Could AI Destroy Recruiting Efforts? 5 Solutions

Artificial Intelligence makes it super easy for candidates to apply for jobs.

AI also helps them exaggerate truths, apply to 100s of jobs a day … and bog down your systems.

Candidates are overwhelming the hiring process these days. Could AI destroy recruiting efforts for HR?

It’s increasingly possible.

“Recruiters are dealing with three to six times more applications than before,” says Kuldeep Yadav, Senior Vice President of AI at SHI, citing data from the Financial Times. “And nearly 50% of candidates are using AI for job applications. Most of these applications are of poor quality and, in general, have a poor job fit.”

Can AI Destroy Recruiting?

Job candidates have tried since the first job was advertised in stone to stand out from the crowd. These days they’re going so far as to have a pizza delivery service hand over their résumés or add secret code words into their resumes.

But AI has completely changed the game.

“AI-led automation fueled by Large Learning Models (LLMs) have provided leverage to candidates to automatically apply to different jobs,” says Yadav. “AI tools are now …

• analyzing job descriptions
• filling in applications
• crafting personalized resumes, and
• uploading them automatically.” 

So as candidates do less, and AI does more, it stands to disrupt your recruiting efforts. The surge in applications can potentially:

• lead to higher time-to-hire
• higher cost of screening
• recruiter burnout, and
• frustrating credible candidates due to high wait time.

The bad news: HR and hiring managers can’t always detect when candidates use AI to build resumes and land interviews. But there are things you can do to work around and with AI to ensure you maintain an effective recruiting process.

Embrace Your Own AI Tactics in Recruiting

“Recruiters and employers need to actively adopt and embrace AI in their day-to-day work to stay ahead,” says Yadav.

Yep, your best approach to regaining the upper hand in recruiting is to counteract with some AI. (And some human touches that we’ll cover, too.) Things to consider:

• Screen more efficiently. With a high volume of applications, you might adopt AI-led screening platforms to cut through AI candidates. Those can ask relevant job-related follow-up questions and keep the conversation engaging. Then recruiters can analyze the conversations to screen applicants to be sure they’re good fits.
• Automate communication. You want to keep the human touch in recruiting. But in the early stages lean into AI-led communication tools to craft personalized emails or use AI bots to reach out and engage with the candidates. This helps recruiters focus on the core activities that require the human touch. 
• Use AI-resistant tests to screen applicants for cognitive abilities and personality traits before scheduling conversations. That way, you aren’t bringing in and spending time with every applicant who used AI to ensure their application and resume lined up with your requirements. 
• Avoid automated decision-making. Even though you want to use AI to help, remember it’s a tool, not rule. As Yadav says, “Most AI-written resumes do a good job passing through such resume screening/matching tools. In many cases, they end up penalizing genuine candidates.” So a human must make the final decision on whether a candidate moves forward.
• Maintain — or even increase — the human touch. “Human skills will be more important than ever, and recruiting and HR are no different,” says Yadav. Top skills to focus on: communication, relationship-building and adaptability. “In all of these skills, the human recruiter will continue to excel over technology/AI,” he says.

Address AI Use in Recruiting

In most cases, it’s not a question of “if” job candidates use AI in their search, it’s a matter of “how much.” More than half of applicants use AI to write their resume, and nearly a quarter use it to write their cover letters, according to a ResumeBuilder.com survey.

So you might as well address AI use in recruiting. In fact, as workplaces rely on AI more, you likely want to know how skilled they are at using AI. A few things to uncover:

1. Ask specific questions on the duties and responsibilities candidates mention in their resumes to check that they used AI to help “craft,” not “create,” the information.
2. Ask how they used AI tools to research you as an employer. This will help you see their proficiency with the tools.