I’m a big believer in artificial intelligence.
We use AI throughout our business to improve productivity, and we’re incorporating it into the products we build for our customers.
But there’s one increasingly common use of AI that makes me uncomfortable: using it to decide which job candidates are worth interviewing.
As a CEO, I believe people are the most important investment we make. Hiring is one of the last places I want to optimize primarily for efficiency.
What AI Can’t See on a Résumé
The problem is simple: Great candidates don’t always match the algorithm.
Sometimes what catches my attention on a résumé isn’t a perfect match to the job description. It might be how quickly someone advanced in a previous company. An unusual combination of experiences. Leadership developed somewhere completely unrelated to our industry. Or simply something that makes me think: There’s something interesting about this person. I want to meet them.
Can AI recognize that? Maybe. But I’m not convinced enough to let it decide who I never meet.
The Hire an Algorithm Might Have Missed
We recently experienced this ourselves.
We were looking for someone to help us define our product and had developed a fairly specific list of requirements. Finding someone who checked all the boxes proved difficult.
Then we came across a candidate who didn’t fit the profile particularly well. His experience was adjacent to what we needed. His background included construction and significant leadership experience in the military.
On a conventional requirements-matching exercise, he wasn’t the obvious candidate.
We interviewed him anyway. We hired him. And he has become a great addition to our team.
Would an AI screening system have put his résumé in front of me? I don’t know. And that’s precisely what bothers me.
The Data Behind My Discomfort
My discomfort is not just a hunch. It’s borne out in the research the hiring industry has done on its own tools.
A joint study by Harvard Business School and Accenture, surveying more than 2,275 executives and 8,720 workers across the U.S., U.K., and Germany, found that 88% of employers agree that qualified high-skills candidates are vetted out of the hiring process simply because they don’t match the exact criteria in the job description. For middle-skills candidates, that number rises to 94%. In other words: the large majority of employers already know their own screening systems are discarding people who could do the job well — they just don’t know which ones.
This doesn’t mean the tools are useless — it means hiring can’t be fully distilled into a matching problem. The real question isn’t “does this résumé match the job description,” it’s “is this person worth meeting.” Those are different questions, and only one of them is a pattern-matching problem.
The Question CEOs Aren’t Asking
The conversation around AI in recruiting tends to focus on efficiency: processing thousands of applications, ranking candidates, reducing recruiter workload, and shortening time-to-hire. Those are worthwhile goals.
But I think CEOs and HR leaders should be asking a different question: Who did the algorithm decide we should never meet?
A false positive costs me an interview. A false negative could cost me one of the best people I would have hired. That’s an asymmetry worth thinking about.
Where AI Belongs in Recruiting
I absolutely want AI in our recruiting process. Let it summarize résumés. Let it identify relevant experience. Let it compare backgrounds. Better yet, use it to surface unconventional candidates a human recruiter might overlook.
Use AI to expand human judgment, not eliminate it.
The Broader Lesson for AI Adoption
There’s a broader lesson here as businesses rush to incorporate AI into every workflow. Just because we can automate a decision doesn’t mean we should. Some decisions are important enough that efficiency shouldn’t be the primary objective.
Choosing the people who will build your company is one of them.
Want to talk with people I found interesting and who are building a strong product?
Book a 30-minute product conversation at ezrs.com/contact.
About Easy Reserve Study (EZRS)
Easy Reserve Study® (EZRS®) is AI-augmented reserve study software for smarter capital planning. Built for reserve management companies, independent reserve specialists, property managers, HOAs, vacation clubs, and institutional operators — EZRS replaces static spreadsheets and fragile manual processes with a continuously updated, living system of record.
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