One of the questions I keep hearing from Talent Acquisition leaders is:
“Where does AI actually fit into recruiting?”
Where is it saving time? Where is it improving workflows? And where does human judgment still matter?
So I sat down with Cameron Black, a Sr TA Partner in Charlotte, to talk through how she approaches recruiting, candidate evaluation, and AI adoption.
One thing became clear early in the conversation: The recruiting process does not start when the job gets posted.
Before a role ever goes to market, Cameron starts with an intake conversation with the hiring manager.
The goal isn’t just to review a job description. It’s to understand the actual business needs.
What are the must-have skills? What does success look like? Is the compensation aligned? Is the location realistic? What does the interview process look like? Should this role be sourced internally, externally, or both?
That alignment upfront creates a better process for everyone involved.
When the role is posted and applications start coming in, Cameron takes a very hands-on approach and reviews resumes manually.
As in, she reviews them herself. With her own eyes. She said to me, “When it comes to resume review, Jaclyn, I make the call.”
When I asked her how many days she typically keeps a position open before stopping to review applicants, her response surprised me.
“Oh no, Jaclyn. I review resumes as they come in.”
Her mindset?
“Why wait?”
Of course, recruiting priorities change day-to-day, but Cameron’s approach is not to let applicants pile up and review them later. If someone is qualified, she wants to identify that as quickly as possible and keep the process moving.
She also approaches recruiting with an agile mindset.
If a role is open and there are already three candidates in front of the hiring manager, but another candidate comes through who is clearly a strong fit, she has no problem moving that person forward and recommending they enter the process.
Recruiting doesn’t always have to follow a strict order. Sometimes the right candidate appears after the first wave.
One thing that stood out was how much Cameron relies on the resume during this process.
LinkedIn is valuable. She encourages candidates to maintain their profiles and use the platform.
But when she is determining who moves forward, the resume is what drives the initial decision.
Her advice to candidates?
Pay attention to the details.
Not every rejection is because of AI.
Sometimes candidates are removed from consideration because they do not answer screening questions, leave information incomplete, or do not pay attention to the requirements of the role and application process.
When we talked about applicant trends, Cameron shared that she actually does not see many of the issues people often associate with online applications.
She isn’t dealing with large numbers of fake applicants or the same level of “spray and pray” applications that some recruiters experience.
In her finance and sales recruiting work, the bigger trend she sees is candidates applying to onsite roles while living out of state.
That does not automatically disqualify someone. Cameron mentioned that Charlotte is a strong market and a great place for candidates to relocate, so she is still willing to have conversations and understand the situation.
The bigger point is that candidates need to read the requirements and be intentional with their applications.
So where does AI fit into all of this?
For Cameron, AI is not replacing the recruiter decision-making process.
It is helping improve the work around it.
Through Promptmates, Cameron built what she calls a TA Command Center. It is a set of instructions and skills that takes scattered notes, research, and information and turns it into a structured preparation brief. Instead of walking into a hiring manager meeting trying to piece everything together, she can walk in with organized research, market insights, and better questions to drive alignment.
That is the type of AI use case that stood out to me…using it to improve conversations.
The takeaway for me here is that the recruiters who create the most value will be the ones who know where AI can help and where human judgment is still required.
AI can organize information. AI can accelerate workflows.
But understanding people, context, and potential is still the part of recruiting that requires experience.
A big thank you to Cameron Black from PromptMates for sharing how she’s approaching AI adoption and candidate evaluation.
These conversations are exactly why communities like PromptMates matter. They give TA leaders a place to share what is actually happening inside their teams instead of just talking about AI in theory.