AI Recruiters Are Here. Are You Ready For Them?

If the "Recruiters are the absolute worst!" posts and videos I see daily are any indication, human recruiters are often sorely misunderstood. Few people truly grasp the intricate dance that goes on behind the scenes, or how recruiters often have far less control over the moving pieces than most assume. I liken being a recruiter to having to put on inline skates and navigate a carpet strewn with Lego pieces while herding cats that have gotten into a jar of catnip.

Consequently, given the current frustrating job market conditions, recruiters have, perhaps unfairly, become the main villain of the average person’s job search saga.

The Rise of the Machine Matchmakers

So, it seems the tech universe has heard these complaints and offered a "solution": AI Recruiters!

When you can't stand recruiters so the universe gives you an AI version instead.

Now that we’re firmly entrenched in the Age of AI, it’s hardly surprising that the Talent Acquisition industry has embraced and adapted AI in ways other industries haven’t quite yet. According to a recent study by Insight Global, a staggering 99% of talent acquisition teams have already adopted AI and automation to streamline their hiring processes.

Job seekers are increasingly finding themselves interacting with AI Recruiters. To clarify, when I say AI Recruiters, I’m not just referring to the disembodied voices and avatars conducting interviews. This encompasses a whole suite of tools and platforms being deployed at every phase of the hiring process, from initial sourcing and screening all the way to job offers.

The Wildest AI Encounters (So Far!)

All that said, some of the most awkward, disconcerting, and yes, downright hilarious encounters I've witnessed have been with AI Recruiters conducting interviews. I saw one video where the AI immediately dove into, "Let's circle back. Tell me about a time when, when, when, when..." repeating itself endlessly. Then, without warning, it abruptly skipped to thanking the interviewee, declaring it had "a lot of information" and "It was really nice to meet you, and we will be sending you a follow-up email." The bewildered job applicant, still reeling, could only stammer, "But I didn't get to answer a question..."

Another video featured an AI that glitched repeatedly on a phrase that sounded like "vertical bar Pilates." What made it even funnier was that the AI voice had that distinct TikTok influencer "frrrryyyyyyyy." 🤣

However, I'm not going to point and laugh too hard at these AI foibles, because it won’t take long for AI Recruiters to get better at what they do. After all, AI's computational power is rapidly increasing, doubling roughly every six months rather than every two years (if we go by the traditional Moore's Law). Some AI models have even doubled their "time horizon" (the length of tasks they can reliably complete) roughly every three months.

We're Just Getting Started

All that is pretty mind-blowing, considering we’re still very much in the “Weak AI” stage, also known as Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI). For those who need a clearer picture, we’re still in the first stage. We haven’t quite reached the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) or Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) stages yet. Talk about taking Uncanny Valley-ness to the highest level! My guess is, down the road, we’re going to be contending with humanoid robot recruiters at our onsite interviews.

Don't get me wrong, I genuinely like AI. And while I do have my trepidations—not because of AI itself, but primarily because a certain segment of the population has shown a predilection for profit and inordinate greed with nary a thought for the common good—I see AI in its current form as a powerful productivity tool. It still crucially needs humans with creativity, imagination, critical thinking, and the ability to solve complex problems in unpredictable environments to wield it effectively. I’ve also been in the talent acquisition industry long enough to have witnessed the evolution from print to web, then digital, mobile, cloud, and now AI. Many of today’s well-paying jobs didn't even exist just 20 years ago. With AI being as disruptive as it is innovative, while it will likely replace two-thirds of all current occupations, it will also undeniably create several entirely new ones.

If you learn how to adapt AI so that it becomes part of your toolkit, regardless of your current job, it can be incredibly powerful. When used correctly and ethically, AI can undeniably make the hiring process more efficient.

The Great AI Wars: Offense and Defense

The problem is that, much like the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that job seekers often loathe and mistakenly blame for not getting past the screening stage, tech tools built to improve the experience often wind up being used and abused. By both sides, mind you.

Frustrated, desperate job seekers resort to using AI tools to "hack" every part of the process – from revising resumes and writing cover letters to deploying apply-bots that blast out thousands of resumes without even determining if there's a good fit, to apps that feed answers during interviews. In response, the hiring side develops its own arsenal of tools – those that detect AI-generated content in various application materials and assessments, to apps that detect behavioral cues like fixed gazes or typing during online interviews – all to counteract every single one of these tactics. And thus, the vicious cycle continues.

It's the Age of the Great AI Wars, where technology is deployed in an attempt to make things in hiring as seamless as possible. But because the candidate side is also creating tech to get around all this, each side is lobbing AI grenades at the other, and you know how that ends.

I rarely go a day without seeing someone post, "We need to stop using AI before it destroys us!" While I understand the fear, there is simply no turning back. We cannot put the AI genie back in the bottle – especially not when Big Tech is practically salivating over the gazillions they know they'll reap from being at the forefront of the AI race. This drive is so strong that one proposed "Big Beautiful Bill" even includes a provision that would prevent states from enforcing AI regulations for a period of 10 years.

As much as I’d like to expound on the good, the bad, and the ugly of the use of AI Recruiters, that in itself merits its own series of articles. (The ethics of AI merits its own lengthy article, so we’ll save that for another day. Considering how much I've already written at this point. I'm surprised you haven't fallen asleep.)

For this particular piece, however, I’d rather focus on how you can survive and thrive as a job seeker in the AI Era.

Your AI-Era Job Search Survival Guide

For starters…

• Optimize Smartly: Ditch the Hacks! Use your common sense and for the love of all that is good, stop trying to hack the system. You’ll either look utterly silly or disingenuous, or both. (Yes, I’m calling out all of you who are using apply-bots that clog the system for yourself and everyone else! And I’m also calling out those of you who think putting the job description in tiny white font on the resume in the hopes of getting past the ATS is going to work. It doesn’t. It hasn’t worked for the last several years. For some reason, this urban resume myth keeps popping up every few months like a cold sore, and a whole new generation of gullible job seekers falls for it, hook, line, and sinker. Stop it already with this nonsense!)

• Practice for AI: Get Chatbot Ready! Get comfortable with chatbots and video interviews. They’re here to stay. Think in bullet points and concise answers – AI loves structured information, so use the STAR framework. That said, please don’t use AI to cheat in interviews. Recruiters weren’t born yesterday. They interview a lot of people and develop a heightened BS radar in the process, so it’s easy to catch those using ChatGPT during interviews.

• Network, Network, Network: The Human Advantage Authentic human connection will always win out, especially when we’re all awash in AI pig slop. There, I said it, and it’s true. AI Pig Slop. Nothing, and I mean, absolutely nothing, will defeat referrals and personal connections. Period.

• Know Your Power: Question and Understand Understand your rights regarding data analysis and be aware of potential AI bias. Don't be afraid to question things if something feels off.

If there’s one thing you take away from this piece, it is how important it is to separate yourself from the noise and rubble by leaning into the things that make you uniquely human and authentic.

On a final note, I'm here to say that if and when we perfect the seamless integration of AI and human recruiting teams, it will make things less arduous for everyone concerned. Hopefully. One can always dream, no?

What are your thoughts on AI in the hiring process? I’d love to hear about your experiences—good and bad. I'm particularly interested as well in whether, if given the choice between human and AI, which you would prefer.

Dezzi

P.S. Think of this article as a little taste of the candid conversations we have in my Job Search Bootcamp! I share the tools (yes, AI included!) and techniques I've personally honed through my own career pivots in sales, marketing, public relations, and recruiting, all to help early-career professionals, career pivoters, and workforce re-entrants. Ready to land the right job faster, with less frustration and zero guesswork? Head over to thejobsearchbootcamp.com!

P.P.S. Here are other articles I've written that are related to this one that you may find insightful:

10 Things You May Not Know About Recruiters But Should https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dezziraemarshall_jobsearch-jobsearchtips-careeradvice-activity-7286161142962438144-13fH?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAEfOd0B_4lWHopmq3XOwsQp9UB7KW_zZn4

The Job Search Myth That Needs To Go Away Already https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dezziraemarshall_jobsearch-jobsearchtips-careercoach-activity-7194000030268022785-4ZMq?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAEfOd0B_4lWHopmq3XOwsQp9UB7KW_zZn4