Richemont, the luxury company behind well-known brands like Cartier, IWC, and Van Cleef & Arpels, is the latest company turning to AI for recruitment.
The Swiss company, founded in 1988, employs 40,000 people across its business—and now it will use AI software to increase its headcount.
Richemont is partnering with Veritone, a California-based company that specializes in offering AI solutions for companies—including for hiring. The luxury giant aims to streamline its recruitment process to cater to its many brands.
With the new plan, Richemont will be able to reach candidates across over 2,000 job boards worldwide and manage a high volume of job applicants in less time.
When a company in a gate-kept industry like high-end fashion turns to automation, “it tells you that technology and AI implementation is now becoming ubiquitous,” Veritone CEO Ryan Steelberg told Fortune.
AI has revolutionized entire industries over the years, and recruitment is one of the areas in which it’s been widely adopted. While companies in the tech industry have long been using AI tools in hiring, the fashion industry has been warming up to it.
“Now that there are thousands and thousands of job boards out there, it became very difficult and unruly for recruiters to manage the sheer volume of distribution,” Steelberg said, adding that automation has helped ease that process.
“What we’re seeing now is companies will go through periods of time where they don’t need any hiring, or they need very specific, laser-focused, specialty-based hiring in regions … for premium brands, and I’ll say historically not necessarily known as technology brands, that are now embracing these tools,” he said.
Luxury fashion meets AI
LVMH, the biggest luxury company in the world, has set up an “AI factory” to help deploy the tech in various ways, such as improving customer experience and offering personalized recommendations.
AI has been especially helpful in expediting tasks such as writing job listings and screening applicants to match their experience to relevant brands. The tech can also help companies refine job descriptions to attract the best talent.
As AI becomes the norm in recruiting, HR experts warn that setting standards and ensuring its responsible use will be instrumental in a successful hiring process.
Richemont is one of the biggest names in luxury, with a market cap of about $85 billion. However, its earnings have cratered recently as it navigates an industrywide decline in demand. Sales in the three months to June remained flat, falling below analyst expectations.
On the bright side, the company’s shares and those of other luxury peers have risen since last week amid a slew of stimulus measures announced in China that could galvanize consumer spending and spark an appetite for luxury goods.
