AI Isn’t Rejecting Your Job Application: How to Create More Confidence in Your Recruiting Process

Your job applicants are increasingly wondering if you’re using AI in recruiting and your hiring process — and they’re not wrong to wonder. A 2023 IBM survey discovered that 42% of companies were currently using AI screening “to improve recruiting and human resources”. 

Applicants aren’t excited about the prospect of AI being used in recruiting though, at least for major decisions. They oppose using AI to make final hiring decisions by a 71%-7% margin according to Pew Research. And 66% would not want to apply for a job that uses AI to make hiring decisions at all. 

These are strong feelings, to be sure, but they don’t mean you can never use AI resume screening or other AI tools in the hiring process. They reflect a concern that AI will be used to make major, final decisions and applicants won’t get a fair look. Those concerns can be alleviated with clear and empathetic communication. Here’s what HR professionals need to know. 

Where Is AI Used in the Recruiting Process?

If this question is on your mind, you’re likely already using AI in recruiting, at least in one step of your hiring process. AI resume screening to help sort through piles of resumes is a technology that’s existed well before AI became a hot topic. You may also use AI to schedule interviews, conduct and grade video interviews, communicate updates to candidates about their progress in the hiring process, and other places that enhance your candidate experience. 

While you and your recruiting team may be well aware of how you’re using AI as a tool, candidates likely are not. That lack of knowledge can drive fear. Fortunately, there’s a solution. 

Add in Transparency 

Transparency can help build trust with your candidates, and that’s critical — not just in this one application either. Employees, especially top talent, don’t want to work for a company that they don’t feel they can trust. 

By being upfront about how your company uses AI in the hiring process, you can build more trust and create a better candidate experience. 

For example, walking candidates through your application and hiring process, especially if you’re using technology like video interviewing that they’re perhaps less familiar with, communicate with them that your human recruiters are reviewing the responses and they’ll be in charge of all hiring decisions. 

A common area where many companies have been using AI for years in the recruiting process is AI resume screening. Here, applicants worry that their applications won’t even be seen, or that they’ll be discriminated against by the AI tools because they’re trained on a biased set of data. 

You can reassure candidates that you use ethical and certified bias-free AI in specific, targeted phases of the hiring process, and that again AI isn’t in charge of any hiring decisions. It’s simply giving you the data your recruiters need to make unbiased, experience-driven choices about who to hire. 

Improve Your Overall Candidate Experience 

Generally speaking, building trust and communicating clearly and often is a critical part of the entire candidate experience, not limited to AI concerns. Adding in more frequent and transparent communication touchpoints is good for everyone, and additional clarity on how your hiring process works and what exactly you’re looking for in the role will help everyone feel more informed and less in the dark. 

Of course, be sure that you’re using only ethical and bias-free AI in recruiting to eliminate the chance of missing out on great candidates. Communicating to your applicants that the tools you use, like Cangrade, are certified bias-free and built on ethical AI will help assuage their fears of being treated unfairly by an impersonal technology. Then you can confidently and proudly use AI in recruiting in its most effective form: providing and parsing the data that helps your recruiters make the best hiring choices, with all the information they need at hand.