AI might run your first job interview as JobStreet launches new hiring tools

‘AI is there to support, but the decision is always on the employer and on the candidate. What AI will do is give you recommendations,’ JobStreet managing director Dannah Majarocon tells Rappler

AT A GLANCE

• JobStreet is introducing AI tools for conducting initial voice interviews with job applicants, allowing them to complete pre-screening on their own devices and time.
• The AI technology aims to streamline the hiring process by automating tasks such as ranking applicants and conducting reference checks, potentially saving recruiters significant time each week.
• While AI is being adopted rapidly in the Philippines, JobStreet emphasizes the importance of governance and transparency to ensure fair hiring practices and mitigate bias in AI systems.

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MANILA, Philippines – Your next job interview might begin without a human recruiter on the other end.

JobStreet by SEEK is rolling out artificial intelligence tools that can conduct initial voice interviews with applicants, asking about their experience, motivations, availability, and other questions relevant to the job. Candidates can complete the pre-screening interview on their own device and on their own time, before a human recruiter eventually steps in.

It’s one of the more striking features of seekAi, JobStreet’s employment-focused AI engine unveiled at its JobStreet Connect conference on Thursday, September 24. Beyond interviews, the technology can rank applicants, suggest recruiters’ next steps, automate reference checks, and help identify candidates likely to fit a particular employer.

According to the online job board, AI can take over much of the busywork in hiring, freeing HR practitioners to spend more time engaging with applicants instead of getting bogged down by repetitive tasks. (READ: 59% of Filipino workers happy with salary, 45% say pay falls short – Jobstreet)

During the conference, JobStreet illustrated how going from posting a job advertisement to producing a shortlist could involve roughly 3,000 button presses across different tools for screening, rating, pre-interviewing, and managing applicants. Bringing more of those steps together through AI could save recruiters around 10 to 12 hours of work each week, according to JobsStreet managing director Dannah Majarocon.

Its Personalized Targeting feature, for instance, learns what a strong candidate looks like for an individual company based on the job, employer preferences, and previous hiring activity rather than relying mainly on broad keyword searches. JobStreet said candidates identified by the system as likely interested are up to five times more likely to apply.

Applicants could benefit as well. Better matching could help qualified workers surface for openings that actually fit them rather than having their résumés disappear into a large generic pool. An AI pre-screening interview also removes some of the friction of coordinating schedules just to clear an early stage of recruitment.

How much sway should AI have?

In an interview with Rappler, Majarocon said that guardrails and governance have to accompany those systems, particularly because hiring decisions can determine whether a person gets an economic opportunity in the first place.

While the JobStreet head highlighted the company’s nearly three decades of hiring information, job descriptions, and candidate behavior, she also acknowledged that having more data does not mean handing the decision over to a machine.

“We are continuously asking ourselves if we have the right systems, tools, and structures in place to ensure that we guarantee no bias within the systems that we have,” she told Rappler on Thursday. “We constantly regulate that to make sure that we do provide for fair opportunities for Filipinos and for people around the world that we look for.”

For applicants uncomfortable with the idea that AI might parse their résumé or conduct the first stage of an interview, Majarocon said that explanability and transparency were key.

“What we aim to do is to make sure that there is explanability, that you understand the type of AI that we use, and most importantly, you understand the benefits that it provides for you and how we’re storing data,” she said. 

All this becomes even more important here in the Philippines, which is adopting AI in HR faster than its peers. JobStreet said 39% of the country’s employers in its 2025 Hiring, Compensation, & Benefits Report already used AI tools in recruitment, higher than the 27% average across Southeast Asia.

At the end of the day, recruiters are not the only ones using AI. Applicants are using it too, including to tailor their CVs for automated screening systems, and some employers are finding that the best way to balance that out is to bring the process back to humans.

DITO Telecommunity chief human resources officer Holy Ampaguey said the technology company still handles much of recruitment the “old school” way, with people reviewing applicants individually. One reason, she said, is that candidates can now use AI to optimize their CVs for the systems that screen them.

“In our own hiring process, a lot of it is still done by our team. We’re kind of old school that way, but we also feel like it is more meaningful,” the chief officer said. “We’re trying to game AI by not using AI.” – Rappler.com