The AI arms race in hiring is a huge mess for everyone

Companies started using automated screening earlier, but job applicants' adoption of the tools is now causing problems.

- Sarah O'Connor

You can almost hear the howls of frustration from human resources departments. Job seekers have discovered artificial intelligence (AI), and they're not afraid to use it. Employers have become snowed under by people using the new tech tools to churn out impersonal applications. Some applicants are using AI to bluff their way through online assessments, too. The Financial Times has reported that many large employers have a "zero-tolerance attitude towards the use of AI".

I'm sure that would be news to job applicants, who have had to put up with AI use by big firms for years. Indeed, job seekers would be well within their rights to say: But you started it.

Like many cautionary tales, this one begins with good intentions. In the 2010s, employers implemented new automated recruitment tools to whittle down candidates before the interviews because they wanted to make the process more efficient and more fair, with less risk of human bias.

"Asynchronous video interviews", for example, involve job applicants answering questions alone in front of their webcams with no human on the other side. Often, an AI system assesses their responses. But I have never met a job seeker who liked them.