Employers increasingly concerned about job candidates using AI to write CVs – The Irish Times

Employers in Ireland are increasingly wary of candidates using artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT to write CVs and applications, with some already using AI detection software to spot the practice, according to new research from IrishJobs.

New research from recruitment platform IrishJobs, published on Monday, reveals there is a nearly even split between senior business executives and recruiters who say AI makes their jobs easier and those who think it makes the recruitment process harder.

While 71% of midsize businesses say the technology has improved their recruiting processes, 46% of the 250 businesses of all sizes that responded to the survey said AI has made things more difficult.

Nearly a third of respondents said they were aware that job candidates were using AI tools to write their applications and CVs. Of that group, 71 percent said they had to increase their focus on interview assessments to ensure candidate quality, while almost 40 percent had introduced detection software to screen out job seekers who were using generative AI tools in their recruitment process.

Sam Dooley, national director of Stepstone Group, parent company of IrishJobs, said this is one reason why almost half of senior executives believe AI is making recruitment more difficult.

“They spend more time trying to determine if it’s someone’s real CV.”

Overall, just over half of in-house recruiters said AI makes their jobs easier. Of that group, 42 percent said they use AI tools to send reminders, while another 42 percent use them to track candidate application statuses.

Currently, the technology is used primarily for smaller administrative tasks within the recruiting process. But using AI to handle those tasks could free up recruiters to focus on candidate quality and “think strategically about actually hiring the right talent,” Mr. Dooley said.

However, a significant minority (around 19 percent) of employers said they rely solely on AI to guide their recruitment processes and select candidates for interviews.

“If you have 100 CVs of applications for a position, it’s incredibly difficult to review every CV,” Mr. Dooley said. “But you can use AI to automate that process so that (it can) match skills with the job description and attract the best talent.”

The survey found that 56 per cent of Irish businesses have introduced AI into their recruitment processes, with mid-sized businesses the fastest to adopt the fast-growing technology and small businesses the slowest.