Employers and job candidates are dueling with AI in the hiring process

The process of getting a job is looking more and more like a battle of the bots. Candidates are increasingly using artificial intelligence software to trawl for openings, tailor cover letters to specific jobs, and even apply for jobs all on its own. On the other side of the battlefield, companies are upping their use of AI to find candidates, communicate with them, and rank their applications. For many candidates and employers AI has become table stakes, and the situation can feel a bit like an arms race to try and keep up. 

The question has become whether each side offloading parts of the hiring process to bots, so that essentially computers are talking to computers, will create more signal than noise, and undermine the entire process of recruitment altogether. 

As early as 2020, more than 90% of employers were using software (including, but not limited to, AI) to initially rank or filter mid-and high-skills candidates, according to a survey of more than 2,000 executives. Now it’s more like 100%, according to one of the report’s authors, Harvard Business School management professor Joseph Fuller. Currently about a quarter of HR departments are using AI, primarily in talent acquisition, according to a new report by the Society of Human Resource Management, which expects that to rise to 50% next year.

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