Google LLC announced today that its new Cloud Job Discovery tool has entered beta testing, allowing talent companies to use Google’s extensive artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to connect employers with the best candidates for their open jobs.

Originally known as the Cloud Jobs API when it was announced in May, Cloud Job Discovery is part of Google’s larger Google for Jobs initiative, which has the general aim to help people find jobs more easily.

According to Google, Cloud Job Discovery has already been in use as a pilot program by several companies, including career site provide Jibe and recruiting service Hays, with more than 3,000 deployments on company websites and elsewhere. As part of the beta, Google said it’s expanding the tool’s scope beyond job boards and career site providers to staffing agencies and applicant tracking systems or ATS. The company also said it’s adding support for job searches in more than 100 languages.

“As the first ATS provider included in this beta program, we believe that Google’s powerful search and machine learning capabilities can be incredibly impactful by weaving them more deeply into the world of recruiting,” said Al Smith, vice president of technology at recruitment software company iCIMS Inc., which is one of the first companies to participate in the new beta test. “Candidate experience is so critical to the success of every business, including our own, so we look forward to bringing this advanced functionality to our customers and introducing more powerful, next-generation job-searching tools to benefit both job seekers and employers.”

Google has positioned itself as one of the leading tech companies in the rapidly growing AI industry, but it is not the only business looking to apply machine learning to job matching. In August, Silicon Valley startup Leap.ai raised a $2.4 million seed round to develop its own AI-powered job search platform, which offers a free service for job seekers while charging employers a fee whenever a candidate is placed, much like a traditional headhunter.

Meanwhile, IBM Corp. has taken a slightly different approach to job hunting with Project Esaki, an IBM Watson project that aims to act as more of a career advisor than a recruiter, using AI to help people figure out what career would be right for them.

Photo: Google