Cloud.ru HR's Notes: What ChatGPT Has Done to Hiring and Interviews

Marina Lomadze, head of talent attraction and recruitment at Cloud.ru, explained how ChatGPT and other AI tools have changed recruiting — and why previous approaches to candidate screening no longer work.

Resumes Off the Assembly Line

When ChatGPT became mainstream, HR professionals felt the change first. The flow of incoming resumes increased several-fold, but the character of the documents became oddly uniform. Hundreds of candidates for a single position send nearly identical descriptions of their experience — flawless grammar, polished phrasing, zero live details.

The problem is not that a candidate used AI — that is normal practice. The problem is different: resumes stopped reflecting real people. Behind neat sentences, character disappeared, along with voice and genuine history.

HR professionals, once skilled at "reading between the lines," now receive documents where there are no lines — only a perfect surface. At Cloud.ru, this required a rethinking of the initial screening approach.

Screening relies less and less on how something is written, and more and more on what lies behind the writing: concrete numbers, unusual phrasing, details that clearly came from a real person rather than a language model.

Interviews Don't Work the Old Way Anymore

Following resumes, interviews transformed as well. Some candidates arrive with prepared answers to typical questions — generated in advance or recited in real time. Standard behavioral frameworks stopped being a reliable filter. In response, recruiters are moving toward livelier formats:

• Practical tasks solved directly during the meeting — without time to prepare
• Role-play scenarios that simulate real work situations
• Detailed review of specific cases from the candidate's experience
• Questions about how the person uses AI at work — and how consciously
• Tasks where you need to critically evaluate AI results rather than simply accept them

The essence of the shift: recruiters want to see how a person thinks — not how well they can formulate polished thoughts. This returns interviews to their original purpose — genuine dialogue rather than an exam on memorized answers.

Who Are Companies Looking for Now

Candidate requirements are being rewritten too. The market values less those who know "how" and increasingly those who understand "why" and can work with uncertainty. Some technical skills that were a competitive advantage just three years ago are now partially taken on by AI — and this frees up space for other qualities.

"AI changed not only how people search for jobs, but also how interviews go and who we are willing to hire at all," —

Marina Lomadze, Cloud.ru.

The spotlight now shines on: adaptability — the ability to quickly master new tools; critical thinking — the ability to evaluate AI results rather than blindly trust them; communication skills, where AI is not yet a competitor; and readiness to learn on the go. Rigid lists of job requirements are giving way to a search for potential — especially in the technology sector, where the tech stack updates faster than a candidate can rewrite their resume. Recruiting itself is also being automated: AI tools help with screening, interview planning, and offer creation. The paradox: it's precisely in hiring people that AI becomes an indispensable helper — and simultaneously the main source of headache for HR departments.

What This Means

Hiring in the age of AI is a constant recalibration from both sides of the table. Companies are changing their criteria and formats faster than ever. For candidates, the signal is simple: the winner is not the one with the most beautiful resume — but the one who can think aloud, explain their thinking, and work with tools consciously, not blindly.