Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an essential tool in talent management and personnel selection. In this context, InfoJobs, the leading job search platform in Spain, is committed to strategic, collaborative and applied research to continue innovating in this area. It currently has more than 11 million CVs from registered users and every year it helps more than a million people find a new job and more than 60,000 companies identify the profiles that best suit their needs. To achieve this, it has been using artificial intelligence in an ethical, transparent and responsible way for more than a decade, since the trust of its users is fundamental.
InfoJobs is part of Adevinta, a multinational company specializing in digital markets and owner of several classifieds platforms in Spain, such as Fotocasa, Habitaclia, Coches.net, Milanuncios and Motos.net . Although InfoJobs operates with its own identity within the talent selection sector, it benefits from the technological and strategic capacity of the Adevinta group.
In this interview, we talk to Marc Serra, director of the Machine Learning area at InfoJobs , to learn how the company uses industrial doctorates to boost its technological capacity and improve the experience of users and companies. Adevinta is currently promoting two industrial doctorate projects in collaboration with Pompeu Fabra University:
- Solving multilingual problems with natural language processing techniques : this project aims to develop multilingual models capable of processing and understanding texts in different languages, thus improving accuracy in the classification of job offers and resumes, as well as in the identification of relevant entities.
- Critical analysis of the protection of fundamental rights in high-risk artificial intelligence : this project examines the effectiveness of the European Artificial Intelligence Regulation and assesses whether current legal guarantees are sufficient to protect citizens' rights against automated decision-making systems.
In addition, the interview analyzes the importance of collaboration between business and university and its impact on the development of more efficient and ethical solutions in the employment sector.
"Industrial doctorates allow us to access specialized talent and transfer knowledge to improve our users' experience."
How does the industrial doctorate fit into your responsibilities?
Marc Serra: One of the biggest challenges in our sector is finding specialized talent, especially in certain subfields of artificial intelligence. The industrial doctorate project allows us to access this specialized talent from universities and, what's more, this talent doesn't come alone: it comes with expert knowledge from the university or leading research centers. This knowledge transfer allows us to solve business problems and, at the same time, have a positive impact on society.
What are the main benefits and impacts that industrial doctoral projects have brought to your company in terms of innovation, competitiveness and new product development?
Marc Serra: First of all, this access to talent coming out of universities, which in a field like artificial intelligence is a highly sought-after talent that is hard to find. Furthermore, it is a talent that does not arrive alone but comes accompanied by this specialized knowledge from universities or leading research centers. Then, when this knowledge arrives or when this transfer of knowledge from the academic world to the company occurs, it helps us solve problems that we find within the company and, in addition, we then bring to a practical application. This transfer of knowledge ends up resulting in a positive impact for society.
How do you position yourself?
Marc Serra: In our case, at InfoJobs we help many people find work and, at the same time, we make it easier for companies to find the right talent. In addition, it allows us to optimize internal processes, develop new functionalities and improve existing ones. This gives us an advantageous position within the sector and helps us face new challenges.
One of these challenges is the new European regulation on artificial intelligence. This regulation will have a major impact on how technology is applied in personnel selection processes. Thanks to this academic collaboration, we can anticipate changes and ensure that our systems comply with the new regulations without losing competitiveness. In addition, it allows us to continuously train our employees in such a dynamic environment as artificial intelligence. We are now seeing this, recently, with the emergence of many generative artificial intelligence models such as ChatGPT.
"One of the biggest challenges in our industry is finding specialized talent, especially in certain subfields of artificial intelligence."
Why opt for an industrial doctorate instead of a shorter research project?
Marc Serra : It depends on the type of project. If it is a shorter research project, a limited-duration collaboration may make sense. However, in strategic projects that require time and specialized knowledge, the industrial doctorate is the best option. These projects fit perfectly within the innovation framework that the industrial doctorate program promotes.
Can you give us an example of how you contribute to responding to current and future challenges facing society?
Marc Serra: Of course. At InfoJobs we work with a lot of data in text format, both from CVs and job offers. We use machine learning to interpret this information and establish relationships between data. One of the challenges was that we operate in several countries and the data is in different languages. Until now, we had to replicate the work for each language, training separate models for Spanish and Italian, with the cost and time that this entails.
Thanks to one of the industrial doctorates, we have developed multilingual models capable of interpreting data in several languages within the same system. This has optimized costs and improved performance, making it possible for the model to better understand languages less represented on our platform, such as Catalan.
The second example is related to the new European regulation on artificial intelligence, which considers personnel selection systems as high-risk. We have always made responsible use of AI, but this regulation obliges us to comply with new requirements. Another industrial doctorate helps us understand how we can adapt to these changes and what the practical impacts will be on our systems. This multidisciplinary project has led us, for example, to obtain an algorithmic transfer certificate. A project like this is part of this line that we are following and we hope that this will help us. First, to be prepared for the entry into force of this new regulation and second, that this will reinforce the trust that our users have in the services we offer them.
"Industrial doctorates allow us to anticipate changes and ensure that our systems comply with new regulations without losing competitiveness."
What benefits does collaboration between the company and the university bring to you?
Marc Serra: At the business level, it allows us to access talent and specialized knowledge, this knowledge transfer at the company level. It also brings us economic savings, improves processes and develops innovations that directly impact our users. At the academic level, researchers can apply their knowledge to real problems with a tangible impact on society. This type of collaboration opens the door to new projects, such as our participation in FINDHR, a European project led by Pompeu Fabra University to prevent discrimination in personnel selection algorithms.
Do you want to add something?
Marc Serra: I would encourage companies to identify strategic projects in which they can invest time and resources, since this type of collaboration fits perfectly into an innovation environment such as that of industrial doctorates.
