Doug Rode, Regional Managing Director for Michael Page UK and Ireland on why AI is making recruiter judgement more valuable.
AI is now a familiar part of both sides of the hiring process. Michael Page’s latest Talent Trends research shows 67 per cent of candidates are using AI to tailor CVs and prepare for interviews, while 67 per cent of hiring managers are using it to draft job specs and generate interview questions. What was a point of experimentation a couple of years ago has quickly become standard practice.
This shift has streamlined and enhanced parts of the hiring process for everyone involved. It’s also changed what hiring managers see in front of them: applications are more polished and consistent across candidates, which means CVs and credentials carry less of the predictive weight they once did. Nearly 1 in 3 hiring managers say they cannot reliably identify when AI has shaped an application.
In that context, the ability to assess real capability – to look past a well-presented application and understand whether someone can actually do the role – is becoming both harder and more valuable. This is where recruiters play a pivotal role. The human judgement and sector expertise they offer have always mattered, but in today’s market these attributes are what separate surface-level assessments from truly informed decisions.
Why skills-based hiring is becoming the default
Organisations are adapting, and the direction of travel is clear. Our data shows 66 per cent of UK organisations have now moved towards skills-based hiring. Traditional recruitment models have been built around roles and credentials, predefined job descriptions, linear career paths, and specific qualification requirements, and they served organisations well for a long time.
But in a rapidly changing business environment, where roles often evolve faster than job titles, these models are becoming less effective on their own. Skills-based hiring focuses instead on what someone can do and what they can learn next, assessed through structured interviews, work-based exercises, and evidence.
One of the reasons this approach is gaining ground is closely tied to the rise of AI in hiring – though it isn’t the only driver. Economic uncertainty and the need to extract long-term value from every hire are pushing organisations in the same direction. And when AI makes applications look more uniformly optimised, organisations need a richer set of signals to distinguish between candidates.
The candidate perspective
This shift is also welcomed by candidates. Research shows that 58 per cent are more likely to apply for roles defined by skills rather than qualifications, and candidates increasingly want to be assessed on what they can do, or their potential, rather than where they have been. That alignment between what organisations and candidates value is a real opportunity: skills-based hiring can produce a more engaged, better-matched applicant pool.
There is, however, a disconnect worth noting. 61 per cent of candidates still rely heavily on job experience on their CV, with only 15 per cent emphasising hard skills, while employers place far more value on how candidates present their skills (33 per cent) than on career path or education (21 per cent).
Closing that gap – by giving candidates a clearer way to demonstrate their skills and organisations a more consistent way to assess them – is where much of the practical value of this shift lies, and where recruitment partners can add real support.
Where recruiter judgement makes the difference
A skills-based approach gives organisations the framework to assess capability more effectively. What turns that framework into reliable hiring decisions is three elements working together: structured assessment, plus the deep sector expertise and long-term candidate relationships a specialist recruiter brings.
Structured assessment is what brings consistency and confidence to skills-based hiring. The attributes hiring managers value most – communication (44 per cent), adaptability (38 per cent) and interpersonal skills (36 per cent) – are difficult to read from a CV alone, and even harder to distinguish from an AI-supported one.
The best way to surface these is through evidence-led techniques designed for the specific capability being assessed. Short, role-relevant work samples test how someone will actually approach a task. Prioritisation exercises and scenario walk-throughs reveal how candidates weigh trade-offs and make decisions under pressure – strengths that AI-generated applications cannot demonstrate.
Behavioural interviews built around competencies, asked consistently of every candidate, produce a like-for-like comparison for hiring managers to assess. Structured scoring against pre-agreed criteria, supported by rating anchors that define what ‘good’ looks like at each level, helps decisions rest on evidence rather than gut feel. None of this is new – but in a market where AI has changed how applications look, the discipline of doing it well matters more than ever.
Sector expertise is the second strand. It means knowing what ‘strong’ looks like in a specific market – recognising, for example, that a finance leader moving from a high-growth scale-up will bring a very different toolkit to one stepping out of a large-listed business, even when their CVs read similarly. A specialist recruiter who knows the market can read those differences and match them to what a business needs. That comes from time spent deep in a single space, and it’s what lets recruiters interpret skills in the context that matters to the hire.
The third strand is relationships. The recruiters who add the most value are often those who have known a candidate across several roles – understanding not just what they have done, but how they think, what motivates them, and where they perform at their best. That picture is built over years, and it surfaces the soft skills and ambitions a single application, however polished, will never fully show.
This is where the relationship between AI and human judgement settles into balance. AI is excellent at surfacing patterns, broadening pipelines, and freeing up time spent on administrative work. Recruiters and hiring managers bring the context, judgement, and market knowledge that turn those inputs into confident decisions.
Looking ahead
A quarter of organisations are yet to make the shift to skills-based hiring, and many of those that have are still finding their footing. Specialist recruiters have a real role to play in helping hiring managers get it right.
Against a backdrop of rising employment costs, cautious candidate movement, and continued economic uncertainty, every hire carries real weight. The organisations that invest now in the judgement and expertise needed to assess real capability will gain a clear advantage.
To explore further insights on AI in hiring, skills-based recruitment and what today’s candidates are looking for, read Michael Page’s full Talent Trends 2026 report here.
