When AI Hires: The Lost Handshake
- Jul 11
- 4 min read
There was a time when finding a job meant walking through a door. You dressed your best. You shook someone's hand. You looked them in the eye. Before anyone read your resume, they met you.
Today, many job seekers never make it that far. Instead, resumes disappear into tracking systems, keywords become currency, and candidates wait for weeks wondering if another human being ever laid eyes on the story they spent years building.
By the time I created my eleventh resume, I realized I wasn't writing for people anymore but for software. I was told that unless my resume contained the right keywords, it would likely be filtered out before a hiring manager ever saw my name. Since many companies rely on similar applicant tracking systems, I found myself asking, "If an algorithm decides I'm not a match, how many doors close before a person ever has the chance to open one?" It made me frustrated about the applicant process. Why spend hours tailoring resumes, completing applications, answering questionnaires, and taking assessments when my story may never be read?
When did hiring stop being about meeting people and become a conversation between machines? I understand why companies have embraced artificial intelligence. Recruiters often receive hundreds, even thousands, of applications for a single position. Organizations like McKinsey & Company have noted that generative AI can significantly improve productivity by handling repetitive tasks, allowing people to focus on higher-value work. In many ways, it solves a genuine problem. But I think the machine should be used for categorizing applicants, and a person should be there to decide which AI filter(s) best fit their company. This would reduce the number of applicants HR has to review and still provide a personal touch to the process.
AI is for assisting, not completing an entire task by itself. We're becoming remarkably efficient at removing people from the process. The irony isn't lost on me. Applicants are encouraged to use AI to optimize their resumes. Employers use AI to screen those resumes. Artificial intelligence is evaluating documents that were partially written by artificial intelligence. Somewhere between "Submit Application" and "Interview Invitation," the human story gets translated into searchable keywords. And stories were never meant to be read that way.
As a ghostwriter, I've spent years helping people tell the stories hidden beneath titles, accomplishments, and bullet points. I've learned something that no algorithm can calculate.
A person's greatest qualification is rarely found on their resume. It's found in their resilience, their curiosity, and in the way they solved a problem no one expected them to solve.
In the quiet leadership they demonstrated when no one was watching. These are qualities discovered through conversation, not computation.
Computers in Human Behavior found that applicants generally view organizations less favorably when AI replaces meaningful human interaction during the hiring process (Black, J. S., & van Esch, P., 2021). Trust erodes when people feel they are being evaluated by technology instead of another person. New hires often begin their first day feeling processed rather than welcomed, and camaraderie can't be built with a foundation of disconnection.
That finding doesn't surprise me. After all, a dog knows another dog without reading a profile. A cat recognizes another cat without scanning a list of traits. Human beings are no different. We were created to know one another through presence, conversation, and discernment. The data was used to understand how their qualifications would fit into the company environment. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), whose AI Risk Management Framework is widely referenced across industries, emphasizes that trustworthy AI should include meaningful human oversight, transparency, and accountability. In other words, AI is most effective when it supports human judgment rather than replacing it.
Perhaps that's why so many job seekers describe today's hiring process as impersonal. They aren't simply frustrated by rejection. Rejection has always been part of finding work. They're grieving something harder to define. Connection.
We've become a society that values speed over presence, automation over conversation.
Optimization over observation. Ironically, while employers often say they're searching for authenticity, applicants are increasingly rewarded for sounding more like algorithms than themselves. We're teaching people to write for software rather than for people. And then we wonder why workplaces struggle with engagement, loyalty, and genuine connection.
Those relationships begin long before the first day on the job. They begin with something as simple as being seen. None of this means artificial intelligence has no place in hiring. Technology is an incredible tool. It can organize information. Reduce repetitive work. Even help eliminate certain biases when used thoughtfully. But tools were never meant to replace relationships. The strongest hiring decisions have always required something machines cannot replicate. Discernment. Empathy. Intuition.
The ability to hear passion in someone's voice or notice the determination behind a difficult career journey. No algorithm can fully appreciate the courage it takes for someone to start over after losing a career, or return to work after raising children, or even rebuild after failure.
Those aren't keywords. Those are chapters.
Perhaps the greatest loss isn't the handshake itself. It's what the handshake represented.
A moment when two people paused long enough to acknowledge that behind every application is a human being hoping someone will recognize not only what they've done, but who they are.
Maybe the future of hiring isn't choosing between people and artificial intelligence.
Maybe it's remembering that one should serve the other. Because in the end, Artificial intelligence can process information, but only people can truly recognize people and genuinely connect.
Black, J. S., & van Esch, P. (2021) AI-enabled recruiting: What applicants think. Computers in Human Behavior)
Will, Paris, Dario Krpan and Grace Lordan. “People Versus Machines: Introducing the HIRE Framework.” Artificial Intelligence Review, vol. 56, no. 2, 2023, pp. 1071–1100. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-022-10193-6
Black, J.S., and P. van Esch. "AI-Enabled Recruiting: What Is It and How Should a Manager Use It?" Business Horizons, vol. 64, no. 5, 2021, pp. 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.02.001
Heather Ina is an author, ghostwriter & creator of BoundlessHIM, amplifying Black and Brown stories through truth, trauma, triumph & healing, and creating legacy memorabilia for families. She is the author of Boundless Perseverance, an immersive guide centered on growth, resilience, and self-reflection.
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