How Do People Feel About AI In Hiring?
The sentiment around AI in hiring is complex and often contradictory.
A recent Pew Research study has been particularly enlightening, revealing that when it comes to specific hiring practices, people are decidedly wary of AI.
A striking 71% of Americans oppose using AI for making final hiring decisions, while 41% oppose even using it to review job applications.
This hesitation is reflected in candidate behavior, too with 66% of job seekers saying they wouldn’t want to apply for a job where AI is used in hiring decisions.
Some worry about being reduced to keywords, with one applicant concerned: “What if I don’t have the ‘right’ keywords on my application? Would I be dismissed outright?”
On the other hand, others decidedly see many benefits of AI in hiring, including reducing hiring bias. One job seeker in their 70s noted, “I am an older worker, and I have encountered prejudice from potential employers. I do think AI would be more objective.”
Despite these hesitations, in being tasked to “do more with less” HR professionals are increasingly adopting AI tools, with 72% now using AI in their hiring processes — up from 58% in 2024. Their trust in AI recommendations has grown from 37% to 51% in just one year, with 63% reporting greater productivity through AI-driven automation.
Hiring managers are also keen to highlight AI’s potential to reduce turnover and improve team dynamics. They’re particularly interested in behavioral assessments, such as Spark Hire’s Predictive Talent Assessment, that evaluate not just technical skills but behavioral tendencies and cultural fit, which traditional interviews might miss.
A couple of big sticking points for these same professionals, however, are transparency and the human je-ne-se-quoi.
Addressing AI Transparency Concerns
A major sticking point across all stakeholders is the “black box” nature of many AI hiring tools and features. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to understand how decisions are made or to identify potential biases.
The data suggests people want AI as an assistant, not a decision-maker — helping humans work more efficiently while preserving the irreplaceable human judgment that understands nuance, potential, and cultural fit.
Balancing Efficiency with the Human Touch
The tension between AI efficiency and maintaining the human element in hiring represents perhaps the greatest challenge for HR teams today.
While AI excels at data analysis, pattern recognition, and automating repetitive tasks, it lacks the intuitive understanding and emotional intelligence that human recruiters bring to the table.
HR teams are increasingly finding themselves flooded with AI-generated applications, creating a new challenge that requires both technological solutions and human discernment. This has led to greater reliance on things like validated skill assessments, with 41% of HR professionals now incorporating these tools into their hiring process.
The most successful organizations aren’t choosing between AI and human recruiters — they’re finding ways to leverage both.
AI streamlines tasks like resume screening, candidate matching, and initial outreach, while human recruiters provide essential judgment, relationship-building, and strategic decision-making; a hybrid approach that allows companies to enhance efficiency without sacrificing the personalized touch that candidates value.
How AI Is Changing The Candidate Screening Process
If we’re honest with ourselves, the screening process hasn’t been ideal for a while. Many HR teams don’t have (great) or anywhere near simple answers for managing high-volume applications or reducing their time-to-hire, especially in the ‘easy-apply’ era.
AI solutions are set to help change that.
Ways HR Teams Are Using AI in Screening
The thing is, it’s easy to get stuck in our ways and hard to do anything about it. But AI is forcing our hands (and not in a bad way).
HR teams can use AI to improve their screening approaches in many unique ways. Let’s take a look at a few.
Review Resumes: Remember spending hours scanning resumes for keywords? AI tools now do this in seconds, evaluating qualifications and ranking candidates based on your pre-defined job requirements. This frees you up for the human side of hiring.
Write Job Descriptions: We’ve all struggled with writing job descriptions that actually attract the right people. AI helps craft engaging, inclusive descriptions that speak to qualified candidates. No more staring at a blank page or recycling that 5-year-old template!
Prefer to write your job descriptions from scratch? Check out our step-by-step guide to crafting compelling job descriptions.
Generate Strong “Knock-out” Questions: Quickly whip-up pre-screening questions that weed out unqualified candidates earlier with AI. Generate these based on the role, ensuring only relevant applications make it to your inbox or in front of your busy hiring managers.
Create Interview Questions: Coming up with fresh, relevant interview questions for each role can be exhausting. AI suggests personalized question sets that actually assess the skills you need, not just the standard “Where do you see yourself in five years?”.
Increase Personalized Candidate Communication: Let’s face it – keeping candidates engaged throughout the process is tough. AI can draft those follow-up emails and updates for you, maintaining the human touch without requiring you to write the same message 50 times.
Standardizes Candidate Evaluations: Subjective hiring decisions are risky business. AI-suggested scorecards ensure you’re evaluating everyone against the same criteria, reducing those “gut feeling” hires that often don’t work out.
AI tools can also do most of the administrative heavy lifting, like transcribing video interviews to make them searchable and accessible.
Perhaps the coolest development? AI that predicts which candidates will succeed in your company. These tools analyze everything from communication style to problem-solving approaches, giving you insights that traditional interviews might miss.
The best AI screening tools don’t just match keywords – they understand candidates’ capabilities based on the information you provide to it. For small HR teams drowning in applications, these solutions can make a big difference.
Quality AI tools offer that rare win-win: candidates can better showcase their talents, and you can spot the right people faster.
The Impact Of These AI-Assisted Hiring Tools
So, what happens when you actually implement these AI tools? As with anything, there are some positives and negatives.
The Positives of AI in Hiring
On the positive side, AI-assisted hiring tools are leveling the playing field for smaller HR teams. You don’t need an army of recruiters to process hundreds of applications anymore. A lean team with the right AI tools can compete with organizations twice their size, reviewing more candidates in less time while maintaining quality standards.
Results from various company experiments seem to be promising. For example, Unilever reduced its time-to-hire by 75% by using AI in recruitment.
Candidates are feeling the benefits as well. The application process becomes less of a black hole, with faster responses and more relevant opportunities. AI-powered matching means candidates are more likely to see positions that actually fit their skills, rather than wasting time on mismatched applications.
The Negatives of AI in Hiring
Unfortunately, it’s not all smooth sailing. AI tools come with their own set of challenges that require careful navigation.
Bias remains a significant concern. If your AI is trained on historically biased hiring data, it may perpetuate or even amplify those biases. This is why many leading AI providers now offer “bias detection” features that flag potentially problematic patterns in your hiring process – which is something we highly recommend you inquire about as you consider your AI options.
Accuracy issues can also arise, particularly with less sophisticated tools that rely heavily on keyword matching rather than understanding, science and research-based context. Without proper configuration, you might miss qualified candidates whose resumes don’t contain the exact terminology your AI is scanning for.
Perhaps the biggest pitfall is implementing AI without a strategic approach. Adding AI to a broken hiring process just means you’ll make the same mistakes faster. The most successful organizations first spend a considerable amount of time clarifying their hiring goals and structuring their processes.
It’s only then that you should even consider thoughtfully integrating AI tools where they can add the most value.
Important AI Solution Assessment Criteria
Not every AI tool is going to be right for you. The market is flooded with options, each promising to “revolutionize” your hiring process.
Here are some important considerations to help you separate the truly valuable solutions from the shiny objects.
Bias Detection and Mitigation
Look for AI solutions that actively address potential bias rather than ignoring it. Strong tools will regularly audit their algorithms, allow customization to ensure diverse candidate pools, and provide transparency about their bias reduction efforts.
The best solutions don’t just claim to be “bias-free” (nothing is), but instead show you how they’re working to detect and minimize bias in real time.
Ethical Framework
AI ethics isn’t just a buzzword — it’s essential for responsible hiring. Evaluate whether the AI solution has clear ethical guidelines, provides documentation about decision-making processes, and allows human oversight. Ask vendors tough questions about their ethical approach. If they can’t clearly articulate their ethical framework, that’s a red flag.
Compliance Considerations
AI hiring tools must comply with employment laws and regulations, which vary by location. Ensure your solution meets EEOC guidelines, provides regular updates as compliance requirements change, and offers documentation to help you demonstrate compliance if needed. Remember that you’re ultimately responsible for compliance, even if you’re using a third-party tool.
Data Privacy and Security
With increasing privacy regulations worldwide, data protection is non-negotiable. Evaluate how candidate data is stored and protected, whether the solution complies with relevant privacy laws, and the vendor’s data breach history. Look for SOC 2 compliance and regular security audits as baseline requirements.
Explainable and Transparent
Black-box AI solutions are increasingly problematic in hiring. Prioritize tools that clearly explain how they reach recommendations, allow you to understand results, and provide visibility into the factors influencing outcomes. If you can’t explain to a candidate how a decision was made, the tool may create more problems than it solves.
Integration Capabilities
Even the best AI solution will fail if it doesn’t work with your existing systems. Consider native integrations with your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or HRIS, API availability for custom integrations, and the vendor’s track record with similar implementations.
Scalability
Your hiring needs will change over time. Choose a solution that can handle both your current volume and potential growth, offers flexible pricing models, and has a clear product roadmap for future enhancements. The last thing you want is to implement a solution that you outgrow in six months.
Overall Experience
Finally, consider the experience of both your team and candidates.
- Is the interface intuitive?
- Does it reduce administrative burden rather than adding to it?
- How does it present a positive and strong employer brand to candidates?
The best AI solution is one that your team will actually use, and that creates a positive impression with candidates.
By carefully evaluating AI solutions against these criteria, you’ll be better positioned to choose tools that enhance your hiring process rather than simply adding another layer of overly complex or useless HR technology.
Want to take this information with you? Click here to download the checklist to refer back to each and every time you evaluate AI-powered solutions or vendors.
Will AI Replace HR Teams?
No, AI won’t replace HR teams – the evidence actually points in the opposite direction.
According to a recent SHRM report, rather than replacing HR jobs, AI puts HR teams in a better position to improve their functions by unburdening them from the (often constricting) administrative lift of the role.
The sentiment among HR leaders is focused more on hope than worry. By having AI take on data-driven tasks, HR professionals can focus on interpersonal relations and the bigger picture that drives efficiency and productivity.
Even with all the advancements in AI technology, Gartner found that 63% of HR leaders expect generative AI to eliminate redundant activities — not their jobs. This distinction is crucial.
AI is taking over the tasks nobody wants to do, like sifting through hundreds of identical-looking resumes or manually scheduling endless multi-interview rounds.
Instead of replacement, we’re seeing an evolution of HR and talent acquisition roles. As AI handles more administrative work, HR professionals are shifting toward more strategic responsibilities like:
- Using predictive analytics to identify employees at risk of leaving and taking proactive employee retention measures
- Conducting more precise workforce planning by identifying skill gaps before they become problematic
- Creating more personalized employee and candidate experiences throughout the talent lifecycle
New Skills HR Professionals Need
To thrive alongside AI, HR professionals will need to develop new capabilities over the next few years.
Technical understanding of AI tools is becoming essential. You don’t necessarily need to become an engineer, but understanding how AI works and its applications in recruiting will be crucial for making informed hiring decisions.
Data literacy is increasingly important as AI-driven HR relies heavily on data. Being comfortable with interpreting, analyzing, and using data to make decisions will separate strategic HR professionals from administrative ones.
Ethical oversight is perhaps the most critical skill. As we’ve seen with Amazon’s failed AI recruiting tool that penalized resumes containing the word “women’s,” human judgment remains essential to ensure AI systems don’t perpetuate or amplify bias.
How Spark Hire Thinks About AI in Hiring
At Spark Hire, we believe AI should empower hiring team members by solving real problems in ways that benefit and amplify their capabilities without replacing the absolutely critical human component.
Driven by guiding principles of fairness, customer-centrism, security and data privacy, and candidate empowerment, we build AI-assisted recruiting tools that can help with tasks such as reviewing and ranking candidates based on job-specific requirements or drafting email templates and structured scorecards with clear, pre-set evaluation criteria.
This can enhance what you do, but it can’t do it for you.
We take a “no black-box” approach to AI in hiring. Recruiters and hiring teams can always identify why a candidate was evaluated a certain way and how they match up to job requirements.
Ready to see how Spark Hire’s hiring software, including our powerful AI features, can help enhance your hiring process? Book a demo and chat with a hiring expert today.
