• 65% of hiring managers are concerned about candidates using Gen AI such as ChatGPT to ‘cheat’ on recruitment assessments
• However, only 15% of early career professionals and job seekers said they would consider using it, suggesting a ‘trust disconnect’ 
• Talent management experts find that introducing an honesty contract before setting assessments significantly reduces the inappropriate use of AI

New insight* has revealed significant concern among hiring managers about the misuse of Gen AI by candidates during the recruitment process.

The report, ‘Hiring Future Ready Early Talent’, which sought the views of 560 hiring managers, 564 early career professionals, and 138 job seekers, revealed that nearly two thirds of managers (65%) said they were ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ concerned about candidates using Gen AI to cheat on recruitment assessments.

This contrasted with the views of early career professionals and job seekers, where just 15% said they would use Gen AI, and only 22% of job seekers reported using it when completing assessments. 

As AI rapidly becomes integrated into everyday life, these findings would suggest a certain ‘trust disconnect’ between hiring managers and candidates that needs to be addressed.

Honesty contracts reduce inclination to cheat

This ‘trust disconnect’ inspired Talogy to introduce ‘honesty contracts’ – where candidates agree upfront not to use GenAI, search engines or other tools during assessments. 

Separate analysis by Talogy of more than 2,000 assessment participants showed that when an honesty contract was introduced at the start of the assessment, the number of candidates using some sort of assistance, (such as Gen AI, search engines or even asking family and friends) dropped from 28% to just 13%. 

This shows that while candidates may have a new tool to enable cheating, most still choose not to. Effective assessments support candidates to find an organisation and role that fits their needs and values – something they are clearly not prepared to put at risk.

Ted Kinney, VP of Research & Development at Talogy, said:

“Confidence in assessment effectiveness needs to be restored for hiring managers if the recruitment process is to be a success and this is where the honesty contract has a pivotal role to play. 

“It’s important to recognise that although the use of GenAI in assessments could be interpreted as cheating, it’s still early days for AI and its use could also point towards a high potential candidate simply using the available tools and resources in order to succeed. 

We are heading into a future where using AI to complete assessments will simply be seen as standard practice, so it’s important to focus on how we can enhance assessments to accommodate the honest use of AI in the world of talent assessment.”

*Talogy