Managing Applicant Surge with the help of AI
A significant milestone has been reached by the Gamuda Scholarship programme as they received a record-breaking total of over 4,500 applications this year, the highest ever recorded. Given the immense response, the task of organising, accessing and evaluating each applicant became increasingly pressing. In order to address this issue, Gamuda Scholarship acknowledges the need for incorporating smarter and more efficient technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), through Google Gemini to support critical stages of the selection process.
The scholarship selection process is designed to be thorough, ensuring only the most eligible candidates that meet the requirements for the programme are selected. It consists of five stages and even with the high number of applicants, typically only less than 5% are accepted each year, resulting in a very competitive selection process.
Prior to Google Gemini – The Challenges Endured
The selection process was riddled with an overwhelming amount of data from video assessments and manual candidate profiling. Over tens of thousands of datapoints to be reviewed could lead to inconsistencies and inefficiencies throughout the evaluation. Moreover, creating candidate summaries from the large volume of applications was time-consuming and varied widely across different stages, potentially leading to inaccuracy in transmission of data.
In light of this, the Gamuda scholarship team has already moved a lot of the process to the cloud, contributing to better collaboration. However, by developing a way to incorporate AI in critical steps of the scholarship application, we create more room and care to concentrate on what really matters: recognising the individuals who will influence the future.
Incorporating Google Gemini into the Selection Process
AI has played a transformative role, especially in the Video Assessment process. With our custom-built AI assistant powered by Google Gemini and Google Cloud, it analyses the video responses, providing scoring benchmarks and they are able to highlight key communication patterns, reducing subjectivity in evaluations. Siti Farah Najwa, Talent Management and Organisational Development Executive for Gamuda Scholarship, remarked,
“AI can bring structure and consistency to the assessment process, but it’s human judgment that remains essential for interpreting responses in context and making fair evaluations.”
With candidate profiles summarised more efficiently through AI, assessors can now devote more time on other meaningful parts of the evaluation process such as the in-person interviews and team exercises.
By consistently investing in upskilling and reskilling Gamudians in digital technologies, and strengthening these efforts through collaborations with leading technology partners like Google, we enable our teams to adopt and advance with human-centric innovations. This foundation empowers the Gamuda Scholarship programme to nurture future talent, ensuring our brightest stars join a workforce that is more robust, dynamic, and ready to shape the country and beyond.
