Catch the replay of my webinar on making AI more human here!

“Thirteen people applied with the exact same paragraph,” she said, flustered. We were on a catch-up call—my friend, a VP of HR, and I. They’ve been running into a problem with screening people. Maybe you’ve seen this one, too.

Her company is hiring a marketing person. The primary purpose of this role is to write unique campaigns for social media, blogs, and emails that will stand out in a very crowded healthcare market. As part of the application process, candidates are required to write one paragraph about why they’re interested in this role.

That’s where the frustration happened. After reviewing 50 applications, it was clear to my friend that over 25% of the applicant pool had used ChatGPT to write their submission. “How did you know?” I asked, curious after hearing all the talk about AI. “They all started with the same four sentences,” she said as she shook her head. “I had to disqualify them all.”

AI: Challenges and Opportunities

AI is starting a new hiring era and making assessment anything but easy. On the one hand, it has perks. In terms of equity, we’ve created tools that help people who do not understand what makes a good resume or corporate America level-up. They can create a better resume or get a cover letter in less than a minute. 

The catch? Easy access has created a sea of sameness. Anyone can access these free tools and develop application materials. In a poll of 1,000 job seekers from ResumeBuilder.com, 46% used AI to build resumes and cover letters.

That means about 50% of your hiring pool could give you the same (or similar) information. As a recruiter, how are you supposed to assess which is the best? Do you simply ignore the 50% that are generated by AI?

Adapting to AI-Powered Candidate Screening

While it’d be easy to disqualify a ton of people for using AI, that would put you at a disadvantage. Your organization wants to hire people who know how to use AI. At least, that’s what the press releases said.

It’s more than a little contradictory to tell candidates not to use AI while your talent team is trying to figure out how to use the technology to make hiring decisions. Instead of shutting down tech-savvy applicants, try improving your screening process.

• Write a better job posting. Stop using AI to write your job postings. They are building blocks for all the AI opportunities across candidate selection, compensation, performance reviews, and more. You can’t use AI to accurately select or automate all those other things if those postings aren’t aligned to the person you’re looking for instead of some generic internet template.
• Tell candidates it’s OK to use AI (or not). Be explicit. Look, people will use AI to apply, write cover letters, and generate resumes. Here’s a use case. Any candidate applying for a writing job cannot use an AI-generated prompt answer. In your communication, be clear why using AI will put them at a disadvantage.
• Create secondary screening. Create an application that confirms key elements of the job post. For example, if there’s a mandatory requirement that says, “must have worked at a Fortune 100 as a Sales leader where you held a quote of $1 million or more,” put a yes/no field and ask: “Did you work at a Fortune 100 as a Sales leader where you held a quote of $1 million or more?” Force them to validate key details before your phone screen. It could be as simple as that for pre-screening.
• Make your candidate experience more human. There are things AI is great at and things only a human can do. I’ll tell you which one is which in this webinar. Make sure to watch the replay here.

The use of AI will be on the rise for the next ten years on both sides of the hiring equation. Stay on top of the trends and communicating with candidates about how to use AI now before you’re buried in hundreds of identical resumes.

Read More:

• Use AI To Turn A Job Post Into Interview Questions
• 6+ Ways To Use ChatGPT For Recruiting
• Can ChatGPT Write A Good Job Post?

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