Is AI the New Face of Recruitment?

A job search in the past few years has changed from being a conversation between a candidate and an employer; artificial intelligence (AI) now stands in the middle, rewriting the rules. But who invited AI to the party in the first place?

AI is known as a time-saver that helps with online searches, answers questions, and even writes emails for you. People use it in all facets of life, including in job hunting. A job-seeker may ask AI to fine-tune their resume, while a hiring manager uses it to write job descriptions, screen resumes that are submitted and even conduct chatbot interviews. The irony of AI reviewing resumes written by AI is palpable. And some people believe its usage is unethical or at least questionable.

Approximately 65 percent of job candidates now use AI in the application process for writing resumes and cover letters or enhancing their headshot, according to a 2025 Market Trend Report from recruitment firm Career Group Companies. And according to data from the job-seeker resource site Resume Genius, 48 percent of hiring managers said they use AI to review resumes and applications.

“It’s hard to do a quality review of all candidates when technology brings a title wave of data that is impossible to manage,” said SIOP Fellow Dr. Charles Handler, president and founder of Rocket-Hire. “The current paradigm is set up to yield an overwhelming amount of information from unknown entities trying to get through.”

While a streamlined process utilizing AI can save time for overwhelmed hiring managers, is AI the right tool for narrowing the field of candidates in an equitable fashion?

“AI can very much be biased,” said SIOP Member Dr. Juliette Nelson. “It depends on how the metrics are built but they often don’t consider the impact on people who don’t fit the standard. I-O practitioners need to play a significant role in forming AI policy in order to consider the ethical impacts.”

An AI screening tool may inadvertently or intentionally exclude candidates or may misinterpret certain text, thereby removing the job-seeker from proceeding to the next phase of the hiring process.

Relying on AI to craft a resume poses some risks as well; for example, skills may be worded incorrectly or embellished, leading to unfit job matches. “Vendors scrape resumes, tag candidates with generic terms, and infer ‘skills’ from job titles or past experience — with no organizing structure, objective definitions or clarity on whether those skills are current, relevant, or tied to actual performance,” Dr. Handler explained.

While the job-seekers need to check their AI-enhanced resume closely for inaccuracies, employers need to examine their use of AI in hiring practices, to what extent it will be used and implement best practices into policies. Dr. Handler recommended “cautious innovation,” such as testing AI in lower-risk situations as a start.

“At the heart of using AI for hiring lies the challenge of achieving accuracy and fairness at scale,” Dr. Handler said. “AI can be a dance partner but it doesn’t have to lead.”