AI broke hiring. Can generative AI fix it?

Tech hiring has become a bot war.

On one side, the ranks of unemployed workers keep growing from waves of tech layoffs. Promotion rates have slowed, creating a deficit of new jobs for recent grads. Meanwhile, job seekers are empowered with new generative AI tools to help automate the process of writing cover letters and applying to jobs.

That explains how 3,000 people ended up applying to a single open data science vacancy at a healthtech company this year. Top candidates for that role were given a difficult task to complete as part of the assessment. Few passed, but amongst those who did, the recruiter in charge of the role could tell that some used AI to solve the task because of the wording they used or because they outright admitted to using AI.

As GenAI makes it easier to automate applying to jobs, recruiters are being flooded with applications; according to Greenhouse, applications in January 2024 were up 71% from the previous year. In response, recruiters are turning to AI to parse through résumés.

In other words, people are using AI to write job applications that are then vetted by AI, turning hiring into a dystopian cycle of bots trying to trick bots. This predicament amplifies the weaknesses in the systems that AI is designed to improve. And it only seems to be getting worse.

WHY THE HIRING MODEL IS BROKEN

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