Dive Brief:
- Artificial intelligence has changed the way job applicants find and research potential employers, with 66% of more than 100 AI users surveyed saying they applied to a company they hadn’t previously considered because of information AI relayed, according to a survey from AI employer platform Built In released Tuesday. At the same time, the study also found that more than half of respondents decided not to apply to a job after consulting AI.
- At the recruiting level, 24% of applicants reported that they got back to a recruiter because of information AI supplied, while 23% decided not to respond or continue interviewing.
- A recent report from Gartner found that AI is increasingly responsible for determining whether candidates will learn about available jobs, with 1 in 4 candidates potentially using an AI agent to act on their behalf by 2029. AI may also eventually be responsible for telling a candidate whether to apply for a job at all.
Dive Insight:
Built In’s survey examined the behavior of 119 job seekers amid an increasingly AI-influenced process. It found that over the past year, 88% of respondents said they had used AI to find potential employers or investigate companies they were interested in applying to.
“AI is changing how employers compete for talent,” Built In CEO Maria Christopoulos Katris said in a statement. “Candidates are discovering, evaluating and eliminating companies based on information employers may never know they encountered.”
For recruiters and hiring managers, this may reveal a problem with using traditional recruitment techniques in an increasingly AI-enhanced field, because applicants can “compare and eliminate employers” before they ever encounter a hiring manager, enter a tracking system or visit a career site.
In addition, 68% of AI users said they “always or often” verify AI-generated employer information, which means anything that’s online needs to be both trustworthy and up-to-date.
“Talent attraction increasingly starts before a candidate visits a careers site or speaks with a recruiter,” Katris said. “Employers need to understand how they show up in AI, what information is shaping candidate decisions and be able to act on it.”
