Everyone involved in your hiring process is using AI.
Whether it’s job seekers using AI to optimize their resumes, prep for interviews, and draft emails, or employers using AI to review resumes, write interview questions, and summarize candidate evaluations, AI in the hiring process is a good thing…when used correctly.
With all the noise, it’s easy to forget the most important part of the hiring process: the people.
To unpack how AI is reshaping hiring from both sides of the table, Adam Kazansky and I sat down with Tracy St.Dic from Zapier and Jennifer Sales from SelectSoftware Reviews .
Here are two things we know:
- Candidates are getting more polished, but also more generic.
- Employers are under pressure to hire faster, but not at the cost of authenticity.
So, how do we make space for real connection in an AI-assisted world?
Table of contents
AI is the New Baseline
Stop fighting it. Stop looking for ways to “sniff out” if someone is using AI.
Candidates are using it. Employers are using it.
And, they should.
As Tracy said, “AI is helping people show up stronger, but it’s our job to look beneath the polish.”
The use of AI by job seekers just presents a new challenge. We don’t need a major overcorrection; we need to focus on what matters.
Candidates’ resumes and application responses starting to look homogenous? Understandable.
So, you’re thought process should be, “What changes can you make to your hiring process to get more context?”
These are the types of questions you need to be asking yourself.
Focus on the Outcomes
“Save time.”
“Be more efficient.”
These are byproducts and secondary benefits of using AI in the hiring process, but are not a measure of efficacy.
What are you doing in the hiring process? Hiring people.
Focus on how AI can help you improve the quality of your team.
That’s what your executive team wants.
And, with that perspective, you’re able to prioritize real use cases for AI that add value in the hiring process rather than just AI-ing it for AI’s sake.
Authenticity is a Two-way Street
We want candidates to be authentic in their use of AI in the hiring process.
That starts with creating candidate-facing guidelines with examples on do’s and don’ts.
Katie Rakusin and the team from Merit America have a great example of this here.
But that’s just one piece to the puzzle.
If we expect this out of our candidates, we also need to be transparent in the way we use AI in the hiring process as the employer.
The reality is that most negative candidate sentiment about the hiring process comes from assumptions that are due to mismanaged expectations and a lack of clarity.
Tracy St.Dic and I dive deeper in this clip:
It’s About How You Show Up
At the end of the day, employers who balance the use of AI in the hiring process with a human-oriented candidate experience are going to be the winners.
If this matters to you as the employer, then you have to make it matter within the organization.
It requires you to be intentional. It requires you to show up.
There’s a difference between automation and augmentation.
You’re not hiring with AI, you’re using AI to hire.
Or, at least that’s what we’re doing here at Spark Hire, Inc.
