To ease recruiters' fears of being replaced by AI, Zillow experimented with 'prompt-a-thons.' Now the real estate giant has 6 new recruitment tools | Fortune

"Recruiting teams are, in many ways, ground zero for AI disruption. A plethora of tasks historically performed by recruiters can now be performed by AI technology. But...with a world of possibilities at one's fingertips, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Real estate tech giant Zillow has launched several AI tools for recruitment since it began experimenting in late 2023."

"Zillow already used hackathons to develop consumer-facing features and products; Harris's team adopted the practice for its internal AI use. For example, prompt-a-thon teams expressed a desire for more coaching on having difficult conversations with hiring managers. They devised a prompt that could be used on ChatGPT, including capturing details about the issue, as well as emphasizing soft skills like maintaining a rapport or trust with hiring managers. The result: solutions devised by recruiters themselves, not a top-down edict from leadership."

"Where to begin? In November 2023, Harris's team started looking into how AI could be used by recruiters. "We started looking at the possibility of AI. And what we found was, when you look at the role of a recruiter and what they do, about 80% of our jobs were what you would hear in the conferences about the mundane tasks" that AI could replace, she told HR Brew."

Zillow launched multiple AI recruitment tools after experimenting with AI beginning in late 2023. The recruitment function identified that roughly 80% of recruiter work comprised repetitive, mundane tasks amenable to AI automation. The team used prompt-a-thons, adapted from consumer-facing hackathons, to let recruiters invent practical prompts and workflows, such as ChatGPT prompts for coaching difficult conversations with hiring managers and preserving rapport. Those exercises produced recruiter-generated solutions rather than top-down mandates. After problem identification and solution prototyping, stakeholders from legal, enterprise technology, and engagement and belonging were engaged to evaluate and implement the approaches.

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