Artificial intelligence (AI) in hiring is increasing, but as more candidates encounter those tools, more are opting out of the process and losing trust in employers.
US job seekers are experiencing the most AI-driven hiring processes (63%) among five countries surveyed — followed closely by Germany (57%) and Australia (54%) — with AI interview exposure nearly twice as high as in Ireland (36%), Candidate AI Interview Report by software company Greenhouse found.
Many candidates, particularly in the UK and Australia, reported never hearing back from employers after completing an AI-led interview. Germany has the highest rate of response of any market. Fifty-one per cent of German candidates hear back from more than half their applications, compared to just 38% in the UK and 36% in Ireland.
Yet, job seekers in Germany have the highest withdrawal rate (42%). Thirty-eight per cent of US job seekers abandoned the hiring process at least once because it included an AI interview, and another 12% said they would opt out of a job candidacy if AI was required in the interview.
Resistance from candidates is not about the technology itself. Rather, candidates are withdrawing due to distrust in employers’ use of AI in hiring, the report said.
The most common AI-related reasons candidates withdrew from the hiring process included being met with a pre-recorded interview scored by AI (with no human interviewer present), lack of transparency around how AI was being used to evaluate candidates, and that the process included AI monitoring.
“Across all five markets, between 63% and 70% of candidates do not believe most employers are using AI responsibly,” the report said. The majority of candidates said that they were not informed that AI would be used in their interview beforehand; most candidates said employers do not have clear and consistent AI policies in place.
In Ireland, only 9% of candidates who completed an AI interview moved forward, the lowest progression rate of any market surveyed. Consequently, Ireland has the strongest preference for human-first contact (67%), with only 1% preferring an AI-led first interview.
Less than 4% of candidates believe a human has reviewed their application, the report said.
— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Steph Brown at Stephanie.Brown@aicpa-cima.com.
