Hey there,
Hiring is expensive, slow, and easy to get wrong. The average owner spends around 23 hours just screening resumes for a single role — time you don’t have, doing work you probably dread.
AI can cut that in half and make every step sharper, from the job post to the interview questions. Here’s how to use it without losing the human judgment that hiring actually needs.
WRITE A JOB POST THAT ATTRACTS THE RIGHT PEOPLE
A vague job post gets you a flood of wrong applicants. A specific one gets you fewer, better ones. AI is great at turning your rough notes into a clear, appealing post.
Prompt: “I run a [type of business] and need to hire a [role]. Here’s what they’ll do: [list 4-5 tasks]. Write a job posting that’s clear and honest, sells why this is a good place to work, separates must-have from nice-to-have skills, and ends with how to apply. Keep it under 300 words and skip the corporate buzzwords.”
Free generators built into tools like Workable and Recooty can do this too, but a good prompt in ChatGPT gives you more control over the voice.
SCREEN RESUMES IN MINUTES, NOT HOURS
This is the biggest time-saver. Instead of reading 40 resumes top to bottom, let AI do the first pass.
Paste a resume (or several) and use: “Here’s my job description and a candidate’s resume. Score the fit from 1-10 against the must-have skills, list what’s missing, and give me 3 specific questions to ask this person in a screening call. Be honest, not generous.”
You get a ranked shortlist and tailored questions in minutes. You still make every real decision — AI just clears the pile so you spend your time on the people who actually fit.
PREP BETTER INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Most owners wing interviews and ask the same tired questions. AI helps you go deeper: “Give me 6 interview questions for a [role] that reveal how someone actually thinks and works — not generic ones. Include 2 questions about a real situation they’d face in my business, and tell me what a strong answer sounds like.”
Now you’re interviewing for judgment, not just vibes.
THE FULL HIRING WORKFLOW
Here’s the start-to-finish system I recommend for a small team:
Define the role in plain English first. Before any AI, write 5 bullet points: what this person does day to day, and what “great” looks like in 90 days. Everything downstream gets better when this is clear.
Generate the post, then add your truth. Use the prompt above, then edit in the real, specific details only you know — your culture, your quirks, the actual day-to-day. That honesty filters out bad fits before they apply.
Batch-screen with a consistent rubric. Score every candidate against the same must-haves so you’re comparing fairly. Ask AI to flag anyone it’s unsure about for your manual review.
Use a free tool if volume is high. Freshteam has a free plan with basic AI resume screening for small teams — enough for most. Workable and GoPerfect go further if you hire often.
Always interview the humans yourself. AI shortlists; you hire. No exceptions.
THE GUARDRAILS THAT KEEP YOU OUT OF TROUBLE
Never let AI make the final hiring decision. It can score and sort; it cannot judge character, and it can carry bias from the data it learned on. A human makes the call.
Check your local disclosure laws. Some places — Ontario, for example, for employers with 25 or more employees — now require you to state in job postings if you use AI to screen applicants. Add one honest line if it applies to you.
Never paste anything you wouldn’t want shared. Redact personal contact details when screening, and use reputable tools for anything sensitive.
YOUR ACTION PLAN THIS WEEK
If you’re hiring (or will be soon), write your 5-bullet role definition, then run the job-post prompt. If you’ve already got a stack of resumes sitting in your inbox, screen the next 5 with the scoring prompt and feel how much faster it goes.
Talk soon,
Dave
The AI Playbook
