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Hiring in the Age of AI
Stop punishing people for using the tools they’ll be expected to use on the job
Karan Shah
August 25, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes
Let’s be honest: tech hiring is broken.
Most interview processes are still built around a 2010 playbook:
Whiteboard puzzles
Timed coding tests
“tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager”
The assumption?
That candidates will sit in a vacuum, write perfect code by hand, and somehow demonstrate how they’d perform in the real world.
Except that the “real world” has completely changed!
Engineers lean on GitHub Copilot
PMs ask GPT to structure research
Designers fire up Figma AI
Even I’ve built Slack-integrated AI agents to automate project tracking, create content, and more. But yes, I’m still writing these emails
myself 🫠
It's like testing a surgeon's skills by asking them to operate without modern medical equipment.
So why are we punishing candidates for using the exact tools they’ll be expected to use on the job?
“Cheating” Isn’t the Problem
Every hiring manager and recruiter I speak with complains: “Candidates are cheating, using ChatGPT before, during, and after interviews. From screening rounds to assessments!”
Here’s what I think: that’s not cheating. That’s practicing for the real world.
If we can use AI to interview candidates, why can’t they use AI to pass those same tests? [FYI 7 out of 10 Companies will use AI to hire in 2025]
The problem isn’t the candidates. It’s the test.
Current formats measure who’s good at hiding AI use, not who’s good at working with AI responsibly. We’re filtering for the wrong skill set.
The AI Showdown!
Both Companies and Job Seekers have always engaged in a bit of a tango, but AI is taking this to a whole new level.
Companies
| Job Seekers
|
The Leaders Who Are Getting It Right
Some companies have started reinventing their hiring process, flipping the narrative completely. Just like we started having open-book exams,
Meta is developing a new type of coding interview wherein candidates will have access to an AI assistant.
HackerRank, one of the biggest coding interview platforms, has embraced AI tools while implementing sophisticated integrity measures to ensure fair evaluation.
Canva expects candidates for frontend, backend, and machine learning engineering roles to demonstrate skill with tools like Copilot, Cursor, and Claude during technical interviews
What Skills Actually Matter in 2025
Apart from analytical thinking, which we can see is at the top of the list in the image below, I believe we will come across a lot of unique new skill sets in the tech industry. The most successful candidates will demonstrate:
AI Partnership Skills: Understand when to use AI, how much to depend on it, and especially when not to.
Critical Evaluation: Fix AI slop, basically look at AI generated code and fix issues rather than building from scratch.
Agent Management: As agentic systems become the norm, PMs will be expected to manage AI agents.
Complex Problem Decomposition: Breaking down ambiguous requirements that can't be solved with a single prompt
Production Standards: Ensuring AI-generated solutions meet real-world quality and security standards
And as far as applicants are concerned, well….
40% of job applications are screened out before human recruiters review them due to AI filtering. We're literally automating away human judgment in hiring while simultaneously testing whether humans can work without automation.
as More and More people turn to vibe-code (look at this post from Dharmesh Shah), the learning curve to understand AI-created code and be able to ensure that the AI-generated solutions meet production standards will be a much different journey for people starting out today!
It’s a paradox. Companies expect candidates to critically evaluate what AI has created, be it code, design, or workflows. How much can candidates effectively demonstrate such skills without having built their way up without such tools?
It remains to be seen!
How to Interview Differently (Remote-First)
Here’s what I’ve been experimenting with and recommending:
Portfolios over puzzles. Review what they’ve actually created: demos, projects, repos, workflows, and case studies.
AI-assisted challenges. Give them a scoped task, explicitly allow AI, and see how they use it.
Example: “Use n8n + GPT to build an agent that logs Slack tasks into a PM tool. Then walk me through trade-offs.”
Pair-building sessions. Instead of grilling them, co-create. Jump on a call, build together, and see how they think.
Scenario-based prompts. Your AI tool hallucinates during a live client demo. What do you do?
Remote-friendly transparency. Let them use their environment (AI included), but require them to narrate decisions and reasoning.
This doesn’t just catch “cheaters.” It surfaces conductors, not just coders. The ones who can orchestrate tools, judgment, and collaboration.
The New Hiring Mindset
Hiring in 2025 isn’t about catching fraud. It’s about designing an interview process that reflects how work actually gets done.
The best hires aren’t those who fight AI. They’re the ones who:
Embrace it,
Use it responsibly,
And amplify their own judgment through it.
If you’re still running interviews like it’s 2010, you’re not protecting your company. You’re just screening out the people best prepared for the future.
Why I’m Writing This
Writing and reading have always been a passion of mine. This is one such outlet. I don’t intent to sell, just connect and share thoughts.
This is the third edition of "Brew. Build. Breakthrough.": a newsletter where I share honest takes, experiments, and practical frameworks around building products at the intersection of AI, design, and engineering.
If you’re a founder, product leader, or builder navigating this new era, you’ll find plenty here to brew over.
About me
 Dad to two Angels. No, I don’t have favorites 😄 | Karan Shah: Engineer turned Founder15 years ago, I started my career as a software engineer. Took the entrepreneurial plunge with less than 5 years of work experience. Since then, I’ve strived to work at the intersection of Product Engineering, Design, Marketing, and Sales. I’ve had the pleasure to work with some of the fastest-growing startups and large enterprises alike. From creating MVPs and clients raising funds to large enterprises going for an IPO! |
Brew. Build. Breakthrough.
Karan Shah
Founder & CEO, SoluteLabs
Building AI-native products before it became cool.
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