Recently Apple launched it’s newest venture into the Smart Phone market with the release of the iPhone 4s which incorporated a Quasi AI named Siri.  Now before you all jump up and say that Siri is Sh*irt and doesn’t work….I will tell you right now that I agree there are certainly limitations to the technology and Apple themselves has said that Siri has a long way to go and is still in Beta.  But here is why I’m excited about the technology.

Siri quite basically is a natural language search AI….now you are wondering what the heck that means.  While basically he/she continues to learn based on your responses in a Semantic way…so when you tell it that someone in your contacts is your Wife/Husband Siri will remember that information and store it for use later.  Not only will it do that, it will start to draw other associations across multiple application platforms.  That allows you to basically give the system commands in your own language so that over time Siri’s large server farms will learn more and more…and will develop extremely strong Semantic associations….basically one giant natural language database in the clouds.

So imagine….if this technology continues to learn and is successful in building a total semantic brain (understanding that language context is currently beyond Siri’s scope, but not impossible) how useful it could potentially be to the Recruitment function.  

First of all all Semantic apps are limited by their scope of learning, ie. how large a brain it has to think with.  With the Siri app that brain power is limited to the scope of the “cloud” or entire internet.  As well, it’s ability to learn and it’s rate of learning is limited to the size of the user base…and let me tell you that’s impressive…it’s currently selling at a rate of 1m units per day, which means that the user base or learning is now well over 4million users and growing.

So now I want you to imagine the applications from a Job Posting/Social/ATS perspective:

Recruiter: Hi Jim thanks for coming by for an intake, I understand we’re looking for a new Java Developer for your team.

Hiring Manager: That’s right and we need to move fast because we’re behind in our project deadlines

Recruiter: Great, mind if I bring our AI in on this meeting.

Hiring Manager: Nope that would be great

Recruiter: Siri…turn on and record please

Siri: Certainly would you like me to ask questions?

Recruiter: Yes please Siri if you think I’m missing anything

Recruiter: So why don’t you tell us what your looking for?

Hiring Manager: Well, mainly I need someone strong on the the front end.

Recruiter: OK so Javascript then.

Hiring Manager: That would be great…yes for sure.

Recruiter: OK I’ve got that down

Siri: If I may interupt, what version of Javascript is required for this role?

Hiring Manager: The latest

Siri: Would that be 1.8.5?

Hiring Manager: That’s correct.

Recruiter: How does that look Siri?

Siri: I currently have 3000 candidates meeting that criteria in my database, more data is required at this point.

You can fill in the blanks from here, but imagine a world in the not to distant future where your interface with the ATS is run through a voice interface with a natural language processor and AI/Semantic technology on the back end.  Now without hearing all the normal brohaha about the death of recruiters (let’s all agree that our jobs aren’t going away soon)….what do you guys think?  Is this all just a flight of Sci-Fi fantasy or is this one of the changes faces of the future of HR/Recruitment Tech.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.  Maybe it’s just a bit too Radical.