We see a young woman who conducts a job interview online. Her phone leans against the computer screen, with an AI application on it that listens. The woman who takes the job interview asks: “Where do you see yourself in five years?” The applicant repeats the question as she touches the ‘generate answer’ button on her phone. As soon as words appear on her phone screen, she starts reading them. A licked answer rolls out of her mouth.
This video is far from unique. You will find countless similar videos if you search TIKTOK for „Apply with ai “It illustrates how much artificial intelligence turns up the application upside down.
And actually you don’t even have to go to Tiktok to get through this. Anyone who asked in their own environment will undoubtedly come across stories from people who used AI in applications. There is, however, shy to openly tell about this. There is embarrassment around the use of AI and people are afraid that a (future) employer could read along.
Henriëtte van der Linden (56) wants to tell her story. She came across a vacancy that made her enthusiastic: project supporter at Has Green Academy in Den Bosch. “I hadn’t applied for years, so then I put on the bad shoes and used AI.”
She led the vacancy text and her CV to AI and asked to write a letter of application. “In no time, a letter came out. Fantastic!” She found the letter a little too formal and asked for adjustment of the tone. AI did that effortlessly. She added a few more points, which she had formulated in the same writing style. “That way exactly the letter came out that I want to write, if I could have.”
Soon after sending the letter and her CV optimized by AI, she was invited for an interview. Eventually she became second and an internal candidate got the job.
Well -compare
Or take the story of Coen van Noort (31), who works in the energy sector. He was approached asking if he might be interested in a job elsewhere. A job interview was scheduled, on which Van Noort prepared with the help of AI. He showed the app his CV and asked what he would ask for a candidate for this position, and what the answer would be. He also asked AI to explain why he would like to switch and where exactly development opportunities were. “A lot of company information is out in the openso AI can compare companies very well. “
Also later, during the negotiations, Van Noort AI asked for advice. What would be a realistic salary, for example, and he had the app compare the collective agreements of both companies on points that he finds important. “Ai was very able to inform me very well. But I needed people to let me take a step back; by asking questions such as: what do you really find important?”
Or take the story of Angelique Hendriks (54). Since her switch from a job in fashion to work as an interior designer, she has applied a lot. Since last year she uses AI. First only to rewrite sentences that did not run well. Later for the entire letter of application. “I show the vacancy text and indicate what I would like to see. Well, and then a very nice, flowing text comes out. Then I add sentences and I ask all kinds of adjustments. I really think it is a solution.”
Ethical questions
As a human resources expert, Roland Grootenboer has a view of developments in applying with the help of AI. He worked at Google and Blendle, among others. He now writes and speaks about HR and gives HR advice on interim basis.
Before Grootenboer wants to talk about AI, according to him, you must know that years of research it has been known that selection of employees based on a CV, a letter of application and an unstructured job interview works badly. “In particular such a job interview is a huge bad predictor of a person’s suitability. That’s because we are all biased. If someone looks like us, we find him more fun. And if someone was good in mathematics, we assume that he will also be good at Excel. Our head makes constant short turns.
That is why he works in the selection of employees with Work Samples. He does not ask for a resume or letter, but asks targeted, work-related questions to which candidates must answer in writing by way of application. Those are questions such as: Suppose this happens, because would you do?
“Recently I had written out a very nice vacancy, I found myself. When I read what came in, I got the strong impression that certainly a third of the applicants had answered partly or in its entirety with the help of AI. I had done my homework, but had been overtaken by the technology. The written word is no longer sacred and that calls ethical questions?
He added the sentence to a subsequent vacancy text: we would like to hear your voice and not that of AI. “With that I did a moral appeal to the relationship of trust that employee and employer enter into. Ai forces us to reform our work and especially exposes painfully where things are going wrong.”
Chat
Djurre Holtrop is an organizational psychologist and assistant professor at Tilburg University. He also confirms that there is no evidence for the effectiveness of selection based on CV and motivation letter. And a job interview in the Netherlands is often just a chat. “AI does not change anything about this. If something did not work anyway, AI will not work even worse.”
It is difficult to say exactly what percent of the applicants use AI, says Holtrop. “The developments go fast and investigations follow each other at breakneck speed. But on the basis of all data I can say that at least more than half of the applicants use AI.”
According to Holtrop, research also shows that letters written by AI are better assessed. Applicants who use AI are therefore more likely to be invited for an interview.
Holtrop thinks it is wonderful that vacancy texts almost never record rules about AI use. “Surely we draw up rules for students within our university? I can imagine that you write something like:” We think it’s fine if you use AI to brainstorm, but we want you to formulate the letter yourself. “
He thinks it is even more wonderful that in the Netherlands there is still no ‘moving away’ in the traditional ineffective application method. You can work better with questionnaires that are tailored to the function to be filled, he says. If applicants all fill in the same questionnaire, without having to mention age, gender or name, they can be compared and assessed as fairly as possible.
Not only applicants have discovered AI in the application process, employers also use the latest techniques. Especially with functions with large ‘volumes’ and a large course, such as couriers, call center and warehouse staff, it is a solution if AI helps with a first shelter.
Take PostNL. At that company, 70,000 people apply annually, 60,000 of whom go to operational positions. “We had a slow selection procedure and a lot of competition from employers with similar positions,” says Roos de Lange, HR Recruitment process specialist at PostNL. Since 2022, her company has therefore been working with a digital recruiter, who has called the Charlie. Charlie is a multi-agent AI system that responds within two minutes after people have shown interest in a job as a mail deliverer via WhatsApp. De Lange: “Charlie asks if it comes out and then asks the knockout criteria questions that were in the vacancy text. He also answers questions from applicants.”
In the event of a successful completion of this first contact, Charlie plans a conversation with a human recruiter. He sees his agenda so automatically filling.
De Lange: “First it took an average of four days before an application led to a scheduled job interview, now four hours.” Charlie yielded PostNL a structural saving of 73 percent on the recruitment costs of mail deliverers, partly because the dependence on employment agencies decreased.
Ai informed me well. But I needed Ménsen to take a step back
Strategic challenges
In some cases, applicants also come across computers as a discussion partner. The same goes for Oxford student Casper Heimel (17), who applied for a job through temporary employment agency Mercor to train AI in solving mathematics olympiad assignments. “After I sent my CV, I was invited for an AI interview. Questions appeared that were also read aloud. I had to give an example of an example of a task that I liked. How long I had to answer was unclear. It is very difficult to feel how long an answer may be opposite you.” He was thanked afterwards. Only a month later did he hear that he hadn’t become it.
According to Mercor, the application questions that candidates such as Casper Heimel receive are generated per individual on the basis of their CV and the vacancy text. You can also read on the website of the employment agency that AI is also used when assessing the video images of answering applicants. However, the company emphasizes that people are always involved in final decisions.
An institution like the European Central Bank also works with a digital environment, in which the applicant sees himself small in a corner of the screen while written application questions appear. After each question, an applicant will receive a few minutes to think and then a set time to answer. A descending bar indicates how much time there is. The answers are filmed and recorded.
Collect information
Assistant professor Djurre Holtrop does not look up of these examples. Employers nowadays use aii AI in formulating vacancy texts, he says. “And that is fine, because that is very good for AI. A chatbot is also used more and more often when collecting information about applicants, such as at PostNL, because that is simply faster and more efficient.”
But, says Holtrop Sharp, “In Europe, companies are only allowed to use AI to assess applicants if they comply with rules laid down in the EU AI Act.”
Recorded videos are probably assessed by a recruiter, says Holtrop. “Or by a recruiter and an algorithm. But according to European legislation, a person must always be involved. Research shows that an algorithm cannot judge fairer or better than people. Discrimination is lurking. And it is still difficult to make those complex AI algorithms sufficiently transparent.”
According to Holtrop, the motto should be at all times: “Do not use AI as a replacement for human work, but as an amplifier.”
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