If you apply to Zapier, you may be invited to a recruiter screen with an AI agent.
We want you to know why.
Our Talent Acquisition (TA) team is experimenting with agentic recruiters—AI-powered screening conversations designed to help us manage high application volume while giving more candidates a chance to shine.
In keeping with Zapier's Default to Transparency value, we're sharing this for two reasons:
So candidates understand how this may shape their experience with us.
To contribute to the broader talent community dialogue on what's possible—and what requires guardrails—as recruiting evolves with AI.
The challenge: Volume, noise, and candidate experience
Job seekers are increasingly using AI to write their resumes and applications—and to send many more applications. On one hand, candidates can highlight skills more effectively. On the other hand, recruiters now face a flood of submissions that look strong on paper but often don't hold up in practice.
When we opened a recent software engineering role, we received several thousand applications in just 48 hours. Zapier commits to responding to every candidate within seven days. But at this scale, our recruiters would need to spend hundreds of hours on initial candidate interviews. We don't have the human bandwidth to do this, but we want to give every qualified candidate a chance to shine.
On top of applications per job growing beyond what we can manage conventionally, we're finding that up to 30% of applications are fraudulent. We've witnessed fake identities, unverifiable credentials, and misleading profiles. We even caught some deepfakes on live interviews! Our fraud alert systems are helpful, but every minute spent here takes time away from genuine candidates. We want to ensure our focus stays on people who could truly thrive at Zapier.
Our experiment: Bringing the power of AI into the first interview
To address these challenges, we're going to start our experiment to pilot agentic recruiter screens this fall. We'll test this approach with a small number of roles, primarily software engineering, where we have the highest volume of applications.
Here's how it works:
After an initial application review by a member of our team, significantly more candidates can now move forward to a 15–20 minute AI-led screening call.
The AI recruiter asks the same structured questions our human recruiters would, with smart follow-ups tailored to our criteria.
Candidates can complete their interview at their convenience, making interviewing with Zapier more flexible and accessible.
Afterward, AI helps summarize responses against our rubric, and a human Zapier recruiter reviews the notes, transcript, and recording—alongside your application. That same human recruiter makes the final decision on whether to move the candidate forward.
Your experience as a candidate
Participation is completely optional. If you'd prefer not to participate, you can opt out with no impact on your candidacy; we'll review your application as usual.
That said, we believe there are real benefits to participating:
A chance to tell your story—because we're not limited to the handful who look "perfect" on paper.
Flexibility to schedule on your own terms and in your time zone.
Confidence that your candidacy will always be reviewed by a real recruiter, not an algorithm.
Transparency into how we're testing and refining the process.
For recruiters, this experiment means more time to build relationships with candidates who advance deeper into the interview process. This translates into more personal, tailored support from our team if you advance.
And this experiment reflects how Zapier operates as an AI-first company: always looking for ways to let computers do more, so humans can focus on what we do best—building meaningful connections and making thoughtful decisions.
Keeping humans at the center
Most importantly: AI does not make hiring decisions at Zapier. Our recruiters and hiring managers do.
The AI supports us by:
Applying consistent criteria across hundreds of candidates, reducing the risk of unconscious bias.
Focusing on the content of answers, not accents or speech patterns, thanks to safeguards we've built.
Surfacing details busy humans might miss when screening dozens of candidates a day.
But the final call always rests with people. We use AI to amplify human judgment, not replace it.
The bigger picture
Zapier isn't alone in trying to shape the future of hiring. Across industries, companies are exploring AI in recruiting, while researchers remind us of the risks if these tools aren't applied with care. We believe AI can transform hiring—but only when paired with strong guardrails. Our approach is simple: experiment thoughtfully, learn openly, and keep people at the center.
Looking ahead, the future of talent acquisition will rely on human judgment amplified by AI precision. AI isn't replacing recruiters—in fact, we've recently added recruiters to our team. Instead, we see AI as a tool that frees recruiters to focus on what matters most: connecting with candidates who are the best fit.
This is just the beginning of our journey. We know the use of AI in recruiting will shape the candidate experience in different ways—some will see it as an exciting signal of innovation, others may find it less personal. Either way, we'll continue to share what we learn and invite feedback from candidates and the broader TA community. Because ultimately, improving hiring isn't just about moving faster—it's about building fair, human experiences that lead to the right match.
