Companies are overhauling their hiring processes to screen candidates for AI skills and attitudes

Company leaders and recruiting professionals say they now think specifically about candidates’ proficiency in using AI tools, sometimes prioritizing these skills over professional experience. They are also reimagining their hiring processes and developing new ways to screen candidates’ familiarity with and ability to use AI tools. Their methods range from focusing interview conversations on AI — providing an opportunity to gauge a person’s familiarity with and attitude toward technology — to having candidates complete tasks using AI tools and observing how they are used.

“Every organization — regardless of skill set — is looking to see if they can find someone who has some experience with AI, specifically generative AI, and now you have effective AI on the horizon, so they’re definitely looking for people who have experience in those areas,” said Thomas Fick, senior regional director of technology at the talent and consulting firm. Robert Half.

Skills take center stage

Vick said he noticed that the focus on AI skills in recruiting emerged about a year ago and has continued to accelerate since then. The clear trend is that AI skills are now as important as experience and education.

In the LinkedIn and Microsoft report, which included insights from a survey of 31,000 people from 31 countries, 71% said they would hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills over a more experienced candidate without them. PwC’s 2024 AI Jobs Barometer It states that the skills employers are looking for change at a 25% higher rate in professions most capable of using AI, such as developers, statisticians and judges. In addition, A Study of employment trends in the United Kingdom It found that candidates with AI skills earned 23% higher wages than those without, making a bigger difference from higher degrees up to doctoral level.

Alyssa Cook, senior management consultant at recruiting and staffing firm Beacon Hill, notes that hiring teams are more willing to hire candidates with AI skills. Furthermore, she said, skills related to the specific AI tools a company uses or wants to adopt can take precedence over greater overall AI expertise.

“Companies would prefer to hire a candidate who has hands-on experience with a particular tool they implement if they have the ability and interest in training in other skills,” she said.
The new focus on AI skills in recruiting is happening across various corporate departments. Vick said he’s seen this across accounting, finance, creative, and especially technical roles. According to the job listing data he cited the Wall Street JournalOne in four U.S. tech jobs posted so far this year are looking for people with AI skills.

Artificial intelligence testing

Automation company Caddi is one such company where this is implemented throughout the organization. CEO Alejandro Castellano said interviewers regularly ask candidates about their experience using AI tools. For technical candidates, the company encourages individuals to use AI coding assistants such as Cursor, Claude Code, or Copilot during code analysis and technical trainings.

“We want to see how they work in real conditions,” Castellano said.

This approach upends the way companies traditionally test candidates for software engineering jobs. Typically, coding tests are designed to isolate candidates from their real workflow in order to assess their basic knowledge. In a world where AI tools are increasingly being used to help employees accomplish certain tasks, this outdated approach doesn’t make much sense. In their daily duties, developers and engineers must be able to work effectively with these systems to enhance their productivity, and not delve into the field of theories and concepts.

“We are moving toward exercises that reflect how engineers actually work, how they research, use AI suggestions, and debug,” Castellano said. “We care about how the problem is solved as much as we care about the end result.”

Ehsan Mokhtari, chief technology officer at ChargeLab, a company that makes software for charging electric vehicles, said encouraging candidates to use AI tools has become a formal part of the company’s hiring process. These efforts began a year ago after it was observed that candidates were avoiding using AI tools, assuming they would be penalized for doing so. So, the company revamped its hiring process and its broader operations to embrace AI tools, starting with restructuring the challenges technical candidates face and then making efforts to fill positions across the company.

“We started with engineering, but now we are deploying it enterprise-wide. Sales came next – they have been surprisingly quick to adopt AI. Tools like ChatGPT are now popular for them for research and external communications. We have made AI literacy part of the key goals and objectives of departments,” Mokhtari said. “This means that every function – support, product, sales, engineering, operations – is expected to include it in their hiring considerations.”
While working with clients on their hiring, Robert Halffick saw a variety of approaches to screening candidates for AI skills. Some companies are turning to their contractors and asking those with AI expertise to help them evaluate candidates during the interview process, Vick says. One of the most common techniques he’s seen is bringing job candidates into a “sandbox” environment and having them physically demonstrate how they can use AI within that environment to complete various tasks. It’s the same idea as programming assessments reimagined, but applicable to any role in an organization.

Attitude goes a long way

While company leaders generally say they will hire a candidate who is proficient in AI over one who is not, they also stress that there is more than skills: behavior also plays an important role.

ChargeLab’s Mokhtari explained that he looks at AI proficiency in two layers: skill set and mindset. While the skill set is highly desirable, it can also be easily taught. However, he said the mindset — being proactive in using AI, being curious about where it can add value, and not being combative about it — is “harder to train and more important in the long run.”

Castellano echoes this idea. He found that understanding how someone thinks about and uses AI is one of the strongest signals a company has found to measure that person’s ability to continue to deliver value in a rapidly changing environment.

“We’re not just looking for people who know the tools,” he said. “We look for those who are curious, adaptable, and thoughtful about how to use AI. This mindset makes the biggest difference.”

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