How companies can use AI to tell their brand stories and attract talent

• Companies can use artificial intelligence to enhance brand storytelling and attract talent.
• AI analyzes brand sentiment, employee feedback, and social media to inform recruitment strategies.
• This article is part of "How AI is Changing Talent", a series exploring how AI is reshaping hiring, development, and retention.

Before applying for a position, job seekers often want to know factors beyond the role's responsibilities, like a company's values, employee experience, and growth opportunities. Like many areas of the workforce, artificial intelligence can help with this.

Brand image "sets the tone for how people view your company long before they ever interact with you," says Victoria Bracco, CEO of Encore Media Agency and cofounder of the Strategic Executive Alliance, a business consulting firm. It gives job candidates "clarity, confidence, and a sense of direction" about whether an organization is a good fit.

"AI can make it easier for companies to understand how they're being perceived and where they need to improve," she adds.

Human resources leaders also see value in AI for talent acquisition. For instance, some companies, including Unilever and L'Oreal, use AI chatbots to answer job applicants' questions and provide personalized responses based on their preferences and skills.

Beyond that, AI can help companies learn what job seekers think about them and use data-driven storytelling to attract talent, Bracco says. Here's how.

Streamlining brand sentiment analysis

Brand sentiment is composed of a range of inputs from a wide variety of sources, and AI can be a boon to consolidating, gathering, and analyzing that content.

For example, AI can mine social media, online reviews, and internal feedback to uncover what customers, the public, and current and former employees say about the company, known as a sentiment analysis, Bracco says.

AI tools can also track metrics, such as employee sentiment and retention rates, as well as social media engagement, adds Kaz Hassan, principal of community and insights at Unily, an AI intranet software.

"AI can identify patterns in what current employees say about your organization, revealing brand strengths to amplify and weaknesses to address," Hassan says. "This real-time intelligence allows companies to respond quickly to emerging issues before they become reputation problems."

Shaping a data-informed story

AI can synthesize several different data points, including brand sentiment, employee performance insights, and the skills the company currently needs. Using that information, AI can then help write job descriptions, career pages, and social media messaging that will resonate with the right candidates, Bracco says.

Organizations can also use employee data to showcase how they value their people, such as through internal upskilling, mobility rates, leadership styles, or employee check-ins, says Lana Peters, chief revenue and experience officer at Klaar, a performance management software.

AI can "shape an unbiased story," she says. That story should focus on "culture, purpose, and growth," Bracco adds.

Just make sure the story is authentic and honest; coming across as disingenuous is a turn-off, adds Polina Dimitrova, global head of people at Make, a visual development platform. "The truth is: your brand is how you hire, how you develop people, how leaders behave, and where your teams show up in the world."

Centering the human experience

By using AI to analyze employee performance, development, and engagement patterns, organizations can identify employees with compelling stories to showcase in recruitment efforts, Peters says.

This can illustrate "the employee experience you offer as a company," says Tom Moran, CEO of Addison Group, a staffing and recruiting firm.

"Real stories from real people within the organization discussing their experiences within the organization will resonate with job seekers," Hassan says.

Peters adds that, "Candidates aren't just choosing a job; they're choosing a story they want to be a part of," including companies whose values align with theirs and where they'll be recognized and appreciated.

However, AI isn't the "end-all, be-all," Dimitrova says. It should be used to optimize brands for attracting talent; it's not a substitute for a brand strategy, Bracco adds.

AI is there to "speed things up and provide insights, but the final message still needs and must have your voice, your judgment, and your direction," Bracco says. "Keep the human side front and center, because candidates can spot a forced or overly polished message a mile away."