As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly recommend which candidates to interview.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the approved job description and selection criteria, then remove vague preferences and separate essential requirements from desirable ones.
   2. Confirm that the employer has a lawful recruitment process and permission to use the application data in an AI system, then remove unnecessary personal information from the documents.
   3. Give each candidate a neutral ID, gather the relevant CVs and application answers, and paste them into the prompt under the matching IDs.
   4. Paste the job description, criteria and candidate material into a chatbot and ask it to produce the evidence-based ranking and human-review flags.
   5. Compare every recommendation with the original essential criteria and the cited application evidence, correcting any invented, missing or irrelevant reasoning.
   6. Ask a second hiring manager or HR professional to check the shortlist for inconsistent treatment, proxy criteria and unexplained exclusions before anyone is invited.
   7. Record the final human decision and the evidence for it, then send interview invitations only through the employer's approved recruitment system.

   Prompt

   You are assisting with a UK recruitment shortlist, not making the hiring decision.
   
   Role: [paste the current job description]
   Essential criteria: [list only criteria genuinely required for the role]
   Desirable criteria: [list these separately]
   Selection process: [describe any approved screening questions or tests]
   Candidates:
   [paste each CV or application under a unique candidate ID]
   
   Rank the candidates for interview using only the role requirements and evidence supplied. Do not use or infer age, sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, caring responsibilities, health, name, photograph, home address, school, or any other protected or irrelevant personal characteristic. Do not treat gaps, accents, writing style, employment history, university prestige or location as a proxy for suitability unless the requirement is explicit, job-related and objectively necessary.
   
   Return a table with candidate ID, evidence against each essential criterion, evidence against desirable criteria, missing information, and a recommendation of interview, do not interview, or human review. Give a short reason for every recommendation and quote or clearly identify the application evidence used. Do not invent evidence or assume that missing evidence means the candidate lacks the skill. Flag criteria that are vague, subjective, duplicated, or likely to create unfair bias. Explain any tie and identify cases where a human should review the application before a decision. Finish with a checklist for the hiring manager to verify before inviting anyone to interview. This is not professional advice and must not replace the employer's approved recruitment process or human decision.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.