Not so long ago, hiring interviews were little more than a formality. Leaders stuck to a familiar script: standard questions, occasional curveballs, and a quick resume walk-through. Candidates came prepared with an elevator pitch, rehearsed replies to those standard questions, and a succinct five-year plan. The process was fair and efficient, but it didn’t always identify the talent that truly strengthens teams.
Today, job interviews have gone off-script—and I think that’s a good thing. While this shift can be more challenging for both hiring managers and candidates, it also increases the odds of a better, more sustainable fit. Leaders guide the interview process, and so it naturally falls on them to ensure it’s genuinely informative for both sides.
As CEO of my company, I’ve had to delegate many of my former responsibilities. Hiring, however, is one task in which I remain actively involved. Here are three pieces of advice for leaders on hiring in the age of AI.
Prioritize Generalists Over Narrow Specialists
In previous eras, being a specialist was considered a strength. The more niche your skills and expertise, the more valuable you were for roles that fit the bill. Those roles, however, tended to stagnate. Today, the way organizations work and the roles within them are constantly evolving. For example, our data engineers used to mainly focus on data analytics and reporting, but now they also help design AI-powered workflows alongside product and operations teams.
Tony Stoyanov, CTO and co-founder of EliseAI, notes, “Being great at one thing isn’t enough. What matters is the ability to bridge engineering, product, and operations to make good decisions quickly, even with imperfect information.”
As roles become increasingly interdisciplinary and collaboration ever more vital, generalists are key. For hiring managers, that means prioritizing candidates who demonstrate adaptability and experience, or at least curiosity, across multiple areas of the company.
At Jotform, we encourage a generalist mindset from day one through our internship program. Interns, who are matched with mentors, know they can explore their interests within the company, even if that means venturing into a team or function they weren’t initially hired into. The hope is that they’ll stay with the company and blossom into well-rounded contributors.
By the same token, when interviewing, I look for candidates who can articulate that same broad-ranging curiosity, plus an ability to collaborate across lanes.
Hire For Growth, Not Just Experience
When I graduated from college, I remember feeling like pedigree was everything. The most competitive spots went to the candidates with Ivy League degrees and internships at tech giants. Objective credentials trumped subjective qualities. But that’s changing.
When I’m looking to fill roles, I lean toward this piece of hiring advice shared by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman: Hire for slope, not y-intercept. It means choosing people based on how quickly they’re capable of growing and learning, not on how impressive their starting credentials look.
As Altman explains, hiring smart people who are driven, productive, and can work as part of a team is key. “I would take young, scrappy, but get-stuff-done, over the person who has an extremely polished track record.”
This underlines why AI can help with hiring, screening resumes for objective factors, but the most valuable insights come from real-time conversations (more on that below). That’s when hiring managers can really dig into people’s proudest accomplishments, their level of ambition and drive, and how well they collaborate. Group interviews might add some stress to the process, but they also gauge how well people communicate and their potential to work as part of a team. At Jotform, cross-functional teamwork is integral to everything we do.
Returning to Altman’s advice, growth compounds over time. Credentials remain the same.
Look For The Human Skills AI Can’t Replicate
While many people fear that AI is dehumanizing the workplace, I’ve found that it makes human skills—like empathy, communication skills, and adaptability—more valuable than ever.
When it comes to the hiring process, recruiters are increasingly using AI tools, and interviewees are too. That’s why Harvard Business Review recommends focusing on whether candidates have skills that AI can’t replicate. One of those skills, which is critical today, is being able to think on your feet.
Instead of relying on a fixed list of interview questions, ask candidates to walk you through a recent project they worked on, from start to finish. If possible, have them share their screen and show actual work. This approach reveals far more than scripted answers. You can see how they think and how they explain their ideas. You can ask follow-up questions about their role on the team, the challenges they faced, takeaway lessons, and what they would do differently next time.
This isn’t meant to put candidates on the spot. It’s a way to create a dialogue that helps both sides understand where a candidate fits within an organization. It also shows how candidates handle pressure, which is unavoidable in fast-moving workplaces.
Final Thoughts
One final piece of advice is to be transparent about AI use. Share how your company uses these tools, and ask candidates how they use them in their own work. Leveraging today’s tools runs awry when done in the dark. But talking about how companies and employees are using AI can shed light on their readiness to experiment with the latest tools and avoid any issues from improper usage down the line. You might even get some great ideas on new ways to improve your organization’s workflows.