It’s been fascinating (and a bit scary) to watch how large language models have transformed the Talent landscape and I’ve been thinking a lot about how standout candidates should use AI responsibly in their candidate journey.

AI tools can be extremely valuable when used thoughtfully and intentionally. And it’s not going to go away. People are using tools like Perplexity, Claude, ChatGPT for everything! I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect candidates to avoid using their favorite AI tool in their application materials.

What matters most to me isn’t whether someone used AI in an application for a job. What matters to me is how they used it. I want to see that a candidate used AI as a collaborator and not as a replacement for their own thought process. A standout candidate won’t copy and paste prompts and submit whatever comes back. Here is how they will operate:

1. Think clearly: They know what they want to say, they can effectively use AI to help with their thought process.
2. Be strategic: They use AI for specific purposes and start with something robust. AI helps with brainstorming, refining ideas, checking blind spots.
3. Think critically: They evaluate all the output carefully, using their expertise to go back and forth with AI to ultimately reflect their expertise.
4. Own the work: They take responsibility for the final product, checking and double-checking information, ensuring it 100% represents their own work and knowledge and their capabilities.
5. Be transparent: They’re open about how and why they used AI, showing us their thought process.

A candidate can even use AI when filling out an application form for a job opening, but they should be extra careful and extra mindful. A company wants to get a sense of someone’s authentic voice, capabilities, and communication style in the application. Those messages are the first window into how a candidate might interact day-to-day with colleagues, so it should reflect their own writing approach.

At Automattic, we focus on the quality of a person’s work rather than how it gets done. As a distributed company, we care about results and good judgment. The specific tools someone uses are secondary. 

Talent orgs should not be afraid of candidates using AI. We should be excited about the possibilities it creates. But we should evaluate, as we already do, for human judgment, critical thinking, and communication skills that make for exceptional employees.