ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) is moving deeper into Philippine recruitment, with 39 percent of employers already using the technology in hiring, according to Jobstreet by SEEK.
The adoption rate puts the Philippines ahead of the 27 percent recorded across Southeast Asia, as employers turn to AI amid low-quality applicants, limited time, increasingly complex hiring workflows and rising cost pressures.
For entry-level applicants, the shift means AI can increasingly shape who gets matched, screened and moved forward before a human recruiter enters the process.
Employers that have adopted AI reported faster and more efficient hiring, more precise job matching and less time spent on administrative tasks, according to Jobstreet.
Jobstreet by SEEK unveiled its seekAi platform during its Jobstreet Connect hirer convention, which gathered more than 200 business leaders, human-resources practitioners and industry decision-makers.
‘We believe that AI should make hiring better, not busier,’ Jobstreet by SEEK Managing Director Dannah Majarocon said.
‘By combining employment-specific data with agentic AI built directly into the workflow, seekAi is designed to reduce friction, improve talent matching, and give leaders more time so they can focus on what matters most: their people,’ the job platform said.
AI in early hiring stages
SeekAi Personalised Targeting feature uses role requirements, employer preferences and historical hiring activity to identify high-fit talent instead of relying mainly on broad keyword matching.
The system also incorporates real-time candidate-intent data, with Jobstreet saying candidates reached through targeted matching are up to five times more likely to apply.
Meanwhile, the SeekAi Assist feature covers several recruitment tasks, including AI pre-screening voice interviews, applicant ranking, next-best-action guidance and automated reference checks.
Jobstreet said SeekAi draws on more than 25 years of employment-market intelligence and 750 million daily candidate and employer signals across Asia-Pacific.
Governance remains a human job
As AI takes on more recruitment tasks, Kin Enriquez stressed that companies should first establish sound hiring processes before deciding which parts should be automated.
‘The process has to be right first before you decide which part of the process you want to make into AI,’ Enriquez said.
Ralph Regalado likewise pointed to data governance as a critical condition for effective AI adoption.
‘If you don’t have good data governance, then it’s not going to work very well,’ Regalado said.
Majarocon also underscored transparency and accountability as AI becomes more involved in hiring.
‘We feel extremely strongly about this, the job transparency,’ she said.
‘Someone has to be accountable. A human really should be accountable in the AI,’ Majarocon said.
Jobstreet said final hiring decisions in AI-assisted recruitment remain firmly under human control.