TL;DR: AI is a great tool for handling documents, but it takes a deeper understanding of people—by people—to tell you who will actually succeed in a role.
These days I get this question so often: : “What’s your take on AI and hiring?” My answer is simple: AI is a genuinely useful tool. But no matter how sophisticated AI becomes, a deeper understanding of people is always required.
When To Use AI In Hiring
Roughly half of organizations now use AI somewhere in recruiting, with the largest share using it to write job descriptions. Let’s look at what AI in hiring actually means. Most of what people call “AI in hiring” is really just AI layered on top of an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). It’s worth separating those two things, because they do very different jobs.
An ATS is a database and workflow tool that tracks applicants as they move through your hiring stages, stores resumes, cover letters, interview notes and recruiting activity so everything stays organized. AI now sits on top of that system. Its main purpose is to help recruiters manage volume by:
- Parsing resumes into data
- Comparing them against a job description
- Ranking or scoring applicants
- Summarizing candidates
- Drafting outreach emails
- Flagging people who deserve a closer look
When a single job post can generate hundreds of applicants, having a tool that organizes and narrows the field is a great time saver. That’s where AI adds tremendous value. It helps organizations manage volume and improve recruiting efficiency.
When Not To Use AI In Hiring
AI is becoming increasingly trusted to answer any and all questions. Recently, I even used it to snap a picture of my outdoor faucet and ask what brand it was. It did that in seconds by searching through an enormous amount of information.
But hiring asks a different question: Who is most likely to succeed in this role?
AI can identify skills, experience, certifications, and keyword matches. What it can’t reliably answer are questions like:
- Will this person’s communication style work well with their manager?
- What motivates them to stay engaged over time?
- How do they respond to conflict or pressure?
- Are they energized by this work, or just qualified to do it?
- Will they thrive in this environment or gradually disengage?
My Perspective After 28 Years
One limitation is how AI interprets language. It often gives similar weight to words and phrases across resumes without fully understanding the business context behind them. For example, the phrase “consistently exceeded sales quotas” can describe very different accomplishments:
- A salesperson exceeding a $250,000 office supply quota
- A salesperson exceeding a $15 million enterprise software sales quota
- A salesperson who inherited a company’s largest accounts
- A salesperson who built a territory completely from scratch
- A salesperson who grew an existing book of business through renewals
On paper, those achievements can look similar. In reality, they’re very different. Evaluating people is far more complex than evaluating documents.
What This Means
None of this means AI should be avoided. It should be used strategically. AI is excellent for making recruiting more efficient. But identifying qualified candidates isn’t the same as understanding who is naturally wired to succeed in your organization, on your team, and under your management. That’s where talent assessments come in. Talent assessments, combined with the interpretation of an experienced Talent Analyst, add another layer of information that resumes, interviews, and AI simply can’t provide. While AI helps you understand the documents, talent assessments help you understand the person behind them.
Use AI for what it’s built to do:
- Managing recruiting volume
- Organizing workflow
- Identifying candidates for further review
Then combine that information with interviews, talent assessments, and human judgment to make better hiring decisions. Because understanding people still requires…people.
Want the Full Playbook?
At Hiring By Design, we equip leaders with the tools and frameworks to take the guesswork out of hiring so you can start hiring by design. Grab the full hiring playbook: Identifying and Engaging the Best Talent for Your Business
