting tools have the potential to spark an “arms race” for those tools. Finally, the authors examine the managerial implications of these dynamics so that managers cannot just prevail in near-term skirmishes but win the long-term war for talent.