AI in Recruitment: Is AI Screening Candidates a Zero-Sum Game?

Chris Apps • 24 September 2025

AI Screening AI in Recruitment

The latest Criteria Benchmark Report revealed a fascinating shift in recruitment technology.


Today, more candidates are using  AI tools to generate CVs and applications. At the same time, more employers are turning to  AI in recruitment to screen those very applications.


The result? AI screening AI.


While efficient, this raises questions about fairness, authenticity, and whether human qualities are at risk of being lost in translation.


The Risks of AI Screening Candidates

When both sides optimise with algorithms, hiring risks becoming a zero-sum game. Candidates “game” the system with AI-generated CVs, while companies use AI hiring tools to filter through the results.


This makes it harder to identify the qualities that truly matter:

  • Authentic motivation
  • Problem-solving ability
  • Personality and culture fit

 

In other words,  AI vs human hiring decisions is becoming a balancing act.


Recruitment Best Practices: Keeping It Human

AI can support hiring, but it shouldn’t define it. Employers can bring authenticity back into recruitment by:

  1. Requesting a one-page cover letter that specifically addresses the role’s criteria – and making it clear that AI-generated responses are not acceptable.
  2. Providing an application pack via email means candidates must actively engage rather than rely on generic input.
  3. Combining AI hiring tools with psychometric testing and structured interviews to uncover real skills, intelligence, and cultural fit.


These evidence-based methods prevent over-reliance on algorithms and ensure candidate authenticity in hiring.


Our Take on AI in Recruitment 

At Fermion, we believe recruitment should never become a battle of machines.  AI in recruitment is valuable for efficiency and scale, but the best hiring outcomes still come from structured processes,  psychometric testing in hiring, and meaningful human interaction.


AI should assist recruitment, not replace human judgment.


✅ Ready to improve recruitment outcomes with evidence-based methods? Get in touch with Fermion.

About the Author:

Christopher Apps is an Organisational Psychologist and the owner of Fermion. He stays updated on the latest psychology research and shares evidence-based insights.

 

The focus of Fermion is "Psychometric Testing for Recruitment" and "Recruitment to Retention: How to select good staff and keep them". If you would like to learn how to select good staff and keep them, please feel free to contact us at Fermion.

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”

Eleanor Roosevelt.

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