How can AI help with hiring, and where must a person decide?

The job ad and the description

Most job ads are last year's ad with the date changed. Give an assistant the role, the pay, the hours and what a good first year looks like, and it drafts the ad and the job description in your voice. It is quick at the dull part, the clear wording, and it keeps every ad consistent. You still decide what the job is and what it pays, and you read the draft before it is posted.

Sorting applications, not rejecting people

An assistant can read a pile of applications against the must-haves you set, pull out the relevant experience and flag the ones worth a call. For a manager who reads them on a Sunday evening, that saves hours. It should never reject anyone on its own. These tools learn from examples, and if the examples were unfair, the tool can repeat the unfairness without anyone noticing.

The rules on automated hiring decisions are spreading, and some places already require notice to candidates or an audit of the tool. They differ by state and country, so check your own case with a lawyer. A person reads every shortlist, and looks at the applications the tool passed over.

Interviews and the first week

Arranging interviews is back-and-forth messaging, which booking by text and chat handles well. With the candidate's permission, a meeting note tool can capture the interview, so you compare what people said rather than what you remember. Tell candidates before you record anything, because recording rules differ by state.

Once someone is hired, an assistant that answers from your own handbook and procedures can field a new starter's questions at any hour: where things are, how a job is done here, who to ask. It only knows what you have written down, which is a good reason to write it down.

Where a person decides

A person decides who is interviewed, who is hired and on what terms. A person tells the candidates who did not get the job, kindly. A person also checks that the tools treat every candidate the same way. Hiring is where a business is most exposed when an automated decision goes wrong, so it is where people stay closest to the work.

Where to start

Start with the job ad, the lowest-risk use. Next time you hire, give the assistant the role, the pay, the hours and what good looks like in the first year, then edit what it drafts. Also write down the answers to the questions a new starter asks most, so a first-week assistant has something to read.

Before you use any tool that ranks or screens candidates, write your must-haves down yourself, ask the vendor how they test for bias, and keep a record of how each hiring decision was made.