Job Seekers Are Asking AI For Help Finding Opportunities. Will Your Company Be Part of the Answer?

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Artificial intelligence is changing the way people look for jobs and that has important implications for ASA members.

That was the focus of a recent ASA Project Talent webinar examining how job seekers are using tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and others throughout the job search, and what employers can do to make sure their companies and career opportunities are being found.

The new front door to recruiting

For years, employers focused on search engine optimization (SEO) to make sure their jobs appeared near the top of Google search results.  A candidate might search for “warehouse jobs near me,” scan the results and click on a company career site or Indeed.

That model is changing.

Today, a job seeker might ask an AI tool, “What are the best employers in plumbing wholesale in Texas?” or “What industries pay well without a four-year degree?”  Instead of simply providing links, AI can provide an answer, and potentially recommend specific employers.

That means companies are increasingly competing not just to appear on the first page of Google, but to be included in the answers AI provides.

Traditional SEO remains important, but employers also need to think about whether their online content can be found, understood and referenced by AI.  This is sometimes called generative engine optimization, or GEO.

Candidates are using AI throughout the hiring process

The numbers shared during the webinar show how quickly this is happening.  Approximately 36 percent of job seekers surveyed said they are already using AI in their job searches, increasing to about 48 percent among Gen Z. Among those using AI, 80 percent reported using ChatGPT.

And they aren't just using it to find job openings.

Candidates are using AI to discover employers, research company culture, decide whether to apply, prepare resumes, practice for interviews and evaluate job offers.  In fact, 77 percent of respondents said they rely on some or all of their job search to an AI agent.

That means a candidate may have already formed an opinion about your company before ever talking with one of your recruiters.

Your employer brand is no longer completely yours

This may be one of the biggest changes for employers.

You control what appears on your website, but AI doesn't rely only on information you publish.  It can also pull from LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, Reddit and other sources. Employee reviews and online conversations can all influence the picture a candidate sees.

The webinar noted that 82 percent of respondents said AI agents had influenced how they perceive a company.  At the same time, 58 percent said they had encountered inaccurate information through AI.

This means what AI says about your company is becoming part of your employer brand, even though you don't completely control it.

That makes having an accurate, current and positive online presence more important than ever.

Five ways to become more visible to AI

The good news is ASA members don't need to completely reinvent their recruiting strategy.  There are several practical steps they can take now.

1. Make sure AI can access your website.

Ask whoever manages your website to confirm that AI agents can access the content you want them to see.  Technical settings such as your robots.txt file can determine whether AI systems can crawl your site.  Employers may also want to explore an llms.txt file, which can help provide AI systems with a structured understanding of website content.

2. Keep recruiting content on your own domain.

If you use an applicant tracking system, look at the URL where your job and career content resides.  Ideally, candidates should be able to browse jobs on your company's website and domain, with the ATS handling the final application.

If everything lives on a third-party site, search engines and AI may associate that information more strongly with the third party than with your company.

3. Answer the questions candidates are asking.

Too many career sites read like marketing brochures.  Instead, answer real questions.

What does a counter sales associate do?  What are the hours?  What is the work environment like?  What training is provided?  What are the benefits?  What career paths are available?

A good FAQ section can be extremely valuable because this Q&A format closely matches the way people interact with AI.

4. Get rid of the boilerplate.

“Come grow with us” is a phrase found on many sites and could describe almost any company.

Be specific about what makes your organization different, your culture, opportunities, people, training and employee experience.  That gives candidates a better reason to consider your company and gives AI more meaningful information to use when describing it.

5. Pay attention to the signals you don't control.

Take a look at your presence on Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn and other third-party sites.  If reviews are old or nonexistent, encourage employees to share authentic experiences.

You should also begin tracking traffic coming from AI.  While AI-referred traffic may still be relatively small, the webinar cited a 632 percent year-over-year increase in AI-referred visits overall.

A real opportunity for our industry

For ASA members, this shift could present a significant opportunity.

We have talked for years about the industry's talent challenge, including an aging workforce and the number of employees approaching retirement.

Our problem isn't necessarily that people aren't interested in careers like ours.  Often, they simply don't know these careers exist.

AI could help change that.

If someone asks ChatGPT about good-paying careers, stable industries with advancement opportunities or companies where they can build a long-term career, we want the PHCP-PVF industry to be part of that answer.

ASA's Project Talent initiative is already helping build that awareness through supplyindustrycareers.com and social media.  The more useful and credible information we make available about our industry and its career opportunities, the better chance candidates, and AI have of finding us and ultimately your company.

Start small

You don't need to overhaul your recruiting strategy tomorrow.

Start by running a few AI searches yourself.  Ask questions a potential candidate might ask about our industry, your market and the types of jobs you offer.

Does your company show up?  If it does, what does the AI say about you?  Is it accurate?  Is it compelling?

Save those questions and answers and run the same searches again in 90 days.  In the meantime, review your website, job postings, career content, employee reviews and analytics.

The goal isn't simply to generate more traffic, it's to reach candidates who understand your company and the opportunity before they apply.

The front door to recruiting is changing.  ASA members that begin adapting now will be in a much better position to compete for talent as more job seekers turn to AI.

ASA members can access a recording of this webinar and others in the Recruiter Toolbox on ASA.net.

ASA’s Project Talent is a strategic initiative to support ASA members’ need to attract and grow the number of talented workers taking advantage of fulfilling career opportunities in the PHCP-PVF industry.

By Steve Edwards