This article researches into the integration and potential impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recruitment processes, using organizational theories to interpret perceptions and insights from practitioners in the field of Human Resource Management. The methodology centers on an empirical study incorporating 28 semi-structured interviews, conducted in a broad variety of sectors with practitioners employed in recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) firms and HR departments of large companies. An inductive framework guides the research, utilizing the Gioia methodology to develop concepts, themes, and categories that reveal the complex dynamics inherent in recruitment. Two main categories emerge: AI enablers – trends and features of recruitment processes that constitute fertile ground for AI to improve them – and AI barriers to its adoption. Informed by a socio-technical lens, this study contributes to theory by identifying four main socio-technical managerial tensions resulting from contradictions between enabling factors and barriers: information-processing gaps, mass personalization, delegation ethics, and human-AI complementarity. An agenda with open questions for future research is provided to researchers, and practical implications and directions are suggested to HR managers.
