• 01 Nov, 2025 *

At a conference I was at, two companies talked about implementing AI into all areas and layers of their company. For the talk, they specifically zeroed in on AI in the hiring process.

They began to describe that their goal (which they are about halfway there already) was:

1. Using AI to write the job listings.
2. Using AI to scout potential employees on LinkedIn and Xing and messaging them.
3. Using AI to automatically sort applicants and possibly even score them (!).
4. Using AI to send out the invitations and rejections.
5. Using AI to lead the job interview - with AI Avatars in a video call.
6. Using AI to summarize the video interview and suggest a decision.
7. Using AI in onboarding and training, letting the employees train themselves via a chatbot they can ask, and training materials by AI.

It would save them a lot of HR employees, costs and time.

Putting aside the obvious legal issues that will still need to be hashed out, the categorization into the AI Act risk groups, and the human oversight and additional documentation needed that still costs them;

Who wants to work at a place like this, and who wants to remain loyal to a such an impersonal and cold company that threats you like meat on a conveyor belt (even more than they already did)?

Imagine not talking to a single real person at a company until you meet your coworkers.

I know it might sound great at first if you are socially anxious or prefer to talk less to others, but you’ll still have to perform the same song and dance anyway - just this time, it’s an absolute blackbox you cannot be sure of. The analysis of your mood and answers plus the end summary might go wrong and there’s nothing you can do about that. How do you prepare to impress an AI (one that is allegedly trained to ignore prompt injections)?

And don’t forget: This is also about stealing the opportunity away from you to get a feel for who works there and the company culture itself. I find that part incredibly important in the interview! I need to feel like the company fits me as well, and the people leading the interview are an important part of finding out.

I wouldn’t want to work for a company like that. I would cancel the application process, or, if I went through with it, I’d give the same energy right back: the bare minimum or less, and no loyalty. Why should I give my all to a company (or if handled more directly, boss) who did not even bother interviewing me or giving me appropriate training? In my view, you already treated me like you hate me before I even started.

You know, these companies are really funny, talking about “shortening hiring times”. You could shorten hiring times by not putting the applicants through 3-7 rounds of interviews, you imbeciles. You are out there creating hiring processes neither the interviewers nor the interviewees enjoy and that waste costs and time, and instead of rethinking the charade, you’d rather worsen it by offloading it to a complex set of algorithms you don’t understand and rent from elsewhere.

The shitty thing is that this will become the norm, and we will no longer be able to boycott and avoid this stuff as we all need to put food on the table and can’t afford to say no to a job over this mistreatment.

The only recourse you have whenever AI was involved in the hiring process and you were denied is suing. Make them expose how the AI was used, on what, how, prove human oversight, prove the human final decision, and more (if mandated in your jurisdiction). Let them produce all that in documentation and keep their lawyers busy. Make them pay extra in bureaucratic busywork and court fees. I see no other way.

Reply via email Published 01 Nov, 2025

#2025 #tech