Headlines around AI-generated job applications have raised concerns about authenticity and trust during the hiring process. If a machine can craft a convincing cover letter, how can hiring managers believe what they’re reading, or be confident they’re seeing the real person behind the application? On the flip side, how can candidates trust that their individuality won’t be overlooked by algorithms optimized for keywords, not character?
From automating CV screening to generating interview questions, AI is reshaping the hiring landscape and accelerating recruitment workflows. But it’s also exposing the limitations of traditional approaches designed for a world that no longer exists — namely, the overreliance on CVs as a primary filter for talent. As AI becomes increasingly more embedded in business processes, HR teams need to start screening for potential over polish and sift through the haystack to find talent capable of leveraging new technologies the right way.
The new imperative
AI has made the need for human skills — often still referred to as soft skills — essential. As more tasks become automated, the value shifts to how people apply information, tackle complex problems and work with emerging tools. These are the skills that distinguish top performers in the “age of AI” — yet they remain the most difficult to uncover through traditional hiring methods.
In turn, employers are rethinking how they identify potential. Instead of scanning resumés or mining cover letters for evidence of the right “hard” skills, hiring managers are increasingly prioritizing traits like motivation, learning agility and critical thinking. That’s a good start — but it needs to go one step further. Without a structured approach, assessing soft skills often relies too heavily on instinct, making it harder to spot potential consistently or fairly.
The term itself isn’t perfect. “Soft” undersells the impact these capabilities have on performance. But until the language catches up, the focus should be on measuring them with the same precision as technical skills.
Systematize soft skills
You don’t need formal psychometric tools to start assessing soft skills effectively, but they do bring added rigor. What matters is consistency. Whether that’s a shared scoring system, a shortlist of target behaviors or structured debriefs after interviews, the goal is to give hiring teams a clear view of what they’re looking for and how to identify it.
Start with alignment. Identify the soft skills most critical for the role and make sure these are clearly prioritized in job advertisements and descriptions. Instead of hiring based on personality or shared interests, define the specific behaviors that signal success — like being results-driven, comfortable with complexity or generous with feedback. When these expectations are clearly articulated, they’re easier to assess — and much harder to fake.
When deciding which soft skills to emphasize, consider how the world of work is evolving. Roles shaped by hybrid and remote working, or influenced by advancements in AI, will naturally require different capabilities. For example, fully remote positions might demand strong asynchronous communication, while data-heavy roles powered by AI call for sharp critical thinking. As one hiring manager told us, they now seek candidates who can “use generative AI in a smart way, but also in a safe way.”
It’s one thing to list these skills in a job description, but it’s during interviews and assessments that candidates really get the chance to show them in action. Some teams are embedding behavioral prompts into their interview guides, encouraging panels to explore trust-building, decision-making under pressure and conflict resolution. This approach makes interviews more focused and fair, giving every candidate a better opportunity to demonstrate what they can do.
Forward-thinking HR teams are already building this behavioral clarity into their hiring frameworks — from screening to final interviews. Not only does this support more consistent, equitable decisions, but it also helps uncover long-term potential and spot future leaders early.
Skills tests are a practical way of bringing structure and objectivity into the hiring process. Well-designed tests can help validate key human skills, providing an additional layer of evidence beyond interviews alone.
Smarter screening through psychometrics
Psychometric testing builds on this, offering a standardized, scientifically validated way to measure cognitive abilities, personality traits and aptitudes. They give hiring teams a deeper view of how candidates think, work and respond to different situations.
Tests such as cognitive ability assessments, situational judgement exercises and personality questionnaires help employers compare candidates consistently and uncover potential that might otherwise be missed. They also bring a layer of objectivity to hiring decisions, reducing bias and improving fairness across the process.
Used carefully, psychometric tests strengthen human judgement without replacing it. They offer hiring managers better evidence to support decision-making, especially when assessing human skills.
Instinct isn’t enough
Soft skills have historically been assessed by gut feel. But instinct alone leaves too much room for bias and rarely predicts on-the-job success.
We don’t want to ditch human judgment entirely, but rather develop mechanisms that can help weed out our unconscious bias and test our instincts against the results of structured skills tests. This could mean establishing formal scoring criteria for behavioral traits, as some organizations are doing, or incorporating practical exercises and job simulations into the hiring process to see how candidates think and respond in real-world scenarios.
The appetite for these sorts of behavioral assessments is growing. Data from across the HR industry shows a marked rise in soft skills testing — particularly for personality traits and critical thinking. These kinds of assessments saw usage increase by more than 60% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025 alone, reflecting a broader shift in how employers are approaching hiring.
These assessments help hiring teams move beyond polished performances to gain a clearer view of how someone is likely to work in practice. Structured interviews that target these behaviors reduce the reliance on instinct and give employers a more reliable way to recognize potential in candidates who may not have conventional experience, but who consistently show the qualities needed to perform well.
The strongest hiring processes start well before the interview — by aligning teams on the vital soft skills for the role, reflecting these in job descriptions, using skills tests and formal psychometric assessments to build a clearer picture and running structured debriefs to remove bias from final decisions.
Soft skills are the clearest indicators of how someone will handle pressure, adapt to change and contribute to a team, making them one of the most important measures in hiring today.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
____________________________________
Take advantage of SmartBrief’s FREE email newsletters on leadership and business transformation, among the company’s more than 250 industry-focused newsletters.
