Putting together résumés and cover letters is arguably one of the most tedious tasks involved in the job application process. While résumés may need to be tweaked to highlight different experiences and skills depending on a particular job opening, these documents are relatively static compared with cover letters, which typically require more customization for each application.
Given this level of tedium, it’s not surprising that applicants are increasingly looking to artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for a little help.
Chatbots and the Job Application Process
“Leveraging a dataset containing 570 billion individual words, OpenAI’s ChatGPT can compose convincing cover letters on demand, or synthesise a few career details into a competent, bullet-pointed CV,” writes Alex Christian in an article for BBC. “Want to send an email to a hiring manager? Prompt the chatbot, then copy and paste the AI-generated text straight into the message.”
Still, job applicants aren’t the only ones who know about AI chatbots, meaning the hiring side of the equation is adapting in response to this new technology, as well.
Hiring managers aren’t oblivious, Christian points out. They likely know that at least some candidates are relying on generative AI to help them out. It’s a solution that even more are likely to turn to in the future, which Christian says “could create a shift in job applications as we know them, moving recruiters away from the traditional modes of evaluating candidates.”
Changing Talent Acquisition in Light of AI
As application practices shift, so, too, will talent acquisition practices. With the advent of generative AI and its use by applicants, recruiters could start leveraging tools like questionnaires and personality assessments more heavily in the recruiting process. Such tests are more personalized, and while it might take a long time for humans to pore over and analyze applicant responses, such a task is perfect for AI.
Rapidly advancing tools like AI chatbots have the potential to fundamentally change a job application process that’s been relatively static for decades. The staple résumé-and-cover-letter paradigm may not be a great model in a world where both applicant and recruiter can cheaply and easily employ AI to write and review those materials.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.