The fast adoption of AI for recruitment purposes is now expanding to the workforce. So far, we have been dealing with AI-powered recruiting solutions. Now, candidates have discovered that AI tools can write their CVs and cover letters.
The trend of AI-generated CVs has taken off extremely fast. Right now, about half of the resumes a company receives during a recruitment campaign are written by artificial intelligence. To counter the trend, many businesses and recruitment companies use an AI checker to identify and reject these CVs.
The question is: should you enforce zero tolerance to resumes generated with AI for recruitment? Or should you use the AI screening for resumes just to set aside these CVs and ask the candidate more questions?
Let us debate the matter of AI-generated CVs from three perspectives:
The Recruiter’s Perspective
The Olinio team believes that Generative AI tools are useful in the recruitment process, but as long as they remain just tools to assist with and simplify work. To ensure transparency in the hiring process, we combine technology with our recruiters’ experience to select the best fit for the role.
Thus, when the AI detection tools tell us that a CV or a cover letter is essentially generated by artificial intelligence, not merely edited, we usually do not invite the candidate for the interview.
We do understand that some candidates use AI tools to improve the formatting and language of their CVs and weed out typos. But AI-generated CVs raise several questions:
- Does the candidate actually possess any of the skills included in the CV?
- Do they fully understand the role they apply for?
- Are they committed to producing quality work of their own in the job role, or will they still rely on AI?
The Company’s Perspective
You may think that since you use AI for recruitment purposes, it is fair game for everyone. However, if you do not use AI checkers or do not create an internal policy for dealing with CVs written by AI, your hiring strategy becomes vulnerable.
Here are two aspects to consider:
1. Will You Have a Diverse Workforce?
Artificial intelligence is not capable of describing a person’s soft skills and unique educational and work experiences. It relies on data fed through machine learning to create variations on essentially CV templates for specific job roles.
A candidate that could bring something special to the table may not even get their CV noticed in the deluge of AI-generated CVs that look and read perfectly polished. Thus, you should at least use AI checkers to set aside the resumes generated with artificial intelligence and start reading those created by the candidates.
2. Can You Trust a Candidate with an AI-written CV?
What does the use of AI for recruitment to generate a resume say about the candidate? Here are just a few things:
- That the candidate is too lazy and disinterested to write their own resume
- That the candidate has no clue what kind of skills and experiences are relevant for the job role
- That the candidate is trying to embellish their resume with skills they do not actually have.
All three aspects are big red flags that you may end up with a bad hire.
The Candidate’s Perspective
As a candidate, you may think that using AI for recruitment is not an issue. Why should you work on your resume when generative AI tools can create a perfect one? The first problem is that the respective text is not your CV.
It does not tell anything about you, your skills, and your career goals. It does not offer any glimpse of your personality and your soft skills.
Secondly, it is unethical to apply with 100% AI-generated CVs. Some candidates do not even read and edit the document. They do not rephrase items that are not completely true concerning their experience and abilities. In essence, they lie on their resume. And this is one of the common CV mistakes that can hurt your career for a long time.
How Much Should We Use AI for Recruitment?
We are still figuring out the practical and ethical aspects of using artificial intelligence in our work and everyday lives. However, one thing is clear: AI must never replace the human factor.
Either as recruiters or as candidates, we must remember that, ultimately, hiring is about finding the best person to fit a vacancy. If you need help with crafting your CV, you may consider using tools to check grammar, style and spelling.
Whenever you need assistance, Olinio is here to assist you with professional recruiting and hiring services, so contact us!