Delfina Niemitei is a dynamic human resources professional
I recently came across a post on LinkedIn that classifies candidates who use AI to create resumes and cover letters as “fraudulent.” I couldn’t help but gesture with my palm. How did we get here? Why does working smart suddenly become unethical? Why is efficiency a moral failure?
Somehow we have built a narrative that leveraging AI in job applications dilutes trust and effort. But the essence of recruitment is always simple. Organizations recruit for roles to find people with the skills and experience described, or who can establish similarities between their previous accomplishments and what is required. It’s not deception, it’s intelligent positioning.
In the case of Niila
Take Neela for example. She was hired as a talent manager responsible for creating job openings across various departments. Her daily job was simple: copy content from Word document templates, customize them, and publish roles for candidates to apply for.
A few years after her role began, the company adopted a new recruiting interface. Plain text uploads are no longer accepted. The new system required HTML formatting to make job listings more visually appealing and candidate-friendly.
Now, HTML wasn’t part of Nhyira’s original job description. According to conventional reasoning, this is a perfect reason to hire someone else with technical or web skills. But like many organizations today, her company was lean, with a focus on efficiency, agility, and maximizing every role.
There was little appetite (or budget) to hire someone every time there was a new skills gap. Instead, employees were expected to go beyond their original job description and do more than “just one thing.” So Nyila adapted. She learned the basics of HTML and integrated it into her workflow. She didn’t apply for a coding role, but as the mechanics of the job evolved, so did she.
It’s not about cheating, it’s about growth, agility, and value creation.
Turn adaptability into opportunity
Now imagine Niila is ready to move on to her next opportunity. On paper, her title is listed as talent manager. But under that umbrella, she’s also someone who learned to use HTML to improve recruiting interfaces. This is someone who understands not only HR operations, but also the digital mechanisms that improve the candidate experience.
It’s versatility. In today’s lean, fast-paced business environment, that’s a real treasure.
This is where the AI becomes her strategic ally. With the right tools, you can:
• Analyze the job description and identify overlap between her talent management background and technical adaptability.
• Generate language that conveys how she bridges both people and process efficiency.
• Develop a story that positions her as a multi-faceted professional – not just a recruiter, but a digitally savvy talent developer.
The AI helps her move forward at her best by providing specificity through her resume.
AI does not fabricate these experiences. It helps her compose them effectively. It becomes a mechanism for her to express her diversity clearly, confidently, and situationally.
AI as a mirror of capabilities
The ability to effectively facilitate AI is rapidly becoming a new professional skill. Creating powerful, customized prompts that produce polished job applications requires clear thinking, role understanding, and strategic communication, all of which are valuable skills in their own right.
If candidates can use AI to accurately represent their authentic experiences, it’s not manipulation. It’s about mastering both self-awareness and modern tools.
For recruiters too
Interestingly, recruiters themselves use AI every day to screen resumes, summarize profiles, and predict candidate suitability. Are they “cheating”? Of course not. They are optimizing processes and making data-driven decisions faster.
So why should candidates who do the same thing get different evaluations?
true ethical boundaries
The ethical debate surrounding AI in recruitment is not about whether we should use AI, but how we should use it. Misrepresentations are unethical, whether done manually or through automation. But how can we use AI to better express its true capabilities? It’s not deception. That’s efficiency.
AI is here to stay. The professionals and organizations that embrace it ethically and use it to communicate, adapt, and operate smarter will lead the next chapter of work.
in short
Efficiency is not unethical. Working smart is not cheating.
And for companies running lean operations, candidates who can demonstrate and articulate their versatility through AI are not cutting corners. They represent exactly what modern businesses need: people who can multitask and do it well.
